2016 Northern Virginia Amateur

Jeffrey Long had a completely different thought process than the spectators watching the first extra hole of a playoff for the 43rd Northern Virginia Amateur championship today at Fauquier Springs. While having played the most consistent golf throughout the three days of the tournament, shooting rounds of 70-72-72 for a 1-over 214 total, it wasn’t enough to overcome Matthew Ashley’s final round 3-under 68, which, combined with his opening rounds of 75-71, gave him the same total, requiring the two to go back to the uphill 302 yard par-4 first hole to determine the winner. Ashley, a rising senior at UVA, hit his drive toward the middle of the green about 290 yards into the front bank of the green for an uphill 10-15 yard chip for eagle. Long powered a 325 yard drive over directly over the flagstick – and the green – onto a downslope for an awkward chip to a green that also slanted downhill. While the comments among the crowd were centered on how difficult a shot Long had facing him, he was looking at the relatively straight path to the hole once the ball got on the green, thinking he could make the 25 yard shot for eagle – which he almost did. The ball slid just past the hole four feet away, making Ashley’s shot a little more difficult. Ashley chipped seven feet above the hole and missed his attempt at birdie, leaving the door open for Long to make his for the win. It was a rare miss for Ashley on a day when he said he “really had the putter going” for him. After birdies at 1, 9, and 13, a long putt to save bogey at the par 3 15th kept his round going, where he added a final birdie at the 16th. Long bogied the 3rd and 7th holes, but got back to 1-over for the day with a short birdie at the par 5 12th hole. It was two difficult par saves at the 14th and 15th holes, however, that were keys to his back nine. After a hooked tee shot near the high grass on the uphill par-4 14th, Long put his second shot into the front bunker, but made a downhill eight foot putt for his par. On the next hole, the par-3 15th, he hit his tee shot well short of the green and faced a difficult chip to a precarious pin location, but an excellent chip to within two feet saved another par. He had chances on both 17 and 18 to make a birdie and avoid the playoff, but his six-footer at 17 hit the edge and a fifteen footer on the final hole missed to the right. The 29 year-old Long played for Old Dominion in college and won the Portsmouth Amateur in 2009, and the Evergreen Invitational in 2010, before trying the mini-tours for several years. Having his amateur status reinstated within the past year, he stated that he is rededicating his game to amateur golf. He was the low qualifier in local qualifying for the VSGA Amateur and Virginia Open last month, with the Open being his next event this week in Roanoke at the Ballyhack GC.

Dudley Payne (Fauquier Springs) and Zack Henry (Shenandoah Valley) were in the final threesome with Long and finished tied for third at 218 after each shot 74 today. Frank Mader (Raspberry Falls) finished fifth with 220.

The Northern Sections would like to thank Head Golf Professional Mike Bell (PGA), General Manager Larry Spielberg, CMAA, and their staffs for hosting this year’s championship.
Pictured (L to R): Champion Long, Tournament Director Mark Vandegrift
Final Results

2016 Northern Virginia Four-Ball

25 year-old Conor Cafferty and 27 year-old Harold Dill have been longtime friends – and competitors, when it comes to golf. Their decision to team up for the first time and enter this year’s Northern Virginia Four-Ball championship looked brilliant Friday when they birdied half of the holes at the host Belmont CC in Ashburn for an 8-under 64, and took a 3 shot lead over Belmont’s father-son team, Art and Brandon Locke, and another shot clear of four other teams at 68. Belmont’s birdie trove on Friday, however, dried up in the second and final round today as the heat, wind and course set-up proved much more difficult. The top six teams on Friday (score of 68 or better) produced 36 birdies, while those same teams produced only 12 in the final round, and none were under par. That’s where Cafferty and Dill stated that their friendship really paid off – knowing each other’s game well enough to trust each other on a grind-it-out type of a day. A bogey at the ninth cut their lead to two over the Lockes, and another bogey at the eleventh reduced it to one. After a Locke bogey at the fourteenth widened the margin back to two, the Lockes put pressure on again, knocking their second shot at the difficult par-four fifteenth to within a few feet after Dill had hit into the hazard. Cafferty, partially blocked out by trees, then answered the Lockes with a second shot to within 7 feet and maintained their margin, which widened to the final 3-shots with only their second birdie of the day – when Dill hit his second shot on the closing par-5 18th to within seven feet and two putted. Cafferty and Dill finished with 64-73 – 137. Art and Brandon Locke also had a final round 73 for a 140 total, sharing runners-up honors with three other teams. International’s Tom Follian and Connor Messick shot 68-72 – 140, while current Northern Virginia Amateur champion Jeffrey Long (Evergreen) and John Lombardozzi (RTJ) fired the low round of the day, a 3-under 69, to also finish at 140. Like the Lockes, Long and Lombardozzi had also cut Cafferty and Dill’s lead to two shots after the fourteenth, but a double bogey at the fifteenth proved to be too much to overcome despite birdies at the final two holes. This is the second four-ball championship this year for Dill, who won the VSGA Four-Ball in May with former Radford college roommate Kyle Bailey. Both Dill and Cafferty qualified for this year’s State Open as well.

The Northern Sections would like to thank the Belmont Country Club, Head Golf Professional Bob Pfeffer, PGA, and his staff for hosting this year’s event and for their continued support of amateur golf.
Final Scores
Pictured (L to R):The champions Harold Dill and Conor Cafferty, and their wives Elizabeth and Samantha