WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Although he put himself back into contention with his round of 3-under-par 67 on the Meadows Course on Tuesday, Pat Carter hasn’t yet won anything in the 103rd West Virginia Amateur.
The bragging rights he took with him to dinner after Tuesday’s third round, however, may have felt as good as anything.
Playing in what he called his “dream pairing,” Carter played alongside friends Sam O’Dell and Jonathan Clark on Tuesday. All of them are Marshall Hall of Famers, all are playing out of Hurricane and between them there are 17 West Virginia Amateur titles (Carter 13, O’Dell four) and two West Virginia Open championships (Clark two).
On Tuesday at The Greenbrier, there were even more laughs and good-natured ribbing.
“This is my favorite group of all the Amateurs I’ve ever played,” Carter said. “We love each other. We’re competitive out there, that’s the thing, we don’t like to hit bad shots, but all in all we had a great time as a group. It’ll be a group I’ll always cherish.”
As Carter buried a short birdie putt on the par-4 18th to finish off his round on Tuesday, he got one last barb in as O’Dell finished a round of 3-over 73 and Clark at 4-over 74.
“Trust me, walking off the green I gave them a little jab, but they told me that Old White is coming and I’ll probably be watching while they’re in the top-10 tomorrow, which could happen,” Carter said. “But we had a good time. I know they didn’t play their best today, which is unfortunate, but my gosh, that’s a dream pairing for me this late in my career, anyway.”
The 53-year-old Carter is again in contention as he searches for two more West Virginia Amateur titles to tie William C. Campbell for the most all time. The task is tall as play shifts back to the longer Old White Course for Wednesday’s final round, playing more into the hands of the younger big hitters.
But Carter, with more Amateur titles than the rest of the field combined, has the edge in experience under pressure and hopes to cash in on that Wednesday.
“We saw that nobody was making any moves and I said, ‘If I get to even ... .’ I didn’t get quite to even but I’m 1 over for the tournament,” Carter said. “You never know on Old White tomorrow. None of these guys have ever been in this position so a lot of nerves, just like there were for me my first time. It’ll be interesting tomorrow.”
Jude’s alarming round: Co-leader Davey Jude was on the verge of running away with things late in Tuesday’s round but also was on the verge of blowing up during Monday’s round on the Old White.
Jude started Monday’s second round with bogeys on the first and third holes and a double-bogey on the fifth, yet on a day in which the back nine was a bit of a train wreck, he played at 1 under the rest of the way to set up Tuesday’s run.
As it turned out, Jude had good reason for Monday’s early mishaps. In the midst of his round, he had to straighten out a bit of a frantic situation at his business, Southern Valley Insurance.
“I had a lot of things going on [Monday] — I had an alarm going off at my business, police calling and [my son] threw a little temper tantrum yesterday, so I got off to a real rough start,” Jude said. “My mom just forgot the alarm code. My mom just kind of does that every once in a while and she was calling me and the police was calling me but we settled down after that.”
Bohach’s eagles: One of the things that makes the West Virginia Amateur special is that every player in the field has a story to tell.
After this year, Chris Bohach, a Capital High School graduate playing out of Ona, will have several.
Bohach snuck under the cut line with a clutch midrange putt on the 18th hole of Monday’s second round on the Old White and hit the first tee shot of the day on Tuesday. His second shot on the par-4 No. 1 was holed out for an eagle and he later added a chip-in on the par-3 15th for birdie en route to a round of 6-over 76.
But that wasn’t even the first time Bohach holed out for eagle this week on the Meadows. After being forced to take a drop on the fourth hole in Sunday’s opening round, Bohach holed out from around 186 yards to make a birdie.
And his closing putt on Monday wasn’t his only clutch putt in recent weeks as he needed around a 20-footer on the 18th green at Guyan Country Club in a qualifier to even make the Amateur field.
Even for a player tied for 44th at 17 over par, it’s been a memorable week to say the least.
