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Dates: Tuesday, July 29 - Friday, August 1
Format: Two rounds of stroke-play qualifying, with the field being cut to the low 60 players and ties for Wednesday's second round. The top 16 players advance to match play, which begins with the round of 16 and quarterfinals on Thursday. The semifinals and 18-hole championship match are scheduled for Friday.
Host site: 1757 Golf Club
(Jake Lopes at the VSGA Junior Stroke Play Championship. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
DULLES -- Vienna's Jake Lopes followed his opening-round 63 with a 2-under 68 on Wednesday at 1757 Golf Club to earn stroke-play qualifying medalist honors at the 34th Virginia State Golf Association Junior Match Play Championship. Lopes finished qualifying at 9-under 131, four strokes better than Fairfax Station's Ethan Evans and Midlothian's Luca Rinaldi.
Lopes will be the top seed for match play and face No. 16 seed Jamie Bliley of Richmond in Thursday's round of 16. Bliley posted rounds of 73 and 72 on 1757's par-70 layout to earn the final match-play spot at 5-over 145.
Lopes didn't breeze through Wednesday's round as easily as he did on Tuesday. After going bogey free in the first round, he finished with six birdies and four bogeys on Wednesday.
"I've been working hard on my wedges and my putting, and that's really paid off the last two days with good wedge play and rolling my putter well," Lopes said. "So that was a lot of fun."
Blacksburg's Grayden Laird and Richmond's Charles Lange tied for fourth at 2-under 138, followed by Vienna's Matthew Delpizzo at 1-under 139. The biggest move of the day came from Forest's Rusty Hooks, who jumped 18 spots on the leaderboard by following his opening-round 73 with a 3-under 67. He finished tied for seventh at even par with Blacksburg's Cameron Sharp and Alexandria's Owen Love.
Patrick O'Rourke, finalist at last year's Junior Match Play Championship, posted rounds of 74-72 to finish at 6-over 146 and miss match play by a stroke.
Lopes said he won't change his mindset going into match play.
"Do the same thing I was doing in stroke play," he said. "Try to keep it in play, there's a lot of water here, so it can be tough. Just need to keep it in play off the tee and have fun."
(Jake Lopes at the recent State Open of Virginia. Credit: Kaiden Bridges/VSGA)
DULLES -- Vienna's Jake Lopes posted a bogey-free 7-under-par 63 on Tuesday at 1757 Golf Club to take the early lead in stroke-play qualifying at the 34th Virginia State Golf Association Junior Match Play Championship.
Lopes made seven birdies, including five on the back nine, and holds a three-stroke lead over Midlothian's Luca Rinaldi, who posted a 4-under 66. Rinaldi, who recently earned low amateur honors at the State Open of Virginia, was 2 over through eight holes before getting his round going with a birdie on the par-5 9th. He blitzed the back nine, finishing with six birdies and a bogey.
Ashburn's Will Carlin and Floyd's Isaiah Cantrell each returned rounds of 3-under 67 and are tied for third.
The field will be cut to the low 16 players for match play after Wednesday's second round of stroke-play qualifying. Sixty players at 9-over 79 or better made the initial cut to Wednesday's second round.