After capturing back-to-back Battle Trophy championships and winning every local tournament that he entered this summer, local golf fans wondered just what Nick Little was going to do for an encore.

The best amateur golfers in Central Virginia discovered something during Saturday’s first two rounds of the area’s match play championship at Spring Creek Golf Club: there’s no free lunches.

The top six seeds from this year’s Battle Trophy list and three of last year’s four semifinalists return for the second annual Central Virginia Match Play Championships this weekend at Spring Creek Golf Club.

With his come-from-behind victory in the Jefferson Cup Invitational golf tournament at Birdwood over the weekend, Nick Little blew away the competition for the top spot in the 2008 Battle Trophy competition’s final standings.

It seems that if Nick Little is participating in a local golf event you can just about be certain that he’ll be walking away with the hardware.

Little, who has dominated Central Virginia amateur golf for the past two years, will lead the field heading into today’s 54-hole annual Jefferson Cup Invitational at Birdwood Golf Club. It is one of only two local tournaments that Little hasn’t won.

The Old Trail ‘A’ team took the team title, beating second-place Glenmore by 33 shots behind Little’s 16-under and Jeff Toms’ 1-under performance.

Little is making the most of the opportunity to play so close to home, shooting a 5-under 66 in the second round of the Old Trail Invitational.

Could this be the year that another Central Virginia golfer breaks through? Possibly, as a strong contingent of local players have qualified and will compete in this week’s State Am at Kingsmill’s spectacular River Course in Williamsburg. The course has hosted the LPGA Tour’s Michelob Open the past six years and previously was a regular PGA Tour stop.

Nick Little’s five-under 66, which bettered the efforts of Glenmore’s duo of Dustin Groves and David Passerell by two strokes, also helped Old Trail’s ‘A’ team take an early seven-stroke lead, 429 to 436, over Glenmore in the team standings. Birdwood (468), The First Tee of Charlottesville (482) and Old Trail’s ‘B’ team (483) rounded out the first-day results.

Trailing Adam Webb by four strokes, Sam Beach played bogey-free golf to come from behind and win by the tournament by one shot. Beach shot a 74 and 75 in his first two rounds, but was able to put all that behind him.

Nick Little isn’t planning on giving up his hold on the Battle Trophy any time soon. The Crozet golfer, who plays out of Old Trail and just finished his junior season on the Radford University team, has entered two of the local Battle Trophy tournaments so far this season. He’s two for two.

Little finished the day with a 1-under par 69. The Crozet resident who attends Radford finished 1-under for the tournament, edging David Passerell by a stroke. Scott Shingler finished third, two shots back of Little.

Shooting two under par 70, Nick Little, a 22-year-old Crozet native ran away with title, winning by eight strokes.

Nick Little fell a little off his blistering Friday pace but played well enough to maintain a four-shot lead at the Faulconer Invitational at Lake Monticello Golf Course.