Virginia Golfer May / Jun 2016 | Page 19

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 17 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.