THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240600
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 47 lines
John Rollins showed Tuesday that it's how you finish, not how you start, that counts in golf tournaments.
Rollins, the reigning State Amateur champion, double-bogeyed the first hole and then recovered to make five birdies en route to a 1-under 68 and the first-round lead of the Payton Memorial at Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club.
``I tried to tell myself after the first hole that there was a lot of golf left and I knew there were some birdies out there,'' said Rollins, a Virginia Commonwealth rising senior who won the Colonial Athletic Association crown this year.
Rollins was the only player in the 18-24 year senior division to break par and leads a group of three players by two shots entering today's final round.
Chesapeake's Billy Judah is tied for second at 1-over 70 with J.T. Belcher from Franklin and Gary Koh from Newport News. Five players are at 2-over 71, including two-time defending champion Rob Rasmussen from Chesapeake.
Rollins and Judah, playing in the last foursome with Curtis Deal and Rasmussen, came to No. 18 tied at even par.
Rollins stuck his tee shot about 15 feet from the pin and made birdie. Judah blocked his drive to the right, chipped 45 feet past the hole and two-putted for bogey.
``That was my only bad shot of the round,'' Judah said of his 6-iron on 18. ``You're going to make bogeys. I'm right where I want to be. You can't win the tournament today, you can only lose it.''
Judah could have been speaking for Deal, who shot 80. He hit three shots out of bounds on the par 4 17th and took a 10.
Judah, who turns 22 today, hopes he can get to No. 18 with a chance to win. From the second-day tee, the hole figures to play about 235 yards long and Cavalier pro Butch Liebler promises the pin will be tucked into a narrow neck of green that juts out on the left, surrounded on three sides by water.
Not a place to play catch-up, but Judah is stoked.
``I want to play it from the back and just let it fly,'' he said.
Rollins was 1-over through 12 and made his move with birdies at 13 and 14. His wedge flip from 58 yards stropped on the lip at 13.
``If there was any pivotal shot I made, that was the one,'' he said.
The best round of the day was a 2-under 67 by 14-year-old Justin Cullivan, a rising freshman at Lafayette High in Williamsburg. Playing from the the white tees, about 700 yards shorter than the seniors, he played the shot of the day, a 130-yard pitching wedge he holed for eagle at the 17th.
In the Ladies Division, defending champion Karla Roberson of Chesapeake shot a 70 and leads Mary Moen by two strokes. by CNB