Delta Dental State Open of Virginia
Sting
Owner of an impressive career competitive record, the State
Open title that western Virginian Chip Sullivan craves has
somehow eluded him | by RANDY KING
C
Chip Sullivan has been
chasing the State Open
of Virginia title for more
than a decade.
Sullivan, the PGA director of golf at
Salem’s Hanging Rock Golf Club, has come
agonizingly close to capturing the crown,
finishing second four times in a five-year
span from 2005-09.
The sanctioning Virginia State Golf
Association and the Middle Atlantic Section
of the PGA of America announced Feb. 26
that this summer’s Delta Dental State Open
of Virginia will be conducted July 17-19 at
Roanoke’s Ballyhack Golf Club. One can’t
blame Sullivan if he morphed into the most
excited competitor in the 144-player field of
professionals and amateurs.
“Well, we can talk all you want right now,”
Sullivan said in mid-April. “[Winning] is in
the back of my head, for sure.
“I don’t know how many better chances I’ll
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have, unless they play it at Hanging Rock one
year,” added Sullivan, breaking into laughter.
CRAVING A TITLE
Certainly the 49-year-old former PGA
Tour professional is due in one of the
commonwealth’s biggest events. He has
repeatedly knocked on the door to victory
in the event, settling for second in 2005,
2006, 2008 and 2009. Sullivan has won the
Maryland State Open four times (2002, 2004,
2006 and 2008), not to mention enjoying
perhaps his finest golf moment by capturing
the 2007 PGA Professional National
Championship at Sunriver Resort in Oregon.
Of all the near-misses in his home-state
Open, none was more excruciating than his
loss in 2008 when amateur Roger Newsom
of Virginia Beach outlasted Sullivan in a
four-hole playoff. Newsom birdied four of
his final five holes on the day, including
three straight playoff holes to finally shake
his fellow-competitor. Sullivan had closed
w w w. v s g a . o r g
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MARK MORROW
Sullivan’s
with a 69 to force a playoff at 13-under-par
275 at central Virginia’s Independence Golf
Club in Midlothian.
“That was the most memorable one
by far,” Sullivan says. “Roger and I both
were just going birdie hungry, and we were
making putts to stay in the game. We were
making putts to try to win, and he finally
made one more putt than I did and he
ended up winning.”
Newsom, who won the crown again in
2011, hit a wedge to 3 feet on the fourth
extra hole. After Sullivan missed a 12-foot
birdie putt, Newsom drained the short putt
for victory.
Sullivan’s wife, Kari, remembers the loss
like it was yesterday.
“Absolutely the toughest pill to swallow
there,” she says. “One of the most grueling
playoffs I’ve ever endured while watching
Chip. I literally fell down in the fairway
watching at one point. Roger is a fine
champion and a fine gentleman. He was
fantastic that day. It was j \