Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
The old man is in a zone.
Fifty-year-old Marvin "Vinny" Giles, who played in his first State Am at age 15, turned back the clock Thursday at James River Country Club, shooting a brilliant 5-under-par 65 to win the qualifying medal.
Giles, who had a 68 in Thursday's first round, finished with a total of 7-under 133. Defending champion Allen Barber, playing on his home course, shot 67 to take second at 136.
Giles, who won his first State Am in 1962 and his last in 1987, will take aim at his record-extending eighth title when the low 32 qualifiers begin match play today.
"I still have those days when I get in that kind of zone where I can play as good as I ever have," said the Richmond golfer, who hit 16 greens in regulation and and drained four birdie putts of 15 feet or longer. "But sometimes I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and can't finish."
In winning the qualifying medal for the third time, Giles knew early he had it going on the tight, tree-lined, 6,406-yard layout.
"Everything I was hitting was square in the middle of the club," he said. "I missed three four-footers and didn't birdie a par-5, though. But I made some, too. It was a pretty, damn decent round, let me tell you."
Barber, a 34-year-old mortgage banker from nearby Yorktown, rebounded from a "stupid" double bogey at No. 9 with a 4-under 31 on the back side.
"Yeah, it's an advantage playing on my home turf, but I don't think it's that big," Barber said. "The good players are going to play good no matter where they're at."
Southwest Virginia's heavyweights, three-time champion Tom McKnight of Galax and two-time winner Keith Decker of Martinsville, qualified with strokes to spare. McKnight, who opened with a 66, added a 72. Decker shaved four strokes off his first-round 72.
"Besides for a couple of good shots, I played horrible on the front," said McKnight, whose 138 total left him in a five-way tie for third that included former Roanoke Country Club assistant professional Mike Krulich of Bluefield.
"I'm in the show, but I just hate to play like that," McKnight said. "I was playing about as well as I've ever played before, but I haven't shown it the past two days."
Decker, who didn't have a birdie Thursday, brought in his "A" game Friday. He ran off birdies at Nos. 6-8 and got to the clubhouse with minimal damage.
"I haven't been playing that well this year," said Decker, who lost to Barber in last year's final at Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg. "I've played less this year than before due to work and family. Who knows? Maybe this is a start, though."
The only other Southwest Virginians in the 104-player field to survive the cut were Dan Keffer and Mike Smith of Roanoke.
Keffer, 55, the runner-up in 1981 to Virginia Beach's George MacDonald, was one of 10 players to break par Friday, shooting a 69 for a 143 total.
"I'm as happy as I can be," said Keffer, who rebounded from a double bogey at No. 11 with three birdies on the final six holes. "Match play will be a new beginning. Experience and patience mean so much on this course. And over the years you do learn something in spite of yourself."
Smith's entry into match play was more adventurous. He made a four-foot birdie putt on the final hole to shoot 72 and finish at 145, which threw him into a nine-way playoff for the final six spots.
On the first playoff hole, the difficult 468-yard par-4 first, Smith was one of four players to mark, getting it up and down from 15 yards off the green.
\ SAND BLASTS: Midlothian's Tom Orr and Danville's Jimmy Flippen Jr., tied after first-round 65s, soared Thursday. Orr bogeyed four consecutive holes on the back nine and limped home with a 73. Flippen, who will be a junior in the fall at the University of Virginia, triple-bogeyed the first hole and was 7 over for his first seven holes Thursday. He played the final 11 holes 1-under to shoot a 76. . . . Roanoker Ned Baber, the 1960 champion, and Wytheville's David Havens finished at 148 and missed the playoff by three shots.
by CNB