Trio tied for Greene Hills lead

STANARDSVILLE — To say that Mikey Moyers is familiar with the course at Greene Hills is putting it quite mildly. The William Monroe High senior and soon-to-be member of Virginia Tech’s golf team had to shake off the rust, but rallied on the back nine of his home course to pull into a three-way tie in the opening round of this year’s Greene Hills Invitational, which got underway on Saturday.

Moyers was in the same grouping as co-leader Nick Little, and the two battled Saturday, each finishing with a 3-under 68. Jon Hurst also registered a 68, and the three head into today’s final round atop the leaderboard. Moyers, whose father Mike is the long-time club pro at Greene Hills, has been playing the course since he was a tot. Ray Dingledine, who also grew up playing at the host course, is two strokes back after an opening round of 70.

“It’s not really the same course that I’m used to playing. It was a lot tougher, maybe three or four strokes tougher than it usually is,” admitted Moyers, who bogeyed the third hole but got a stroke right back with a birdie on the fourth. “Starting out, I was a little bit shaky — first tournament of the year — so I was getting the jitters out, then I started warming up.”

Little, who has won every local tournament except Greene Hills, got off to a fast start on his solid opening round, his first competition since October. He knows that it will take another great round today in order to add another trophy to his case.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in this type of situation before, and so I’m going to try to draw on past experience, and go out and remind myself that it’s just another round of golf,” said Little.

Hurst, who started with back-to-back birdies, was the leader at the turn with a 2-under 33, but struggled a bit on the back nine with bogeys on two of his last four holes. The former pro regained his amateur status a few years back, and hopes to hang with his younger co-leaders.

“The course is in great shape, the greens were rolling well today. I just didn’t hit very good shots coming down the stretch,” Hurst said of his finish. “I’m just going to go out there and play my own game and just try to hit fairways and greens and make a few putts just like I did today; it’s no different tomorrow than it was today. I really just need to try to keep up with these young guys out there.”

Moyers admitted that the butterflies were abundant when the tournament teed off, but his confidence grew as the day went on, as he notched four of his five birdies on the day on the back nine at 10, 11, 13 and 17. He followed that up with a par on the final hole to remain tied.

“I’ve been known to struggle coming in, so I was trying not to do that today,” Moyers said. “It was really nice for me to birdie 17 and then par 18, so I was kind of proud of myself.”

Little also had an impressive stretch that began on the ninth hole, as he birdied the 428-yard par 4, then went on to post birdies at the 10th, 13th and 14th. The Radford University senior, who graduates in May with hopes to someday play professionally, plans to not get caught up in what Moyers, Hurst, and the rest of the 104-player field is up to in today’s final, but rather block all of that out and concentrate on his own play. The two-time Bill Battle Trophy winner would love to complete his eighth Central Virginia tournament victory today, which would tie him for second place on the all-time list with David Passerell.

“Obviously I’m going to keep tabs on it, but I’m really not going to focus on it, and I’m sure they’re going to do the same thing,” admitted Little.

Last year, Little won the Faulconer Invitational at Lake Monticello, the Kenridge at Farmington, took the individual title at the Old Trail team championships, won the Jefferson Cup at Birdwood, then capped off the spectacular season by claiming the Central Virginia Match Play Championship at Spring Creek, where he edged out co-leader Moyers, 2-up.

If today’s final comes down to a similar finish between the two, it should be an exciting afternoon.

“Mikey and I have developed a friendship through playing tournaments against each other,” Little said of Moyers. “He’s a great guy and a really good player, he’s got a load of talent and a big future ahead of him. We’re definitely competitors out there, we might be more friendly after the round.”

Moyers added: “When you’ve got Nick and Jon Hurst, two great players, playing with you, it’s going to be hard to make up any ground on them, so you don’t want to give any.”

Dingledine had five birdies on Saturday to keep him in contention, and explained what kind of performance it will take to come from behind today and win.

“I’ll have to play real well, there’s too many younguns up there at the top, they’re going to take me down I think, but it will be fun,” chuckled Dingledine. “I grew up playing here, I’ve been playing here forever, so that definitely helps.”

John Hoffman, John Megless, and Scott Epley are all deadlocked at even-par 71, while Weston Eklund, Paul Kane, and Chad Mozingo are at 72, four strokes back of the lead.

Moyers would like to follow up his 2007 victory with another win today. When asked how special a second title would be to him, he responded, “Just to kind of validate the first one would be great, but it would be nice to win here in front of my friends.”