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By Chris Lang
GREAT FALLS — Roanoke’s Samir Davidov sank a 10-foot eagle putt on the second playoff hole to outlast Lovettsville’s Logan Reilly and win the 70th Virginia State Golf Association Junior Stroke Play Championship, which concluded on Wednesday at River Bend Club.
Davidov finished with a three-day, 5-under-par aggregate total of 208 after shooting an even-par 71 on Wednesday. Reilly returned a bogey-free 5-under 66 to charge up the leaderboard and into the playoff.
Vaughn McMeans, a rising junior at Riverside High School in Leesburg, returned a three-day, 3-under 211 to finish tied for third with rising Langley High School senior Chase Nevins, who posted his second 68 of the tournament but couldn’t quite shake off the rough ending to his second round, when he went 5-over on the final three holes.
Davidov, a member at Roanoke Country Club, made a birdie on the final hole to force the playoff after Reilly had made birdie on 18 in the group ahead.
THE STORY
The playoff featured an outgoing junior golfer headed to college and a 15-year-old already turning the heads of college coaches. Davidov will begin his career at George Mason University—where he plans to major in finance—next month. But before that, there was the little matter of finding a way to snag the biggest win of his career.
Previously, his best victory came in the Junior Valentine Invitational at Hermitage Country Club. Davidov entered Tuesday with a one-shot lead over Matt Moloney, who never got going and posted a 3-over 74 to finish alone in fifth at 212.
Before he could get to the playoff, Davidov had to find a way to get past the sizzling hot McMeans, who continued his dominating play on River Bend’s front nine on Wednesday. Entering the day at even par, McMeans made the turn at 5-under and then birdied the par-3 10th to move to 6-under and grab the lead.
McMeans played River Bend’s front nine at 9-under over the three days, but the back nine had been troublesome. The pattern continued Wednesday. He bogeyed the par-3 15th then made a double bogey on 16 and a bogey on 17 to suddenly fall out of contention.
Davidov knew that McMeans was struggling, but he didn’t know of his standing in the tournament until he got to the 18th tee. He checked the leaderboard and saw Reilly had birdied the final hole to get to 5-under, so he knew what he had to do.
As he had done all week, he reached the green in two on the long par-5, but he was left with a tricky 50-foot putt for eagle. He wanted to go for it, but he knew he couldn’t throw the tournament away either with a bad lag putt. He snugged it to three feet and made the birdie putt.
The players went to 18 for the first sudden-death playoff hole. After both hit the fairway, both went right of the green into thick rough and hit nearly perfect flop shots to set up birdie putts, which both players made. Off to 18 they went again. Davidov again outdrove Reilly, who hit his approach into first. He left it just short on the fringe.
Davidov then set up for his approach.
“I had 210 to the pin and 194 to the front, so it was a pretty good 5-iron,” Davidov said. “With the nerves kicking in, I knew I was going to hit it a little farther. In the practice round, it was probably a 4. But there, it was a 5.”
He hit the shot as cleanly as he could and was rewarded thusly, his ball settling 10 feet from the flagstick below the hole for a reasonable uphill eagle putt. Once he sank it, he gave two big fist pumps and left the green with a giant smile on his face.
“Lost a playoff to an eagle,” Reilly said. “Not much you can do about that. But I shot 66 today, so that’s still pretty good.”
Davidov spoke after Tuesday’s second round of how his mental game had matured over the last year or so. Instead of letting mistakes lead to outbursts, he used them as teaching moments. He said he played calm all day on Wednesday and never let small mistakes compound into bigger ones.
His soon-to-be coach at George Mason, Greg Pieczynski, has noticed the same progression.
“I like passion and fire, but there’s a fine line,” Piecyzynski said. “I don’t mind that, as long as it’s constructive. Obviously, one of the benefits of being at these tournaments in person is you get to see those intangibles, those emotions. When things don’t go well, it’s how you react. I think it’s definitely been an area of improvement for him.”
With his junior career nearing an end, Davidov hopes to turn recent successes into positive momentum as he heads to Fairfax to start on his college path.
“I’ve been playing pretty solid golf,” Davidov said. “It’s good to get a little breakthrough. Hopefully I can keep this going on George Mason’s golf team.”
NOTES
- With so many players graduating in 2023 and beyond in the field, there were plenty of college coaches in attendance to scout future talent. Coaches from Virginia, Virginia Tech, George Mason, Richmond, William & Mary, Longwood, Hampden-Sydney, Shenandoah, Marymount, Maryland, Clemson, Georgia and Howard were on site on Wednesday.
- Nevins was the winner in the 16-and-over age group. Reilly was the winner in the 15-and-under group.
- Xander Goboy shot a 1-over 214 and finished alone in sixth. Joe Johnson and Ryan Slonaker tied for seventh at 217, and Pierce Hokenson and Hudson Pace tied for ninth at 218 to round out the top 10.
- Next year’s Junior Stroke Play Championship will be contested at Birdwood Golf at Boar’s Head Resort in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia’s Golf team.
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.