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By Chris Lang
PETERSBURG — Joey Jordan walked over the bridge to the 18th tee at the Country Club of Petersburg on Monday afternoon, turned around and said simply, “this man is positively on fire.”
The man referenced was University of Virginia fourth-year Sam Jung, who was on a run of four straight 3s at the time. Though Jung’s streak ended with a par on the final hole, he posted the round of the day in the first round of stroke-play qualifying at the 108th Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Championship. Jung’s bogey-free scorecard featured five birdies and an eagle, and his 7-under-par 65 put him a shot clear of Mehrbaan Singh and Teddy Zinsner heading into Tuesday’s second round of stroke-play qualifying.
After Tuesday, the field will be cut to the low 32 players for match play, which begins Wednesday with two rounds of matches. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, and the 36-hole final match is slated for Friday.
Jung didn’t really get going until midway through his round, but once he found his groove, he started shooting up the leaderboard.
“I started the round pretty slow, actually,” Jung said. “I wasn’t hitting the fairways. I wasn’t hitting greens. After seven, something just clicked. I started getting my round going. I started making some putts. And I think my big thing today was my short game. I missed a lot of greens, but I made every single up and down, so I think that was the highlight of my day.”
Jung was 1 under through seven before making birdie on 8. He added birdies on 11, 14 and 17, and he made eagle on the par-5 15th. He was one of seven players to make a three on that hole.
“You just have to hit a good drive on that hole, and you’ll have 220 or less in,” Jung said. “I think I had 197 and hit it to about three feet.”
Both Singh and Zinsner went out in the morning wave and posted low numbers. Singh started on No. 10 and made the turn at 6 under before making bogey on No. 1. He got the shot back with a birdie on the next and finished with seven straight pars for his 66.
“I’d say it was proximity to the hole,” said Singh, a rising senior at Independence High School in Ashburn. “I think the longest putt I had on the back (his front nine) was like six feet, and I shot 6 under, so I was hitting it really, really well. On the front, I was putting it in the fairway, but I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be, and I didn’t really make any putts.
“I definitely feel confident, but I know it’s not done yet. I still have 18 holes and everyone here is more than capable of shooting low scores, so I’m going to have to keep my foot on the gas and just focus, and then when match play comes, we’ll reevaluate.”
Zinsner, a past VSGA Junior Stroke Play champion who will compete his Yale career this coming season, started on the front, made the turn at 1 under, then caught fire of the back, making birdie on 10, 11 and 12. He added birdies at 15 and 17 to finish 5 under on the back.
“I felt like I basically did everything well,” he said. “I hit some good putts from like 10, 15 feet. In general, I hit a ton of fairways and a lot of greens and I had a lot of good looks at birdie.”
He got an unlikely spark early from a wayward tee shot.
“I was 1 under through three and I hit my tee shot on 4 out of bounds,” Zinsner said. “But I birdied my second ball to make bogey, so it felt like a birdie, it kept the momentum going. From there on in, I just played really good.”
Peter Gasperini, who recently wrapped up his VCU career and has plans to turn professional after next month’s State Open of Virginia, shot a 5-under 67 and is two shots off the pace. Gasperini reached the VSGA Amateur semifinals in both 2018 and 2019 and has eyes on improving that performance this week. In both instances, he lost to the eventual champion, Trey Smith in ’18 and Michael Brennan in ’19.
“In both of those situations, I got ahead of myself in a sense, and both of those guys stepped on my throat a bit,” Gasperini said. “I hope I can get in a situation where I can kind of flip the script. I just have to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully things will work out.”
A member at Halifax Country Club, Gasperini said CC of Petersburg gave him vibes of his old home track.
“This course sets up really well for me because it feels like the course I grew up on,” Gasperini said. “You just have to keep it in front of you. The greens are soft. It almost feels like home. So, I really enjoy the venue this year.”
Four players are tied for fifth at 4-under 68: Virginia Tech’s Connor Johnson Jr., Ryan Patrick (Hidden Creek CC), and juniors Trey Marrion and David Stanford.
Just three days ago, Stanford won the VSGA Junior Match Play title. He reached the final of this event last year at River Bend Club and noted last week that winning the Amateur is one of his biggest goals of the summer.
“I’m a pretty good match play player, and I know I’ll be able to handle myself,” said Stanford, who is headed to Virginia Tech next season. “So, my biggest concern is just finishing in the top 32 for stroke play. Last week, we were walking, and I was pretty tired at the end, but I think I showed I could handle that much golf. If I can go all the way this week, I’ll be well off.”
Stanford posted a bogey-free round that included a 20-foot par save and a daring driver-off-the-deck shot on No. 6 that helped him save another key par.
“I pulled my driver left and it bounced around in the trees for a while,” Stanford said. “I was 230 out and I had to go under a tree, so I thought driver off the deck was probably the best option. It would stay low, and I know I could fade that shot pretty well. I hit it perfectly, but it just caught the edge of the rough near the hazard there—luckily it stayed out. If it would have gone a little further left, it would have hopped right up on the green there.”
Marrion, a rising sophomore at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, continued a strong summer of play that included a win in the MAPGA/VSGA Junior Four-Ball and a trip to U.S. Open final qualifying. He was 1 over through seven holes on Monday but played the rest of his round at 5 under.
“I was really struggling with the driver in the beginning,” Marrion said. “I kind of made just a little bit of a swing change, making sure I was following through to my target. And that changed things. I think I hit every single fairway from 8-18. I really put the ball into play, and my irons have been sharp. I’m sticking my approach shots to within 15 feet on a lot of the holes, and I was able to roll those putts in for birdie.”
Low scoring was the norm on Monday, and conditions are expected to be similar for Tuesday’s second round: Hot, humid and sunny. Thirty-six players shot under par rounds Monday, and with 32 spots available for match play, it may very well take an under-par total over two days just to advance to Wednesday.
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.