Blacksburg native Jake Mondy seeks repeat and rare third title
by RANDY KING
I
f all goes according to Jake Mondy’s
grand plan, the 102nd Virginia
State Golf Association Amateur
Championship will mark his final
run at a VSGA title.
What a ride it’s been.
After collecting consecutive VSGA Junior
Stroke Play titles in 2010-11, the 22-year-old
Blacksburg native will shoot for his third
VSGA Amateur crown in four years in the
commonwealth’s oldest championship at
Charlottesville’s Farmington Country Club
from June 29-July 3.
“I’ve had some success at it so it’s always
the one event I look forward to the most
during the summer,” says Mondy, a fifth-year
rising senior on Auburn’s golf team that was
No. 7 in Golfweek’s national college rankings
as of May 3.
“I love match play. I think it’s a great test of
golf. It’s just you and one other person out there
and you have to beat that person. It’s something
I’ve really enjoyed throughout the years.”
That’s for sure.
More paramount, his pair of triumphs—in
2012 at Bayville Golf Club in Virginia Beach
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and last year at Spring Creek Golf Club in
Gordonsville—will forever be etched as redletter chapters of his life story.
DEFINING MOMENTS
In 2012, Mondy capped a storybook-like week
by besting cagey mid-amateur Buck Brittain
of Tazewell, 4 and 2, in the final at Bayville.
In a strong twist of fate, Bayville was the
last place his father, Dave, ever saw him
swing a golf club 20 months earlier. Dave
Mondy Jr., a Virginia Beach native, died of
a heart attack at age 56 on Oct. 26, 2010,
about two weeks after Jake represented
the Virginias team against its Carolinas
counterparts at the Captain’s Putter Matches.
“Not only was it the last time he saw
me play golf, but it was also the last time I
ever saw him,” Jake says. “So I guess it was
a little bit of a life lesson there. Take your
opportunities when you can get them.
“When I sent in my Amateur entry (in
2012), I started to think, ‘Wow, that would be
pretty cool if somehow this could be pulled
off.’ If I had a big putt or something, I would
think about him for a second or look up to
w w w. v s g a . o r g
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TOP RIGHT: SEAN PROCTOR/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT; FILE PHOTOS (2)
Mondy Ready to Finish
Memorable Journey With a
Victory at VSGA Amateur
SCOTT K. BROWN
As his days as an
amateur golfer
begin to wane,
Mondy is eyeing a
victory in an event
that he admits
holds special
significance.
the sky for something just to try and clear my
mind. It was working for me all week. I know
he was watching and helping me every step
of the way. I was very calm and that’s unusual
for me. I was like, ‘I’m going to do this and
nothing is going to stop me.’ ”
Talk about calling his shot: Mondy never
trailed in the scheduled 36-hole final.
In another odd twist of fate in the
Hollywood-like script, Mondy’s mother,
Bernadette, began the long ride from
Blacksburg to Virginia Beach on late Friday
afternoon once hearing her oldest son had
won his semifinal match to advance to
Saturday’s final.
However, she was forced to return home
only hours after arrival because of heavy tree
damage as a result of a violent lightningcharged thunderstorm back at the familyowned campground business on the New River.
“I was able to follow the championship
match on my iPhone, but it was killing me
not being there. When I saw that Jake had
won, I let out a big ‘woohoo!’ ” Bernadette
remembers. “Anybody that heard me at the
campground must have wondered what was
going on. It was an incredible weekend that
I’ll never forget.”
No doubt.
Then came heartbreak in 2013 at The
Homestead, where Mondy saw his bid of
becoming only the ninth player in 100 years
to produce back-to-back titles fall short.
It was a painful exit as he squandered a
dormie-2 lead and then lost to Ji Soo Park
on the first extra hole in the semifinals at the
resort’s Cascades Course.
“It’s a match I shouldn’t have lost,” a
hurting Mondy said afterward.
A day later, Park ran into Brinson Paolini,
who emerged victorious in the final for his
fourth VSGA Amateur crown before turning
professional.
At last year’s VSGA Amateur at Spring
Creek Golf Club in the Charlottesville area,
Mondy made amends for the disappointment
by getting up and down from a bunker for a
birdie on the 36th hole to outlast Richmond’s
Jordan Utley 1 up in the deciding encounter.
Mondy had yielded a seemingly commanding four holes up cushion following the
morning 18 before making the save of his life,
getting up and down from a difficult bunker
position and holing a match-clinching 6-foot
birdie putt. He then dropped his putter and
raised both arms before finding his mother
and embracing her following the triumph.
“That was awesome,” Mondy says. “I
know how much she wanted to be there for
the first one.
“My dad gets a lot of credit for my golf
growing up and getting me to love the game
of golf the way that I do, but my mom has