|
Champion responds from a 5-down deficit to win the deciding match. 
PAOLINI'S PATH TO VICTORY
SUFFOLK –– Brinson Paolini looked exhausted after the 27th hole of the Virginia State Golf Association championship final on Saturday at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards, par 36-36—72).
The 18-year-old Virginia Beach resident had returned from a junior tournament in Japan earlier in the week and it seemed the effects of fatigue were finally becoming a factor in the scheduled 36-hole final at the VSGA State Am.
He’d just incurred a penalty stroke for inadvertently moving a ball at rest and trailed 5 down after 27 holes to long-hitting 21-year-old Lanto Griffin of Blacksburg, a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth University.
For Paolini, the reigning VSGA Amateur champion, it looked like there was going to be no repeat.
“I was mentally drained, really. I was very tired,” said Paolini, who returned home late Sunday night from representing Team USA halfway around the world at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup. “I was trying to find some way to spark myself up.”
 His answer to weariness under pressure? Paolini (pictured right) rallied to win seven of nine holes to close the match and scored a 2-up victory to become the ninth player ever to win consecutive titles in the event.
Paolini, who became the youngest player in seven decades to win the championship with his triumph last year at Kingsmill’s River Course, became the youngest to successfully defend his VSGA State Am title. The late and legendary Chandler Harper of Portsmouth won the first of his three VSGA State Am titles in 1930 at the age of 16 before capturing his second in 1933 at the age of 19.
Paolini trailed 3-down after the morning break and closed to within 2-down early in the afternoon session, but Griffin steadily claimed three consecutive holes, Nos. 25-27, to build his advantage to a match-high 5 up. Griffin made birdie at the 25th hole, the par-4 seventh and he won the next hole with a par before the span concluded with the Paolini penalty.
Misfortune? Paolini thought otherwise.
“It almost turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It really got me focused,” he said.
Apparently so, because that’s when his comeback started. Paolini drained a 10-foot par saver at the 28th hole, par-4 10th, for a win. Griffin’s approach found the bunker short of the green and he wasn’t able to get up and down.
“I saw a putt go in for the first time all day and it really relaxed me,” Paolini said.
He cut the advantage to 3 at the ensuing hole with a conceded birdie after Griffin’s approach shot to the par 4, affected by a late gust of wind, found the water hazard short and right of the putting surface.
Paolini then squared the match by capturing three consecutive holes from Nos. 31-33 of the match. He continued the rally by holing a 7-footer for par at the par-4 13th, the 31st of the deciding match, pumping his first as the putt fell right in the center of the cup. Paolini made another conceded birdie one hole later for his fifth birdie of the match, all of which had been conceded by Griffin to that point.
Paolini finally got the satisfaction of rolling in a birdie putt and squared things at the par-4 15th, the 33rd hole of the match, knocking in a 4-footer after playing a pinpoint wedge approach; Griffin’s 6-foot attempt for birdie just went by the low edge of the cup.
Continuing his late surge, Paolini knocked in a 30-footer for birdie at the 34th hole, the par-3 16th to take a 1-up lead; he was likely going to win the hole anyway as Griffin’s pulled his tee shot went way left before his ball found the water.
Seemingly re-energized by the rally, Paolini blistered a 330-yard plus drive at the 35th hole, the par-5 17th. So much for being tired. Paolini hit a 9-iron from 177 yards onto the back fringe and ultimately made a 10-foot comebacker for an important halve after Griffin made birdie from just off the putting surface.
Possessor of a 1-up lead at the 36th hole, Paolini detonated another drive right down the middle that left him just a three-quarter wedge approach shot. Griffin pushed his tee shot right and could only hit a low, running shot that found the back bunker. Griffin couldn’t escape the bunker and conceded the hole to Paolini, who shot the stroke play equivalent of 6-under 30 over the final nine holes of the match.
With the concessions that are a part of match play, he made five consecutive birdies over that stretch.
Paolini said following the match that his goal was to birdie every hole on the closing nine and he nearly accomplished that feat with incredible shotmaking and seemingly a Tiger-esque will to win.
“I dug so deep to pull it out. I dug so deep,” said Paolini, a graduate of Frank W. Cox High School who is headed to Duke University in the fall. “Whether it was a second wind or a second gear, I never give up; there’s no doubt about that. If I was going to go down, I was going to go down fighting. That’s what I just kept telling myself. I stayed patient and I was able to do it.”
 Griffin (pictured left) was three under par through the first 27 holes of the match to build his advantage, but was five over over hole Nos. 28-34 of the match.
“I kept telling myself, ‘No lead is big enough,’ ” Griffin said. “I wasn’t nervous the whole final nine. I think I just lost my swing a little bit and got a little quick. I was trying to play smart and aggressive. I didn’t want to sit back and let him lose it; I wanted to win it.
“Anytime you’re 5 up with nine to go … I can’t blame anyone but myself. He deserved it.”
In addition to being the VSGA State Am titleholder for two consecutive years, Paolini is also the reigning VSGA Junior Amateur champion and won the Virginia High School League Group AAA individual title in the fall. Admittedly, taking home the Schwarzschild Brothers’ Trophy, awarded to the VSGA State Am winner, holds special significance.
“This is definitely the toughest to win, so it’s probably the most rewarding,” Paolini said.
Griffin trailed 1-down after the first nine holes of the match, but won four holes on the second nine to own a 3-up lead at the break; Griffin shot the stroke play equivalent of 1-under-par 71, while Paolini had 73 in the morning session.
 SUFFOLK –– Result from the final round of match play at the 96th VSGA Amateur Championship at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards par 36-36––72) on Saturday, June 27 (qualifying score indicated).
(2) Brinson Paolini (Virginia Beach), 139 def. (16) Lanto Griffin (Blacksburg), 2 up
|
 |
