Pictured: Jack Hoyle
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By Chris Lang
WINCHESTER — Two players on their way out of junior golf and another two heading into their senior year of high school advanced to the semifinals of the 30th Virginia State Golf Association Junior Match Play Championship on Thursday at Winchester Country Club.
David Stanford (Virginia Tech) and Cullen Campbell (UNC Wilmington) will begin their respective college careers in the coming months, but they have unfinished business at the junior level to attend to first. Garrett Kuhla has committed to JMU but has one season remaining at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, as does the fourth semifinalist, Midlothian’s Jack Hoyle, who surprised even himself with his performance in the first three days of the championship.
“When I came in, I barely even packed enough clothes to go into match play,” Hoyle said. “I wasn’t really expecting much. But I know that I’m playing well, but my driver and putter had been a little inconsistent. I kept telling my dad the last two months, if I can just hit the fairways and putt well, that it was just a matter of time.”
Stanford and Kuhla will face off in the first semifinal, set for 7:30 a.m. Friday. Campbell will meet Hoyle in the second semifinal at 7:45. The winners will advance to the 18-hole championship match Friday afternoon.
None of the four have won this championship before, but Stanford has taken home hardware at Winchester before, winning the VSGA Junior Stroke Play title here in 2019. Add the fact that Stanford reached the final match of last year’s VSGA Amateur, and Kuhla knows he has a challenge in front of him. He doesn’t plan to give an inch, though.
“Me and David have been playing against each other since we were 10 or 11 years old, so it’ll be a fun challenge,” Kuhla said. “He’s a great player, but you know, I made it this far too, so we obviously both deserve to be there. It should be a fun match.”
Stanford needed a late rally to defeat Leesburg’s Matthew Monastero, who is headed to the University of Virginia, in the round of 16. He made consecutive birdies on 16 and 17 to turn a 1-down deficit to a 1-up lead. He held on when Monastero’s drive on 18 went far to the right, leaving Monastero a tough approach that he left just short of the green. Stanford, who was in the fairway, tucked his approach close and made par to win the match.
“It’s a big confidence booster,” Stanford said. “Like I said before, if the putts start dropping, I can shoot pretty low here, and that’s pretty much what happened today. Especially on the front nine in the first match, I dropped a lot of putts.”
In the afternoon, Stanford jumped early on Roanoke’s Samir Davidov and cruised to a 5-and-4 victory.
“I just didn’t make any mistakes, I didn’t make any bogeys,” Stanford said. “It’s really big (to get off to a fast start). Match play, it’s such a mental game. When you can jump on your opponent, and you get up by a lot, they kind of know it’s done. Then it’s a time game from there.”
Kuhla got up early in both of his matches, starting with a 4-and-2 defeat of Chesapeake’s Trey Marrion in the round of 16. He took an early lead on Purcellville’s Owen Cook in the quarterfinals before Cook—who ousted stroke-play medalist Xander Goboy in the round of 16—won three straight holes on the back to cut a 5-up lead to 2-up.
Kuhla ended the match in style, sinking a 25-foot birdie putt on 16 to close out Cook, who missed his long birdie putt to match.
“It felt good,” Kuhla said. “I kind of wanted to cozy it up there. But I hit it a little hard and it went on the line I wanted it to, and it went right in.”
Hoyle survived a tough opening match with Blacksburg’s David Zhang, who finished second in stroke-play qualifying, by hitting a tight approach on the 20th hole (No. 2) and converting the birdie to win the match. He rolled in his second match against Roanoke’s Nate Faulkner, going 3 up through five holes. His lead never dipped below two holes after that.
“I’m pretty confident,” Hoyle said. “After that first match—because I haven’t really played match play against another junior before—after I beat him, I thought I could do whatever, because I didn’t even play that well.”
Campbell, a semifinalist at the 2019 VSGA Junior Match Play at Williamsburg National Golf Club, learned a key lesson from that experience.
“I got a push cart this year,” Campbell said. “Two years ago, I didn’t have one and Bryan (Lee) did. I was pretty tired that day against him.”
Campbell seemed fresh for most of the day in dispatching of Richmond’s Charlie Kennedy 4 and 2 and Ashburn’s Mehrbaan Singh 3 and 2. Campbell and Singh are close friends, but the competition ratcheted up early as Campbell took a 2-up lead through two holes.
“I thought we were going to talk a little bit more, but we didn’t,” Campbell said. “After I birdied the first two holes, he kind of shut up and got to business, so I was like, OK.”
Campbell closed the match out with a conceded par on 16 after Singh hit his approach long into waist-high grass behind the green. He was able to chop it to the front of the green but his par chip sailed long, ending the match.
Campbell said he enjoyed the variety that Winchester presents, and he hopes to keep his strong play going into the semifinals.
“There are a lot of different holes, and it’s not cookie cutter,” Campbell said. “There are a lot of doglegs, and you can cut the corners and be aggressive when you need to be. It’s a really good match play course, with the par 5s and the par 3s and some of the risks you have to take.”
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.