FROM LEFT TO RIGHT : Charles Hancock and Bunny Blankinship ; Donna Andrews ; Steve Marino at the 1999 VSGA Amateur .
The Virginias-Carolinas Junior Team matches have been played at Boonsboro in odd years since 1983 .
Giles and Andrews also are members of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame .
Thomas Jefferson ’ s summer place , Poplar Forest , is Boonsboro ’ s next door neighbor .
Peerless Amateur
Vinny Giles was a member of the inaugural class of the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame in 2016 . He won the VSGA Amateur a record seven times , the first three ( 1962 , 1964,1966 ) when Boonsboro was his home course .
“ I would say from age 8 on I probably spent 10 to 12 hours a day at Boonsboro in the summertime playing , practicing , caddying . From a pure golf perspective , developmental wise , Boonsboro probably had more to do with my growing into the game than any single location ,” Giles says .
He remembers spending so much time at the club the GM said , “ Get him out of here .”
When Giles was growing up , Boonsboro didn ’ t have a golf pro or a pro shop . There was a shed with a wooden floor by the first tee where they stored clubs .
“ I remember what was behind it : a bare patch of red clay where the caddies shot craps all afternoon after they caddied . I grew up a lot with those caddies . I played every Monday with them . They would play from 8 a . m . until one of the caddies had to go to his night shift job at the Lynchburg Foundry .”
Giles was 13 or 14 when his golf game got a boost from a man at Boonsboro named Alvis Hylton .
Hylton worked for the railroad and got his right arm caught in the coupling of two rail cars . His arm was mashed , and doctors were going to amputate , but Hylton wouldn ’ t let them . He kept playing golf with a makeshift swing and could go
around Boonsboro and still shoot under par , Giles said .
“ He sort of took me under his wing and showed me little things . The eighth green was by the clubhouse . When it wasn ’ t busy , we ’ d spend an hour or two hitting every little chip shot , pitch shot , bunker shot , chip and run . I learned more from him than any other place I could have learned ,” Giles says .
Giles said he was playing poorly in the U . S . Amateur at Oakmont in 1969 and called Hylton who then showed up at Oakmont the next day . They weren ’ t able to fix the issue , but Giles said he was able to get more out of his short game than he deserved and finished second in the U . S . Am for the third year in a row .
“ That was the kind of guy he was . We were very close ,” Giles said . “ I think if you ’ re a young kid and you are showing
No . 1 at Boonsboro ; RIGHT : The par-3 5th hole .
MICHAEL MAHANEY ; COURTESY OF BOONSBORO
24 V IRGINIA G OLFER