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By Chris Lang
GREAT FALLS — Lovettsville’s Logan Reilly posted a 4-under-par 67 on Monday at River Bend Club to take the early lead at the 70th Virginia State Golf Association Junior Stroke Play Championship.
Reilly, who was a semifinalist at the VSGA Junior Match Play Championship last month, holds the 18-hole lead over two competitors: Roanoke’s Peyton Spangler and Great Falls’ Chase Nevins, each of whom returned rounds of 3-under 68.
Just behind them were Vienna’s Matt Moloney and Roanoke’s Samir Davidov at 2-under 69.
The 54-hole championship concludes on Wednesday. After Tuesday’s second round, the field will be cut to low 45 players and ties for the third and final round.
THE STORY
Reilly, a 15-year-old rising sophomore at Bishop O’Connell High School, came into this championship on a hot streak, having won the AJGA Junior All-Star at York (Pa.) on July 21. He shot a three-day 198 at Regents’ Glen Country Club to win by four shots, and he continued that strong play on Monday at River Bend.
In between, Reilly played a round with Wake Forest standout and past VSGA Amateur champion Michael Brennan at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh, host of numerous USGA championships.
On Monday, he worked around a bogey on No. 10 and carded five birdies to secure his 4-under 67.
“I played solid all day,” Reilly said. “I made just the one bogey—on 10, I flared a 7-iron into the bunker. But overall, I was doing everything right. I didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
Reilly’s game has trended in the right direction all year. He burst onto the scene last year and was the youngest player to qualify for the VSGA Amateur Championship, where he made match play. In 2022, he’s taken the next step. He not only made match play at the Amateur but won his first match before losing in the round of 16 to Evan Beck. In the AJGA event prior to his win in York, Reilly finished second.
“I’ve been playing really good lately, and I hope to continue it here,” he said.
Reilly isn’t the only one in the field with a recent AJGA win. Nevins, a rising senior at nearby Langley High School, won the Mizuno/Keith Mitchell Junior Championship on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina on July 14, finishing four shots ahead of Davidov.
Nevins, who is verbally committed to Vanderbilt, had an up-and-down round on Monday, finishing with six birdies and three bogeys. Nevins said he’s made some adjustments to his putting stroke lately, and those fixes are starting to take hold. He made long birdie putts on consecutive holes (3 and 4) to jumpstart his round early on Monday.
“I just kind of made a little switch with my grip, and I went back to an old putter that I liked,” Nevins said. “I switched to it and then won an AJGA that week, so it’s been feeling pretty good lately.”
Nevins was runner-up to Langley teammate Kelly Chinn (now at Duke) in 2020 and tied for fifth at last year’s VSGA Junior Stroke Play Championship, so he’s hoping for a breakthrough this year. One thing that plays in his favor: River Bend is Langley’s home course, so he has intimate knowledge of the course, what shots to hit, and what spots to avoid.
“It’s a comfort factor,” he said. “I’ve hit all of the shots out here. Just getting on the tee, I know what I’ve got to do. I just feel like I can play my game like it’s a normal round.”
Spangler, a recent graduate of Northside High School who will play golf at Emory & Henry in the fall, finished with six birdies, with two of them sandwiched around a double bogey on the par-3 15th hole.
“I was hitting a lot of fairways,” Spangler said. “And I had a lot of 8-irons into greens. I found a little swing with that, hit a couple to within 5 feet, and that’s how I got most of my birdies. I definitely left a couple of shots out there, though.”
NOTES
- Play was suspended at 2:55 p.m. due to thunderstorms and resumed at 5 p.m.
- Four players were tied for sixth at even-par 71: Yorktown’s Brandon Sipe, Chesapeake’s Xander Goboy, Penn Laird’s Ryan Slonaker and McLean’s Pierce Hokenson. Like Nevins, Hokenson plays for Langley’s powerhouse golf team.
- No one was able to eagle any of River Bend’s par-5 holes. The only eagle came when Teddy Kim holed out on the par-4 8th. Though it didn’t yield any eagles, the 544-yard par-5 18th hole played as the easiest hole on Monday (4.96 average), with 20 players making birdie on the hole.
- Players will be re-paired for Tuesday’s second round, with the final grouping—featuring Reilly, Nevins and Spangler—going out last.
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.