I
n many ways, Maclain Huge was a
surprise winner at the 102nd VSGA
Amateur Championship, played last
summer at Charlottesville’s Farmington Country Club. Though he
grew up in Loudoun County and recently
graduated from Virginia Tech, Huge had
only participated in one VSGA Amateur
before 2015, just missing the match-play
cut five years prior at Belle Haven Country
Club in Alexandria.
Huge, though, shared one major thing in
common with nearly every Amateur champion in the last decade: Youth.
Of the last nine VSGA Amateur champions, only two came from outside of the
college or high-school ranks: Mid-Amateur Scott Shingler in 2011 at The Virginian
in Bristol, and mid-amateur Pat Tallent at
Lowe’s Island (now Trump National) in 2007.
In the last nine years, Brinson Paolini
won four Amateurs (two while at Duke, two
more before he even began his career as a
Blue Devil), and Jake Mondy won two, both
as a student at Auburn.
The storyline certainly isn’t unique to
Virginia’s amateur championship. A quick
vsga.org
survey of 50 other state and regional association amateur championships in 2015
shows 40 champions from the college,
recent college graduate or high-school
ranks. One of the exceptions, Iowa senior
Mike McCoy, has a USGA Mid-Amateur
title to his credit.
Huge (pronounced Hew-gee) spent plenty of time learning his trade in PGA Junior
and American Junior Golf Association
events. His opponent in last year’s final
match, Mark Lawrence Jr., was a dominant
force on the VSGA junior championship
circuit, winning the Junior Match Play
Championship three times and claiming
one Junior Stroke Play Championship.
“We’re usually playing non-stop all fall
and all spring. There’s really no offseason
anymore,” said Huge, who as of early April
said he won’t be back to defend his title
when the 103rd VSGA Amateur Championship begins in late June at Pete Dye River
Course of Virginia Tech. “By the time we get
to the summer, we’re playing every single
day, or practicing every single day. There’s
really no fear of the older guys. We go out
and we think we can win any tournament.”
M AY /J U N E 2 0 16 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R
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PETE DYE RIVER COURSE OF VIRGINIA TECH; VSGA
Maclain Huge won
the Schwarzschild
Trophy in 2015,
marking the fourth
straight year a college
player had won the
VSGA Amateur.