Moyers, Little advance in Match Play Championships

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: August 16, 2008

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.
Heading into this mornings semifinals, only two of the top 10 seeded players remain in contention for the crown: top-seeded Nick Little and fifth-seeded Jeff Toms. The rest of the Top 10 fell victim along the way to a balanced field of strong players in the second annual event that pits the top finishers in the Battle Trophy competition against one another.
Little, the two-time Battle Trophy champion, will face Toms in one semifinal today at 7:30, while the other semi will feature Greene Hills’ Mikey Moyers, the 11th seed, against Spring Creek’s Jud Foster, who made the field as the 15th seed alternate. The survivors of those two matches will square off for an 18-hole championship beginning at 1 p.m.
Of course, Little has been the story of the year. The Old Trail golfer, who played for Radford University last spring, has been nearly unbeatable in local play this summer. Little has won four tournaments: the Faulconer at Lake Monticello, the Old Trail Team Invitational (taking the individual title) the Kenridge at Farmington, and last weekend’s Jefferson Cup Invitational at Birdwood.
Getting to today’s semifinals wasn’t as easy as it looked, as he was taken to the limit in Saturday morning’s first round by 16th-seeded Pokey Buchanan (Greene Hills), then fought off a late surge by Glenmore’s David Passerell to win 2-up in the quarters.
“I guess I’m working a little bit harder than I would like to, but I guess it’s the end result,” said Little. “Match play is my favorite style of golf because you can play more aggressively. Each hole is like a new match where you can reset your head.”
In the morning match, Little was never more than 1-up on the veteran Buchanan until the 16th hole when he rolled in a foot-long birdie to go 2-up. But Buchanan, who knocked off higher seeded Ty Grove in last year’s first round, didn’t surrender. Instead, he drilled a 3-wood to within four feet on the par-3, 17th for birdie to cut Little’s lead to 1-up.
Little closed out the win on the 18th for the 1-up victory.
“I knew Pokey was a good player and it was a heck of a match,” Little said. “I’m glad I don’t have to run into him again.”
Little had his hands full with Passerell, another accomplished veteran player, in the afternoon.
Passerell, who had advanced by beating City Champion Grove earlier, fell behind from the get-go and was down three holes after 12 before Little missed a short putt and lost No. 13. Passerell sank a long putt for birdie on 14 to cut Little’s lead to 1-up. They halved the next three holes before Little dropped in an eight-foot birdie on the 18th to win, 2-up.
“Every hole I lost, he made birdie,” Passerell said later. “He birdied the par-5s and with his length he can get there. But I’m disappointed because when you get a chance at the champion you want to play your best and in match play I feel like I can beat anybody. Nick is obviously the best player and stretching him to 18 is good and I applaud him, but this is the match I wanted.”
Little will face Old Trail club mate Toms today. Toms, wearing his signature orange shirt, defeated Kevin Gibson 4-and-3 in the morning and knocked off Farmington’s Phillip Mahone in the afternoon, 5-and-4.
“My play was solid all day,” said Toms. “I hit a lot of greens and gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities.”
In the afternoon against Mahone, Toms was in control most of the way. He birdied the ninth hole to go 3-up, then won the 10th and birdied 12 for another win to go 5-up. Mahone hit his drive out of bounds, allowing Toms to play it safe for par and cruise home.
“I just wanted to hit greens and halve holes because eventually the holes would run out,” Toms said.
Facing Little will be another challenge.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Toms said. “Everybody knows how Nick plays. In match play, he’s not really beatable, but if you can sustain his birdie barrage you can keep yourself in it.”
Moyers enters today’s semifinal with a 15-match winning streak in match play competition, having won back-to-back Virginia State Junior championships and the Greene Hills Club match play title in addition to Saturday’s to matches.
However, Foster, a relative newcomer to the area golf scene, remained undaunted.
“I’m just going to go out and have fun,” said Foster, a Richmond native and former golfer at Christopher Newport. “Mikey had a great day with a hurt back. He still played phenomenal golf.”
Moyers defeated longtime golfing pal Wes Eklund in the morning round, 1-up, then held off third-seeded Scott Garrison in the afternoon, 2-up.
Leading 1-up going into the 18th hole, Moyers hit his 100-yard approach shot with a lob wedge to within four inches of the cup to close out the match.
“On the back nine my back started bothering me around the 12th hole,” said Moyers, who had been 1-down earlier. “I birdied 12 and 16 and 18, so I’m hoping my back still hurts tomorrow.”
Moyers said he’s not really sure why he has been so successful in the match play format, but just wants to keep winning.
“I don’t start very well, but you can get down in match play and still win,” Moyers said. “You can never give up. Just keep going because you’re going to win your holes. So stay close to your opponent. It only takes one hole to turn things around sometimes.”
Foster was perhaps the biggest surprise of the first day, having knocked off fellow Spring Creek golfer and second-seeded Jerry Burton in the biggest upset. Foster won 4-and-2, then came back to beat 10th-seeded Paul Kane (who had advanced by downing No. 7 Brent Daughtrey), 1-up.
Kane, last year’s tournament runnerup, was 3-down after seven holes to Foster, but stormed back to win the eighth and ninth holes and battle to the end.
“It’s so easy to become completely guarded, which I did,” Foster said of his match with Kane. “It was hard to keep going for the throat, so I gained some experience there.”
Perhaps his only mistake on the back nine was hitting his tee shot into the hazard on the par-3, 17th, while Kane made an impressive up-and-down to square the match. However, on the 18th, Kane’s approach shot found the right side bunker on the lengthy par-5 and he eventually bogeyed, while conceding a par to Foster for the win.
“Things got away from Paul early and he didn’t come out as strong as he finished the first 18,” said a gracious Foster. “I capitalized on every one of those that I could and when it came down to the wire, I had never been in that position before, especially in match play. It was nice to be able to pull it out.”