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Date: Monday, April 29
Format: Each club plays as two four-ball sides and the club’s total score is determined by adding the two four-ball scores together. Teams may have up to one pro, which must be affiliated with the member club they are representing.
Host site: The Foundry Golf Club
POWHATAN -- The trend of Richmond-area clubs dominating the Virginia Stage Golf Association Club Championship continued on Monday at The Foundry Golf Club. Midlothian's Independence Golf Club surged on an unseasonably warm late April afternoon, posting a team total of 14-under par 130 to win the 81st playing of the championship by four strokes over defending champions Hermitage Country Club of Manakin Sabot.
Independence, which won its first Club Championship in 2019, returned just one player from that squad (Scott Bemberis). Bemberis and Hank Klein posted a 5-under 67, while Cam Young and professional Ryan Cole carded the best individual score of the day with a 9-under 63. Klein is a past VSGA Amateur champion, and Young is a past winner of the VSGA Senior Amateur.
Both of Hermitage's squads played in the morning shotgun, with the A side featuring last year's champions (Jordan Utley, Sam Beach, Pete Toole, Ben Beach) posting a 10-under-par 134 to take the clubhouse lunchtime lead.
Richmond's Lakeside Park Club finished alone in third at 9-under 133. Richmond's Country Club of Virginia and Vienna's Westwood Country Club tied for fourth at 8-under 136.
NOTEABLE:
- Independence's Cole and Young started on 13. Cole got on a roll once the side made the turn, carding five consecutive birdies from 1-5 to help Independence jump into the lead for good.
- Westwood CC's Dominic Reed and Robert Nuon posted the second-best individual four-ball score of the day, a 7-under 65. Hermitage's Ben Beach and Jordan Utley were third at 6-under 66.
- The last time a club from outside the Richmond area won this event was in 2015, when Army Navy CC and Cavalier G&YC split the title.
- Fifty teams competed in the event, with several clubs entering two squads.
- There were five eagles on the day, four on par-5s and one on the par-4 12th, where Hermitage B's Zach Wehrman holed out from the fairway.
- Klein made a 70-foot birdie putt on 15.
QUOTEABLE:
- "The secret to our success was having new blood on the team. It invigorated us." -- Independence's Hank Klein on Ryan Cole
- "On Nos. 1-5, I hit a lot of good drives, a lot of good wedge shots to maybe 5-12 feet. I made a couple of putts in a row, and it just started snowballing for us." -- Cole
- "We've played in this thing long enough. It's always like 11, 12, 13 under that wins it. So we thought we had a chance." -- Klein on going into the afternoon after Hermitage came in at 10-under in the morning.
- "He has unbelievable control of his golf ball, and he really doesn't hit a bad shot. He hits it good, wedges it good, and he putts it good. That's a pretty good combination." -- Cam Young on Cole
- "We played a pretty similar round to what we did last year. We kind of looked at each other on the tee box on 11 and said, 'this is where we turned it around last year,' and we birdied the next four holes and got into a nice little groove." -- Jordan Utley
- "I thought they were tough. They were fast. You had to have your speed right if you wanted to make anything. They were as smooth and as pure as I've seen out here. They were really good." -- Sam Beach on The Foundry's quick greens.