Category: News

The new Davis Love III redesigned UVA Birdwood Golf Course opened 6/29/2020. The new hickory course record was set by Nelson Ford at 75/57 on 9/14/20. The VaHGA Captain invites all hickory players worldwide to visit Charlottesville and attack the hickory course record. The Gutty Course Record has yet to be set. The course also features an 18 hole putting course and a Par 3 course as well. Lots of fun. Come join in!

COURSE RECORD UPDATES

Birdwood Golf Course (Charlottesville, UVA new Davis Love III design): Nelson Ford lowered the Birdwood Course Record to 75/57 on Monday September 14, 2020. Fantastic job, Nelson! That record is likely to stand for a looooong time!

Glenmore Country Club (Charlottesville): Skip Platt, 70/64, 9/13/2013. Way to go Skip!

Country Club of Fairfax (Fairfax): Amateur 79/70, Deal Hudson (blue tees). Pro record, 76, Matt Gallagher. Good job, Deal!

Swannanoa Country Club (Afton): Eric Wagner posted an 86/71 score 7/20/20 on this Top-of-the-Blue-Ridge scenic course built in the 1950’s. The course has a very “hickory” feel and fantastic views of both sides of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Congratulations, Eric! Look out! Here we come!

Old Trail Golf Course (Crozet): Jim Clawson posted a 79/60 at Old Trail on 11/7/2019.

Sugar Bush (Garrettsville, OH): Rick Woeckener reports that he set the Sugar Bush Hickory Course Record at 69/67. Wow! Way to go Rick!

Woodside Plantation (Aiken, SC): Doug Brossman, 86/68 @ 5,498 yards. Good job, Doug!
The Reserve Course @ Woodside Plantation (Aiken, SC): Doug also holds the (only) hickory record there as well @ 89/71.

On June 1st, four VaHGA members met at Old Trail Golf Club in Crozet, VA to play Gutty Golf. Masks in the pro-shop, foam filled cups, single carts, social distancing. Beautiful weather, beautiful course, and after some negotiation, everyone settled on playing the Vardon LF ball from McIntyre Golf to even out the competition(s). Three of the four players were new to this ball. Here’s Terry’s reaction:

“I’m now sold on the “Gutty Bramble Limited Flight Vardon Flyer” – thanks for having enough in your bag for all of us, so as to level the playing field for the matches (and I still owe you $ for mine).  Compared to the Park Gutty in my opinion it’s much more fun – it’s cheaper, flies a little longer but not that much, doesn’t cut, putts / rolls truer, and doesn’t have the in-flight butterfly wobble like the Park.  Here’s a picture of both balls after 18 holes of play on the Bramble and 36 holes on the Park (I did clean up both).  Unless tournament rules require me to play the Park, I’ve become a Bramble fan.
Terry”

Terry shared pictures of his Park ball after 36 holes and his Vardon ball after 18 holes.

For our VaHGA Gutty Competitions, we leave it up to the competitors to settle on handicap differentials, balls played, tees played (length and sand or not), and any other variables. To level the striking playing field, Terry and I both like the Vardon ball as the “usual” ball.

P.S. Webmaster and Hickory Golfer, Eric Johnson says the Park ball is his favorite! And, when you hit it in the water it floats!!! Yes, it is a bit pricey, but they are made by hand and are a true representation of the gutta percha experience. Thanks for all you do Dave Brown!

P.P.S. Also…Keep an eye on these matches. Seems like the retired guys like to schedule them so the working stiffs have to take a day off to participate! 🙂

Twelve VaHGA members met in Charlottesville on Sunday May 3 to celebrate World Hickory Golf Day. The Chapter plans to make this an annual event . Participants played in two divisions, Open and Senior (65+ and/or 15 + handicap) and launched from the Yellow (5730, 68.5/135) and Red (5223, 66.2/128) tees respectively. Weather was wonderful, just a short spit on the 3rd hole (which made the #1 handicap hole a bit more challenging).

The event introduced the “Monk Cup” pictured challenged in a Stableford format. Eric Johnson won the Open Division. Lowly Chapter Captain won the Senior Division, both with 39 points.

