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Pictured: Carlo Pizzano
By Chris Lang
SUFFOLK — On Wednesday, three of the top four seeds from stroke-play qualifying at the 109th Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Championship advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinals. The one who didn’t, however, is notable.
Amateur medalist Connor Creasy made a spirited comeback but ultimately fell on the 18th hole to No. 16 seed Jordan Utley at Cedar Point Club. Utley, a three-time Amateur finalist, continued his quest for a fourth appearance in the final match.
The next three seeds—Evan Beck, Carlo Pizzano and Grayson Wood—each won two matches to reach the event’s quarterfinal stage. Joining them are No. 6 seed Ross Funderburke, No. 8 seed Isaac Simmons, No. 12 seed Bryce Corbett and No. 23 seed Garrett Kuhla.
Play continues in the championship on Thursday with the quarterfinals and semifinals. The 36-hole championship match is scheduled for Friday morning.
THE STORY
Utley (Hermitage CC) and Simmons (Poplar Grove GC) will square off in Thursday’s first quarterfinal. They also happened to play in two of the best matches of the day on Wednesday to reach that stage of the event.
Utley, seeking his second straight final appearance, built a 2-up lead through 15 holes before fending off a late charge from Creasy to advance. Creasy, who plays at the University of Georgia and is a member at Glenrochie Country Club, found himself in serious trouble on the par-3 16th before making a clutch up-and-down out of a difficult bunker to keep his hopes alive.
Utley teed off first and hit the green. Creasy’s tee shot went short and left, leaving him about six inches inside the left lip of the front-facing bunker. The lie was difficult enough. His stance was even tougher, as he stood outside of the bunker and had to crouch down to try to get the ball out. He did just that and then sank his 10-foot par putt to keep the match alive after Utley had missed his birdie putt.
“It was absolutely expected,” Utley said. “I played with him for two days (in qualifying) and I saw him make just about every putt. The fact that he missed a couple today was helpful. I figured it was going in.”
On 17, Creasy just missed an eagle putt, and Utley’s birdie putt to win slipped left of the hole. On 18, Creasy’s approach found the right bunker, and he was unable to get up and down for par. Needing only to match Creasy to win, Utley two-putted for bogey to secure the 1-up victory.
Afterward, he sounded equally relieved to advance and annoyed that he didn’t finish the job earlier in the match.
“For me to win matches, I mean, you’ve got to make putts,” said Utley, who defeated Northern Virginia teenager Aryan Vuradi 4 and 3 earlier in the day. “I want it on myself. I’ve been doing it for years and years now, and it’s almost like I’m waiting for someone else to miss. You can’t do that.
“Yeah, I’m winning matches. But I don’t think I can win the whole thing without me taking the bull by the horns and just burying him. I had the opportunity to do it on 15, on 16, and on 17 … and if you let good players have chances, they might make good use of them. I was fortunate to get through today, because he clearly had a chance to do it. … I can’t rely on ball-striking alone. Clearly, that’s a strength. But at some point, you’ve got to be a killer and knock the putt in.”
Simmons, a senior at Liberty University who grew up outside of Lynchburg, successfully got up and down for birdie on the 21st hole to complete a late comeback and defeat Radford University’s Patrick Gareiss in their round-of-16 match. Gareiss was in control for much of the match, leading 3 up after 13 holes and 2 up after 16. Simmons won the final two regulation holes to force the match to extras.
Simmons’ deepest advance in the Amateur came in 2020 when he lost to eventual finalist David Stanford in the round of 16.
“I’ll admit, I’ve had a lot of struggles with match play in the past, and that’s something I’m comfortable saying because I think I’ve gotten over it,” said Simmons, a 2-up winner over another Radford player, Hunter Duncan, in morning. “It’s a different game than stroke play and sometimes I get a little too ahead of myself. So it was nice to win today in two different styles—being way ahead and being way behind. It does a lot for my confidence.”
The second quarterfinal features Radford’s Corbett and Wood, who won last week’s VSGA Junior Match Play championship and extended his match winning streak in VSGA events to six on Wednesday.
Corbett knocked off fellow Dominion Valley CC member and 2011 VSGA Amateur champion Scott Shingler in the round of 16 after defeating Chesapeake teenager Trey Marrion in the morning. Both wins came by identical 4-and-3 counts.
“I’ve been driving it really well,” Corbett said. “The irons were good too. The putting wasn’t there like it was this morning, but I hit enough good golf shots that I was able to get away with it.”
On the other half of the draw, Beck (Princess Anne CC) continued his strong play with a pair of comfortable wins over junior golfers, defeating Chase Nevins (Trump National GC) 5 and 3 in the morning before ousting Logan Reilly (Loudoun G&CC) 5 and 4 in the afternoon. He’ll face yet another junior in Thursday morning’s quarterfinals—Richmond’s Garrett Kuhla (Willow Oaks CC), who bested Nick Fleming and Jonathan McEwen in his two matches.
Beck, who has evolved into one of the nation’s best mid-amateur players, is impressed with some of the junior talent he’s had to face in this event.
“Having just finished up with Logan, I asked him what year he was in school and I couldn’t believe he had just finished his freshman year,” Beck said. “That kid rips it. He’s going to be really, really good.”
The final quarterfinal features a pair of college players—Loyola (Md.)’s Carlo Pizzano and Furman’s Ross Funderburke.
Pizzano showed his stroke-play qualifying scores were no fluke, rolling past Adam Marshall (4 and 3) and Sebastien Bonte (6 and 4) in his two matches.
Funderburke, a member at Hidden Valley CC, is in the quarterfinals for the second time in three years. In his last appearance, he lost to eventual champion Mark Lawrence Jr. in 2020. Last year, he dropped his opening match against Ryan Patrick at CC of Petersburg but suffered no such setback on Wednesday. He opened with a 1-up win over mid-amateur Ian Hildebrand (former Virginia Tech golfer) before rolling 5 and 4 past UVA’s Jack Montague.
NOTES
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.