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THE FOUNDRY GOLF CLUB
DAVID PARTRIDGE
JON HOOD
The 2017 Virginia State Golf Association Club Championship will be played at The Foundry Golf Club in Powhatan on May 1. A dedicated VSGA member club, The Foundry is hosting the season-opening men’ s team state championship for the fourth consecutive year.
Dating to 1904, when the VSGA was called the Virginia State Golf League, the Club Championship is not only the oldest VSGA competition, but its inaugural tournament represented a major step in the formation of your association. A group of clubs came together at Norfolk Country Club to participate in the first-ever statewide golf competition in the Commonwealth and at a dinner following the match, the clubs elected officers to oversee the event for the following year, thereby creating the Virginia State Golf League that several years later would become the Virginia State Golf Association.
Following a format change a few years ago that permits a PGA professional as well as senior and super-senior golfers to participate, the Club Championship has become one of the most popular VSGA events. The championship has a morning and afternoon shotgun start and each team consists of four golfers divided into two four-ball sides. Using three sets of tees— regular, senior and super-senior— each four-ball side plays and the two four-ball scores are then totaled to form the overall team score. The VSGA invites member clubs to submit an entry for what promises to be another exciting Club Championship.
One of the best designs at The Foundry is the demanding par-4 sixth hole, an uphill, gentle dogleg right. The tee shot should favor the left side as the narrow tree-lined fairway slopes to the right and a cluster of pines at the corner of the dogleg can block out the approach shot for drives even slightly too far right. Many golfers will actually aim at the fairway bunker, as this hazard begins about 300 yards from the tips.
The left side of the fairway offers the best approach angle for the second shot, particularly when the flagstick is on the right, to avoid the large, flanking bunker. The green contains a wide array of excellent hole locations and the putting surface,
BLUE: 439 yards
GREEN: 413 yards
PAR 4
YARDAGES
WHITE: 379 yards
GOLD: 249 yards
while still playable even with super-fast speeds, includes several strategic slopes that add to the challenge and appeal of this truly outstanding golf hole.
Named among the“ Best Courses in Virginia” by Golf Digest for 2015 – 16, The Foundry is well known for its consistently outstanding playing conditions, particularly its ultra-smooth, quick putting surfaces, where stimpmeter readings of 13 are quite common. Laid out over the beautiful, naturally rolling terrain of Powhatan County, The Foundry Golf Club offers an interesting variety of holes that wind their way along Fine Creek and its associated wetlands. A previous venue for the VSGA Mid-Amateur Championship, a VSGA One-Day event as well as several Middle Atlantic PGA events, the VSGA is delighted to return to The Foundry for the 2017 Club Championship.
A five-time VSGA Player of the Year and a multi-time winner of the Virginia State Amateur, Mid-Amateur, and Senior Amateur, David Partridge is the author of this series. David lives in the Richmond area and works as a mortgage banker.
vsga. org M ARCH / A PRIL 2017 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 15