The Takeaway
COMPETITIONS
WHAT’S NEW for VSGA Championships in 2014
Alterations are afoot at VSGA competitions this year, and some of the changes are
listed on the following pages.
into two four-ball teams, with the sum of the
two four-ball scores determining the club’s
score. Each club’s team may consist of any
mix of regular and senior amateur players
and up to one professional from that club.
Ballyhack Golf Club will welcome the
State Open of Virginia from July 17–19.
The State Open of Virginia will move
to Roanoke’s Ballyhack Golf Club after
being held at central Virginia’s Independence
Golf Club for the previous seven years.
The event will be a 54-hole championship,
with the top 60 players and ties making the
36-hole cut. In the past, the low 70 players
and ties advanced. The starting field will
consist of 144 competitors.
The format of the VSGA Club
Championship,which is the event that started
the association in 1904, has been changed.
This spring, the Club Championship will
be a one day single-round championship,
conducted at The Foundry Golf Club in the
Richmond area on April 14. Each member
club can field a team of four players, divided
The VSGA Public Links Championship will no longer be conducted. The
decision was made to cancel the event
based primarily on declining participation
in past years (45 competitors were in the
starting field in 2013). Public links players
may play in any VSGA competition.
The VSGA Women’s Amateur
Championship has been reduced from
a five-day to a four-day competition.
The championship will consist of two
days of on-site stroke play qualifying
(July 8-9) with the top 16 scorers
advancing to match play. The round of 16
and quarterfinal matches will be played
on day three (July 10), with the semifinal
encounters and scheduled 18-hole final
on the concluding day (July 11). The
Women’s Amateur will be held at Hidden
Valley Country Club in Salem.
PLEASE NOTE
Some alterations have been made to the
VSGA’s exemption policy. For a complete list of
exemptions for 2014 VSGA championships and
events, please visit www.vsga.org/competitions.
Players planning to compete in any
USGA qualifiers in 2014 must use clubs that
conform with the Groove and Punch Mark
Specifications Condition of Competition
referenced in the Rules of Golf. Visit the
USGA website at www.usga.org for more
specific information and to see if your clubs
meet the specifications. This condition will
not be adopted for any VSGA competitions
prior to 2024.
On-site stroke play
qualifying will be
followed by two
days of match
play at the VSGA
Women’s Amateur
Championship.
LOOKING BACK, FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
DID YOU KNOW?
Keith Decker, age 53 at the time of
his victories, claimed both the VSGA
Senior Stroke Play and VSGA Senior
Amateur championships.
Golfers ages 50–54 won some significant
VSGA senior events, but players 55 and older
dominated the senior player points’ leaders.
THE MINIMUM AGE to compete in all
VSGA senior events was lowered from 55
to 50 for the 2013 season.
This change, initiated to better serve
the VSGA membership by providing more
opportunities to compete, generated a lot
of feedback prior to and during the season.
Below are a few results related to this age
eligibility requirement:
4
All told, 85 players age 50-54 entered
the VSGA Senior Amateur Championship
(includes exempt players), with 33 making
the field. This represented approximately
33 percent of the entries for the event and
39 percent of the final field. In addition, 136
players age 55 and older entered the VSGA
Senior Amateur, an increase from 92 in 2012.
Twenty-one of the 32 players who made
match play at the VSGA Senior Amateur
were age 55 and older; the other 11 were
under the age of 55.
The quarterfinalists at the VSGA Senior
Amateur consisted of four players age 55-64,
V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ANUARY/F EBRUARY 2014
Master_VSGA_JanFeb_2014_v20.indd 4
two players age 65 and older and two players
under the age of 55.
NON EXEMPT PLAYERS had to
qualify for the VSGA Senior Amateur
Championship for the first time in 2013.
The total entry fee for the VSGA Senior
Amateur Championship was reduced from
$275 to $225, which included cart fees and
lunch for all five days of competition. The
number of entries increased from 92 to
221 at the VSGA Senior Amateur.
THE SUPER SENIOR FOUR-BALL
CHAMPIONSHIP (ages 65 and over)
debuted from Sept. 4–5, 2013, at Elizabeth
Manor Golf and Country Club. The
inaugural event consisted of 30 teams.
The 2014 VSGA Super Senior Four-Ball
w w w. v s g a . o r g
1/3/14 11:40 AM
USGA PHOTO ARCHIVES
BY THE NUMBERS AND
A TIME FOR TRANSITION
TOP: BALLYHACK GOLF CLUB; WOMAN GOLFER: RICHMOND
TIMES-DISPATCH PHOTO ARCHIVES; USGA PHOTO ARCHIVES
2013:
Eight of the top 10 point-earners in the
final VSGA senior player rankings for 2013
were age 55 and older (two were age 50–54).