Moyers cruises through Day 1

An old adage says you can’t win a golf tournament in one day.  That may be true, but you can sure come close. 
In the first of two rounds in the Group AA championship, Mikey Moyers gave himself significant wiggle room with his score of 6-under 65.
“All my putts were fifteen or twenty feet away so it was a good putting day,” Moyers said.  “But I hit every green and I don’t expect to make any bogeys when I do that.”
It was bogey-free golf all day for the Stanardsville native.  Moyers had six birdies, four of them coming on the back nine.
It’s also familiar territory for the soon to be Virginia Tech golfer.  Last year Moyers went into the final round with a two-stroke lead and held on to win the
title.  With six strokes on the competition, Moyers knows that he just has to play smart to successfully defend his title.
“Even if I have a bad putting day, I’m hitting the ball well enough that I should be able to make par,” Moyers said. “So I’m pretty confident right now.  I’ll just go out and try and do the same things — hit every green.  If I do that I can’t go wrong.”
Moyers was the only golfer to shoot under par for the day.
In the team portion of the event, Western Albemarle’s youth stepped up to the plate to help the Warriors take a run at two-time defending champion Blacksburg. 
Separated by six strokes from the state champions, and playing with five new starters, Darren Maynard is pleased with the way his team has performed.
“I’m real excited,” Maynard said.  “If you’d have told me we would shoot 296 beforehand I’d have taken it in a heartbeat.”
Landon Weis, 14, led the way for Western, putting in an even par 71.  The score not only help to put Western just six strokes back from Blacksburg, it also put the freshman in a three-way-tie for second overall in the individual competition.
“I bogeyed two of the last three holes so I kind of came limping in, but I can’t really complain,” Weis said.  “I was playing solid, hitting lots of greens and two-putting.  I’ve played this course all season and I feel like I’ve gotten progressively better each day.”
Western’s number one, Patrick Leisure, finished with a 74.  The other two Warrior scores came from Chris McConnell and Ryan Fellows who shot 73 and 78 respectively.
“Patrick showed a lot of mental toughness battling back,” Maynard said.  “He had a tough triple bogey on one hole and then a double on other and still managed to comeback and finish strong.”
Other notable local performances included Hunter Weaver from Orange County and Tommy Price from Robert E. Lee.  The two both finished the first round with 76.