In addition to the main competition, many players engaged in the VaHGA Year-Long Match Play Championship by challenging each other to Three Point (front, back, total) Match Play games. The year-long competition will culminate in a Match Play Championship in December to name the VaHGA Champion Player of the Year (for both Hickory and Gutty Divisions).

Saturday, March 7 saw the inaugural Richmond Hickory Cup contested at the Donald Ross gem, Jefferson Lakeside Club. Nine hardy Virginians braved the cool 40’s temperatures and 15+ mph breezes, and very firm fairways and greens–felt very Scottish. Unbeknownst to us, the club had cut and rolled the greens both Thursday and Friday so the greens were ridiculously fast. We often laughed and gasped as our “perfect” shots ran and ran and ran off the greens and into Ross’s famous “gotcha’s.” FYDR was a phrase muttered on many occasions!

Club member hosts David Farrar and Paul Lynk organized the event wonderfully with individual packets, rules outlined, pre-round refreshment hosting, club relations (thanks to pro Tim Shandlin), and format preparation. We used a modified Stableford scoring system both gross and net. Paul Lynk won the Net prize and David Farrar won the Net Runner-up prize with 35 and 34 points respectively.

In the Open/Gross division, Eric Wagner and Don Hamilton tied with 16 points. A scorecard playoff gave the Richmond Hickory Cup Highest Gross trophy to Eric while Don came away with Runner Up. Cash prizes were also in the offing for all four winners. Wagner was wondering how the “high gross” trophy would be interpreted by observers. See attached.

Co-Haberdashery Chair for VaHGA, Tom Mehigan, was under some pressure to name the “most appropriately dressed contestant,” but since the Captain determined that Tom was the winner, Mehigan avoided the difficult decision.

Results were:

NAME HCP+ PTS=TOTAL
Jim Clawson 19 + 10 = 29
David Farrar 22+12=34
Nelson Ford 18+12=30
Don Hamilton 10+16=26
Paul Lynk 30+5=35
Tom Mehigan 21+5=26
Terry Pemberton 15+13=28
Rick Siegal 12+15=27
Eric Wagner 14+16=30

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Patrick Farris, son of VaHGA member, Chris Farris (winner 2015 VaHGA Fourball), made a big splash at the PGA show down in Florida last month. Read all about it in this article from the National Golf Foundation.

Patrick recently launched his company, Euforeia Golf, whose mission is to usher in a new era of golf by obliterating boundaries in order to pave a way for youth culture to rise and expand the game. Check out his online store and amazing array of product offerings!

And yes, Patrick does have a set of hickory clubs that he can get twisted with.

On an early spring day with sunshine, little breeze, and amidst a competitive round of traveling VSGA players, Eric Johnson, Hokie Golfer Extraordinaire AND our VAHGA Web Master, challenged the hapless Captain to a hickory match at Old Trail Golf Club. Eric (50) played from the grays (5418) and a 15 handicap while Jim (72.5) played from the reds (4759) off an 18. As it turned out, the three handicapped holes did not come into play as Jim lucked out 2 and 1 on both sides. (EJ was off his game today with a 94 while Jim was 2 shots under his handicap at 89.) SO, the RACE for the VIRGINIA HICKORY CHAMPIONSHIP GOLFER OF THE YEAR is now officially off and running. Schedule your matches as you can. Keep track of date, course, length, players, and points and send to JimClawson@virginia.edu to be posted. Final match play event will be hosted in December at Keswick Full Cry in Charlottesville.

Check out the full set of match play results here!

Eric Wagner challenged Jim Clawson to a gutty match yesterday, February 13th, which proved to be “unlucky” for Jim. Playing at Keswick on the Red Tees at 4809 yards, Wagner won both nines at 3/2 and gained 3 points in the year-long race. Others smelling the easy win have already been scheduling matches with the hapless Captain.

Set up your matches as soon as you wish, and be sure to report the names, courses, distances, and results to me at jimclawson@virginia.edu and we will post the results. Good luck!! BY THE WAY, while it’s not “pure” match play, if you are in a foursome, feel free to play three matches in a foursome, one against each of the other players. Just keep track of all the handicaps and results–might take four scorecards!

Check out the full set of match play results here!