GOLF: Bristol club set to host Virginia state amateur

Bristol is famous for its race weeks.

Consider the next seven days its Golf Week.

The best amateur golfers from around the commonwealth began arriving Sunday in Bristol  for the 98^th Virginia State Amateur Championship, which will be held Monday through Saturday at The Virginian Golf Club.

The field of 120 players will participate in a practice session Monday, with a two-round medal play tournament following on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The golfers with the lowest 32 scores will then advance on to match play competition the rest of the week, including a 36-hole championship showdown beginning Saturday at 8 a.m. between the last two players standing.

“We have all the ingredients for a great week,” said Kenny Kerr, general manager of The Virginian, in a statement. “The depth of the field is unquestionably one of the strongest in history and when you combine that with a perfectly conditioned golf course, it makes for an exciting week of golf.”

The clear player to beat will be rising Duke junior Brinson Paolini, who last year became the first person in the long history of the event to win three consecutive titles after becoming the youngest champion in 78 years when he won his first championship as a 17-year-old in 2008.

“No one has accomplished what this young man has done,” Kerr said.

Evan Beck may be tops on the list of the 119 contenders for Paolini’s crown – and is no stranger to the 3-time champion.

Paolini and Beck, who won the 2010 SunTrust State Open, grew up together in Virginia Beach as members of the Princess Anne Country Club.

They are now Atlantic Coast Conference rivals as Beck just finished his sophomore season at Wake Forest, where he, like Paolini at Duke, led his team in scoring average with a sub-73 mark.

Last year’s runner-up, Mike Kirby of Falls Church, who lost by just one hole in 2010, is also scheduled to be back in the 2011 field.

Another Virginia Beach golfer, albeit a slightly more senior one, could also be a threat to make it to Saturday’s final. Roger Newsom, a now 47-year-old ophthalmologist, finished second to Paolini in 2008 and will try to make another stand against the youth contingent.

The Virginia Beach collegians aren’t the only youngsters who will be taking over the Bristol course this week. Of the 120 golfers in the field, 47 are either teenagers or in college.

The Virginian, an 18-year-old Tom Fazio course, last hosted the State Am in 1997. John Rollins, now a PGA Tour member, won the title that year.

Area players of note scheduled to take part in the championship include Bryan Bentley (Pound), Conner Hayden (Chilhowie), Eric Kennedy (Ewing), Jay Vandeventer (Bristol), Garland Green (Tazewell), Brandon Ketron (Abingdon), Buck Brittain (Tazewell), Chris Crockett (Bristol), Trey Wilburn (Abingdon), David Schmidt (Wytheville), Robert Stallard Jr. (Abingdon) and Luke Minor (Duffield).

Kerr praised the work of The Virginian maintenance staff in preparing the course for this week’s action and said the club is ready to be showcased.

“You would be hard pressed to find anything better than what we have,” he said. “When it’s over, you are going to have a champion worthy of his place in VSGA history.”

hubbard@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @Hubbard_BHCSprt | (276) 645-2543