Virginia Golfer Sep / Oct 2018 | Page 15

Around The Commonwealth Trey Smith captured the 105th VSGA Amateur Championship at the Federal Club in June. VSGA Summer Rewind Compiled by CHRIS LANG MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS 105th VSGA Amateur Championship Soon after Trey Smith, a Virginia Beach native who now lives and works in Rich- mond, won the 105th VSGA Amateur Championship, the conversation drift- ed to when he might tee it up next in a VSGA championship. The Delta Dental State Open of Virginia? Negative. Though he eventually registered to play in the VSGA Mid-Amateur in September, he was unsure if he'd play at the time. Vacation time is hard to come by, and he wasn't sure he wanted to use it all on competitive golf, he said. Therein lies the biggest difference between the mid-amateur and college golfer—time spent on the course playing, practicing and competing. It’s also why it’s been so difficult for someone from the 25-and-over set to crack the code at the Amateur. Before Smith’s victory at The Federal Club in June, the last mid-amateur to win was Scott Shingler in 2011. Prior to that, it was Pat Tallent in 2007. Physically, Smith isn’t a whole lot dif- ferent than the college and junior crowd that had become accustomed to win- ning the championship. He hits the ball a mile, and his iron game was dialed in all week, leading to plenty of short birdie putts. Smith’s run to the championship included a win against a strong junior (Patrick Gareiss), two wins against fellow mid-ams (Shingler and Daryl Chappell) and a pair of wins against current Radford “I didn’t think I’d be here, with all the health issues I’ve gone through the last year or so.” —Trey Smith vsga.org University players (Peter Gasperini and Andrew Kennedy). Twenty-one months prior to Smith’s breakthrough victory, the former James Madison University standout underwent surgery to remove a cyst that was bump- ing up against nerves in his wrist. Eight months later, he still wasn’t able to swing a club, and he wondered if he’d ever again play high-level competitive golf. “It took a while to get it back, to be honest with you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s wrist surgery or not, this game is so hard. You take any time off, it takes a while to get it back. Especially when you have the expec- tations to play the way you had before. … I didn’t think I’d be here, with all