NOTE TO MEDIA: Links to scoring, photos, the day 1 recap and the event preview can be found on the event portal at the link posted above. Please click on the “Media” tab to find those items. Pictured above: Alyssa Montgomery.
By Chris Lang
NELLYSFORD — A Virginia Tech Hokie (Alyssa Montgomery), a recent former Hokie (Jessica Spicer) and a future James Madison Duke (Tatum Walsh) share the top spot of the leaderboard at the 54-hole 44th Virginia State Golf Association Women’s Stroke Play Championship, which continued Wednesday at Stoney Creek Golf Club at Wintergreen Resort.
Meanwhile, the 36-hole 24th VSGA Senior Stroke Play and 4th VSGA Super Senior Stroke Play championships got underway on Wednesday, with a pair of two-time champions heading the leaderboard in each division. Natalie Easterly holds the lead in the Senior Stroke Play, with Dot Bolling topping the Super Senior Stroke Play leaderboard.
The final round of all three championships is slated for Thursday.
44th VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship
For the second straight year, a pair of Hokies are battling out at the top. Last year, it was Becca DiNunzio and Emily Mahar, with DiNunzio winning in a playoff at Kingsmill’s River Course. This time, it’s Montgomery and Spicer vying for the trophy—but not if Walsh, who will start her JMU career this fall, has anything to say about it.
“Yeah, we’ve got to get a Duke in there,” said Walsh, who held the solo lead after 18 holes before posting a 2-over 74 Wednesday to fall into the tie for first at 145. “I’m excited, it’ll be fun.”
An exciting final day should be on tap, as eight players enter the third round within five shots of the lead.
Montgomery followed her opening-round 74 with a 71, while Spicer shot 72 after opening with a 73 on Tuesday.
After a thrilling year at Tech where the pair played a huge role in leading the Hokies to their first national championship appearance, they were pumped to get a chance to play competitively together in this event.
“My freshman year, everything got canceled, so I didn’t even get the opportunity to try to make it,” Montgomery said. “This was the first year we had the full season (that I was here), so we could make it to ACCs, regionals, nationals, all of that.”
Added Spicer: “For me, it was just really awesome, for my last year to get to end that way. I didn’t expect to get to play this year, but I got the extra COVID year and everything. It was just really special for me, having come in early in the program. You know, we had a tough couple of years. To be able to see the way the program has risen to prominence, it was really fun to be a part of.”
Montgomery finished with six birdies but found trouble with a bogey and a pair of double bogeys. Spicer’s scorecard was less eventful, as she posted three birdies and three bogeys for her even-par round.
“That’s kind of how my round went yesterday,” Montgomery said. “I kind of yo-yo-ed. My first five holes I was five over then I was three under for my next 13. Today, I made a lot of birdies, a couple of big numbers, but it was just a really solid round of putting, and driving the ball pretty straight off the tee helps.”
Walsh, the reigning VSGA Women’s Amateur champion, struggled on the front (Shamokin) nine, making turn at 3 over. She got one back with a birdie on her 10th hole (No. 2 on the Monacan nine) before finishing with seven straight pars.
“Oh my gosh, I was grinding for par on every hole, it felt like,” Walsh said. “But I made it work, I guess.”
Lurking just behind the lead group is Danielle Suh, who plays at High Point and won last year’s VSGA Junior Girls’ Championship. She followed her opening 75 with a level-par 72 and stands alone in fourth at 147. In fifth is Anderson University’s Jessica Rathbone, who is from Montpelier. She returned a second straight 74 to sit three strokes back at 4 over.
Teenager Victoria Matthews (River Bend Club) is in sixth at 5 over after shooting 73-76—149. Two veterans posted excellent rounds on Wednesday to shoot themselves back into contention. Four-time champion Lauren Greenlief shaved six shots off her opening round with an even-par 72 to finish five shots back at 150. She’s joined in the tie for seventh by Old Dominion women’s golf coach Mallory Hetzel, who kept the driver in the bag, hit it straight, and returned a 1-under 71 Wednesday.
24th VSGA Senior Women’s Stroke Play Championship
Easterly (CC of Virginia) won her first two Senior Women’s Stroke Play titles in 10-year intervals, hoisting the trophy in both 2007 and 2017. But she’s put herself in fine position to avoid another decade wait to win again.
She returned a 3-over 75 Wednesday to finish three strokes clear of Reston’s Amy Phelan (1757 GC), a relative newcomer to championship-level golf who logged a 6-over 78 Wednesday.
Shelley Savage (Army Navy CC) stands alone in third after shooting 79, and four are tied five shots back after recording opening-round 80s: defending champion Shawn McCullough, Katie Cox, Joanne Kitusky and Joan Gardner.
Easterly opened with a birdie but quickly put herself in a difficult position after that, playing her next four holes at 5 over. A par on No. 6 righted the ship, and she played the rest of her round at 1 under, including birdies on two of her final four holes.
“I just kept telling myself to be patient,” Easterly said. “Don’t get ahead of myself. Play one stroke at a time, and not get all anxious about three putting, which I did early in the round.”
Easterly played for CCV in last year’s VSGA Women’s State Team Matches, but this was her first competitive solo event in more than a year.
“It’s kind of nerve wracking, to be honest with you, to get back into it, get back into life,” Easterly said. “Back into the stream of things moving and flowing, and being with people. Then, you’re competing. But it’s fun though.”
4th VSGA Super Senior Women’s Stroke Play Championship
Salem’s Bolling will look to continue to add to her record total of VSGA championships on Thursday as she heads to the second and final round with a four-shot lead after posting a 6-over 78. She has more wins than any woman in VSGA history (12), with four of them coming in recent years after the VSGA created the super senior division for women over the age of 65.
Bolling has won two of the three playings of this event—she finished behind Boodie McGurn at Willow Oaks in 2019. Bolling made one birdie on Wednesday, on Monacan’s No. 5. She’s four clear of Fredericksburg CC’s Becky Paul, who shot 82, and five clear of Millwood CC’s Franny Crawford, who shot 83.
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.