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A unified State Open has today become one of the top events on the Virginia golf scene. Editor’s Note: In celebration of the VSGA’s 100-year anniversary in 2004, this article is the fifth in a series, and details the important role the State Open championship has played on the commonwealth’s sporting landscape.
by Bruce H. Matson
In 1924 at Hermitage Country Club in Richmond, Elmer Loving, professional at Charlottesville’s Albemarle Country Club, won the first State Open of Virginia co-sponsored by the VSGA and the commonwealth’s club professionals. For the next 10 years, these groups successfully staged an annual statewide competition that was open to any amateur or professional golfer in Virginia. Farmington Country Club donated a cup, the Farmington Cup, that became the permanent trophy for the State Open of Virginia. As a result of disagreements that are now too distant to recall but appeared focused primarily on control of the management of the championship, the VSGA abandoned sponsorship of the Open following the 1933 event, won by Bobby Cruickshank. History will record that a small group of club professionals that included Cruickshank, Tommy Galloway, Jack Isaacs, Darrell Napier and Chandler Harper came together to continue sponsorship of the Open. This effort resulted in the formation of the Virginia Association of Golf Professionals (VAGP).
 In 1934, Cruickshank (pictured left) won the first State Open sponsored by the VAGP and his name was inscribed on the Farmington Cup, which the VSGA had turned over to the professionals. Richmond’s Cruickshank would go on to win this event each year between 1933 and 1939, except in 1938 when Harper triumphed. This began a period of 50 years during which Virginia’s golf professionals and the VSGA were not united in presenting a State Open for the commonwealth. The VAGP staged their State Open from 1934-84. (In 1966, the VAGP became the Virginia Chapter of the Middle Atlantic PGA, and the event sponsored by the professionals was referred to as the VPGA Open.) The list of winners of this annual event reads like a proverbial “who’s who” of Virginia golf professionals. After Cruickshank’s early domination, Harper, Isaacs and Johnny O’Donnell each won the Open more than once. Virginia golf legend Sam Snead came away with his only State Open victory in 1946. Tom Strange of Virginia became the first amateur to win the State Open since Chandler Harper accomplished the feat in 1932 when he took home top honors in 1957. The year following Strange’s initial victory ushered in a new chapter in the saga of the State Open of Virginia.
Led by the efforts of George Fulton, who would become president of the VSGA a few years later, the VSGA decided that, as one of the most prominent sanctioned regional golf association, it should sponsor a statewide Open championship. Thus, in 1958 the VSGA resumed sponsorship of what it called at the time the First Open Championship of the Virginia State Golf Association. As a result, beginning in 1958 the Commonwealth of Virginia had two separate Opens – one sponsored by the VPGA and another bearing the VSGA’s title. For 25 years, two different golfers would be crowned the champion of the State Open of Virginia. Danville’s Bobby Mitchell won both in 1965 and Harper claimed dual titles in 1968.
Despite successfully holding two State Opens for many years after 1958, the division between the VSGA and the VPGA were not without costs. The organizations were regularly criticized because of their inability to create a single, statewide event to determine Virginia’s Open champion. At a minimum, conducting separate championships was embarrassing. From time to time efforts to create a single State Open were made, but without any material resolution of the annual holding of the two events. Finally, shortly after his victory at the 1975 British Amateur, conversations between Vinny Giles and Peter Hodson, then the head professional at Willow Oaks Country Club, led to an effort that was ultimately successful to merge the two Opens into one, jointly-sponsored State Open of Virginia.
A few things converged to make a unified Open a reality. First, Hodson and Giles persevered in their efforts to persuade their respective organizations to merge the event. Also, due to the VSGA’s relationship with its member clubs and the leadership at those clubs, the association traditionally had obtained superior venues for their championship. Further, toward the end of the 1970s the pros were able to secure more substantial sponsors to create larger purses that helped to attract the best field. Finally, there was a realization and commitment that a merged Open would not only be best for the commonwealth, but by working together the event could be significantly improved.
Despite Hodson’s and Giles’ persistence, it still took eight years before the organizations put their disagreements behind them. In 1985, the first merged Open was played, appropriately enough, at Charlottesville’s Farmington Country Club. Lyn Luck and Affiliated Brands provided major sponsorship and a new State Open of Virginia tradition was born.
Even the hope and dreams of the biggest promoters of a merged Open probably could not have envisioned just what could be accomplished. In a short period of time the State Open of Virginia developed into the finest in the country as major sponsorship throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s provided a purse of more than $100,000 and television coverage of the final two rounds.
 In this modern era, amateurs like Keith Decker (pictured right), Vinny Giles, Faber Jamerson and Tom McKnight would win as often as the state’s finest professionals, such as Woody Fitzhugh, Rick Schuller and Jerry Wood. Despite some missteps in the past, as the VSGA celebrates its centennial in 2004 the SunTrust State Open of Virginia is stronger than ever with SunTrust Bank stepping up to provide the lead sponsorship. Host club Willow Oaks Country Club is again preparing for the strongest field of competitors in Virginia this summer.
Author Bruce H. Matson is a writer from Richmond and serves as the VSGA’s legal counsel. He has previously authored books about Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla., and Hermitage Country Club in Manakin-Sabot. |
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