Maclain Huge faces Mark Lawrence, Jr. in final
Photo courtesy of VSGA
Charlottesville, VA (7-2-2015) -- Maclain Huge of Lovettesville had a big day, beating 13-seed and last year’s medalist Adam Ball in 19 holes in his first match of the day. He then came out victorious against the 2015 medalist and top-seed Addison Coll, 2&1.
Huge started his day with an evenly contested match with Ball. Ball’s bogey on the 195-yard par 3 second hole gave Huge an early advantage, but the match turned all-square when Ball birdied the fourth while Huge carded a tough bogey.
It remained all-square until the 12th hole and Ball took advantage of a Huge bogey to go 1-up, a small cushion that Ball hoped to take into the clubhouse. But a disappointing bogey on No. 18 pushed the match into an extra hole, where they replayed the 381-yard par-4 first hole. Both had pars on the first go-around, but Huge made birdie this time around to get the win.
During his second match versus Coll, Huge took an early lead as a result of Coll’s bogey on No. 2. A bogey by Huge on the next hole evened things up for a hole before Coll took a lead on the fifth hole with a birdie.
As they made the turn, Huge was coming off a birdie on 9 that put him 1-up once again, and he never trailed from that point. He moves on to face third-seeded Mark Lawrence, Jr. in the final match, teeing off at 7:30 Friday morning.
Lawrence, Jr. is following his family’s heritage by having an outstanding tournament. His father and namesake Mark Sr. won the title in 1980, while his grandfather, Walter, was runner-up in 1958.
Lawrence won his first match of the day over Trey Smith, who took an early lead and was 1-up at the turn. But the match took a dramatic turn on No. 10 with a Lawrence birdie and a Smith double bogey that evened the match and took the wind out of Smith’s sails. A bogey on No. 11 by Smith was the dagger Lawrence needed to win the match 3&2 after 16 holes.
His second match of the day didn’t seem nearly as close as Lawrence took a 1-up lead on Keith Decker that briefly went all-square on the 10th hole, but a Decker bogey on No. 11 was a mistake he couldn’t overcome and Lawrence went on to win 2&1.
Rain and thunderstorms could be the biggest opponents to overcome in the finals, as rain is predicted for Charlottesville in the morning.
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36 holes of stroke play qualifying (18 holes per
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