Gallery by Tina Laney
Pipestem – Davey Jude has spent the last two years chasing on the final day of the Mountain State Golf Classic.
He’ll come into Monday’s final round at the top of the leaderboard.
Jude fired a 65 – 7-under par – Sunday afternoon at Pipestem to bring his tournament total to 8-under, giving him a two-stroke lead over defending champion Todd Duncan.
Sunday’s results set the stage for a showdown between the two friends who have battled neck-and-neck for the MSGC title the last two years with Jude claiming it in 2021 – his first year back in the competition – and Duncan claiming it in 2020 and ’22.
For Jude the charge began right before the turn with a birdie on No. 9 and carried to the back nine where he avoided bogeys with three birdies and an eagle shot to edge ahead. It was a stellar showing in his first round on the course since 2012.
“We got off to slow start,” Jude said. “Our group did not play No. 4 very well which is the easiest hole on the golf course. After No. 5 I played 7-under from there and it was pretty stress free for the rest of the day besides 16 which should’ve been stress free but an unfortunate break there.”
Trailing leader Landon Perry, who led the field at 7-under when Duncan and Jude pulled up to No. 12, the latter began to separate himself. Tied at with Jude at 4-under, Duncan’s tee shot on 12 veered left into the water. Jude immediately applied the pressure with a tee shot that landed on the green. He followed with an eagle putt while Duncan managed to save par.
“The hole really doesn’t set up for me,” Jude said. “I usually hit a cut with a driver. With the trees coming in it makes you hit a hook. Todd hit it right in the water in front of me so I wanted to make sure to hit it a little further right and I hit a pretty good golf shot and it rolled up to about three feet for eagle.”
“It’s a weird hole for me because I like to cut it off the tee,” Duncan said. “I don’t want to draw it and turn it over too much but it hit the water and Davey hit it to five feet from 315 yards so I felt like it was a big momentum thing for me to get up and down from there and it kept me going so I made a few more birdies after that. That was a big shot. I had a drop that was like 80 yards and hit it in there to about eight feet and made it so it was good but he made the eagle so I knew I had to keep my foot on the gas.”
Even when things seemed stacked against Jude he made the best of them. A shot from the fairway later in the round on No. 16 veered left off the green but hitting left handed he got up and down to save par on the par 5 hole.
Cam Roam, another member of Jude and Duncan’s group quietly put together a solid round shooting 5-under, sitting three strokes behind Jude and one behind Duncan.
Perry, the leader coming into the day, was two under before the turn and admittedly struggled on the back nine with four bogeys including three on the final four holes.
“On the front nine I was committing to shots and hitting the shots I needed to hit and making the putts on the birdie holes,” Perry said. “On the back nine I got a little loose, wasn’t committing and was fanning them out. They’d hit the front of the green and spin off and every pin seemed to be in the back so I was struggling to get it up there. I had a three-putt on 17 for bogey and then bogeyed 18 because I couldn’t get the yardage from the fairway. I didn’t understand how uphill it was going to be and I hit it a little long so I was in a tough spot.”
Jerod Ewing shot the second best round of the day behind Jude, firing 6-under par for a composite score of 3-under heading into the final day.
He will join Perry and Tanner Vest in the penultimate group Monday evening in the championship round on the Cobb Course at Glade Springs Monday. Roam, Duncan and Jude will be joined by Herbert Hoover alum and WVU Tech golfer Bryson Beaver in the final group.
Leaderboard
