Beck earns medalist honors

Building on his momentum from the back nine of Tuesday’s first round of the VSGA Junior Match Play Championship, Evan Beck jumped out to a quick start in the second round of the stroke play qualifiying to seize the top spot.
“I felt good on the range warming up,” Beck said. “I started with a birdie on the first hole and just went from there.”
The 17-year old Virginia Beach native came into the second and last day of stroke play tied with Mikey Moyers and Trevor Times at 2-under.
Beck went 5-under for the day on the front nine and then par on the back to earn the top seed heading into the first round of match play today at Birdwood.
“I hit three birdies and an eagle on the front,” Beck said. “I’ve been playing pretty good ever since school got out. My highest score is 73 so far.”
Moyers, 17, shot a 72 and took the second seed at 2-under.
“I hit the ball just as good as [in the first round],” Moyers said. “I missed a bunch of little short ones. I’m usually pretty golden from there. It’s just a putter. It comes and goes. I hope it comes in the next two days.”
Paired with Moyers and Beck in the leaders group, and just 14-years old, Times shot a 77. With his 70 the day before Williamsburg resident earned the seventh seed.
“I felt a lot of pressure to play well,” Times said. “So I didn’t quite putt as well as before. But it was my goal to get the match play.”
Other notable local performances included Earlysville’s Daniel Walker, Western Albemarle’s Patrick Leisure and Albemarle’s Weston Eklund, all of whom advanced to match play.
Walker was 1-under Tuesday and went 1-over in the second round to which was good enough for the third seed.
Leisure made the cut in extra holes to break a tie at 152 and faces William Monroe’s Moyers today.
Eklund, who plans to golf for Radford this fall, improved from Tuesday’s 77 to shoot a 73.
Of the 75 players who entered play on Wednesday, 16 qualified for the match play championship.
“You can be a lot more aggressive,” Moyers said of playing one-on-one. “It’s a fun format. On the course we’re playing, you have drivable par 4s and all of the par 5s are reachable.”
Moyers, the defending champion, was impressed with Beck’s play.
“The way he’s playing, if I get to the [championship match], I’m sure he’ll be there,” Moyers said.
Beck was the only member of the field to post consecutive rounds under par.