Pictured: Evan Beck
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By Chris Lang
SUFFOLK — A lengthy weather delay on Monday will make for an extra long day on Tuesday at the 109th Virginia State Amateur Championship, held at Cedar Point Club.
Players in the afternoon wave were called off the course at 5:21 p.m. due to dangerous weather conditions as thunderstorms descended upon the area. First-round play will resume at 7:30 on Tuesday morning, and upon conclusion, the second round of stroke-play qualifying will begin. The top 32 players at the end of Tuesday’s second round will advance to match play, which begins on Wednesday.
When play was suspended, Virginia Beach’s Evan Beck and Abingdon’s Connor Creasy were tied for the lead at 6-under. Beck had a 3-foot putt for par on 18 when play was suspended. Creasy had teed off on 18 and was waiting to hit his approach shot.
Loyola (Md.) senior Carlo Pizzano and Christopher Newport University sophomore Michael Thomas shared the first-round clubhouse lead, with each shooting 5-under-par rounds of 67 on Cedar Point’s par-72 layout.
The rounds of 32 and 16 are scheduled for Wednesday. The quarterfinals and semifinals are slated for Thursday. The 36-hole championship match is scheduled to begin Friday morning.
THE STORY
Beck, the reigning VSGA Golfer of the Year, has showed no signs of slowing down in 2022. He and partner Dan Walters—who coached Beck when the two were at Wake Forest—advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in May. And he’s made moves on the elite national mid-amateur circuit this year as well.
He earned his first invite to the prestigious Coleman Invitational at Seminole Golf Club in Florida and finished runner-up to Stewart Hagestad, a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion who made the cut at this year’s U.S. Open. Just last weekend, Beck found the winner’s circle at Los Angeles Country Club—site of next year’s U.S. Open—winning in a playoff at the Thomas Invitational.
Beck caught a red eye back from the Pacific coast, skipped Sunday’s shotgun practice round in favor of rest, and still handled Cedar Point with relative ease. He carded seven birdies and a bogey and has a short putt first thing Tuesday to end his round at 6-under 66.
Creasy, a senior at the University of Georgia, was right there with Beck. Creasy carded six birdies and was bogey free through 17 holes.
Pizzano and Thomas were joined at 5-under by Rui Chang, a member of the University of Virginia’s club golf team. Chang had three holes to play when play was suspended.
Pizzano, whose parents previously lived in Virginia but recently moved to Pinehurst, is living a bit of a nomad existence this summer, bouncing from tournament to tournament. He played in his first VSGA Amateur last year at CC of Petersburg and missed the match-play cut by a stroke, something he hopes to change on Tuesday.
He started on No. 10 and made his first birdie on No. 13 – “that kind of got my eyebrows raised a bit,” he said – and got to 4-under when he made eagle on No. 17.
“I actually hit it a little thin, but I got a great bounce off the front right (ridge),” Pizzano said. “Then I just made a really good putt from the fringe, just rolled in, left side of the cup.”
After a bogey on the tough par-4 18th, he played his back nine at 2-under, carding consecutive birdies at Nos. 2 and 3 before closing his round with six straight pars.
“My iron play has been strong,” Pizzano said. “I putted it awesome today, and that was probably the difference. … The goal is definitely to get into match play. The Bobby Bowers is probably the only one I’ve ever gotten into match play, in terms of a stroke play to match play tournament.”
Thomas, a member at Loudoun G&CC, was as surprised as anyone with his stellar round.
“I didn’t really play much for my college team this year,” he said. “I’m kind of an underdog.”
He also started off No. 10 and quickly found trouble, making a bogey on his first hole. Back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 got his round going, and an eagle on 17 helped him turn at 2-under. Thomas rattled off three straight birdies on 2, 3, 4 to get to 5-under, which is where he ended after a bogey on No. 8 and a chip-in birdie on No. 9.
“I knew the starting holes were the hardest holes on the course,” Thomas said. “After that, I just said, par these out, you have a bunch of birdie holes coming up, and I took advantage of those birdie holes. … It was pretty spectacular. This was my lowest tournament round ever, so to do it here, it was a pretty good spot. I was just happy to be here, but now I have a chance to make the cut. So let’s go make the cut.”
Chesapeake’s Xander Goboy earned his way into the field by snagging medalist honors last Monday’s last-chance qualifier at Cedar Point. He sits alone in third among those in the clubhouse after returning a 4-under 68.
Playing a round under pressure at the Amateur’s host venue was certainly helpful for his opening round on Monday, Goboy said.
“Some people are playing the course for the first time,” said Goboy, who was the stroke-play medalist at last week’s VSGA Junior Match Play Championship at Willow Oaks. “So it was good to go out and see the course last week.”
Washington G&CC’s Sebastien Bonte was in the clubhouse at 3-under 69. Two others were still on the course at 3-under—UVA’s Jack Montague and Chesapeake’s Trey Marrion.
NOTES AND QUOTES
- Defending champion Jimmy Taylor, who said on Sunday that he was slowly coming back from a back injury that cost him his spring season at William & Mary, struggled on Monday, posting a 10-over 82.
- Thirty-six of the 120 players in the field were still on course when the horn blew on Monday, with those players needing to finish between one and five holes.
- Three-time VSGA Amateur finalist Jordan Utley was in the 18th fairway when the horn blew. He was tied for 15th at 1 under, as was Steve Serrao, who won the VSGA Senior Stroke Play Championship earlier this month and finished his morning round with a 1-under 71.
- Thirty-four players were at even par or better.
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.