June was a light month on the links for the defending Mountain State Golf Classic champion, Davey Jude.
However, as the saying goes, business is about to pick up.
“I played all of May, but not so much in June. I had some (West Virginia Golf Association) tournaments and then I played the United States Four-ball in Philadelphia along with a small tournament over in Kentucky,” Jude said. “Now I have a pretty big stretch of golf from the middle of July to the end of August.”
Naturally, the immediate focus for Jude is to earn his fourth Mountain State Golf Classic title this weekend. He is also hoping a solid performance will be the catalyst for the bigger events yet to come.
“I made it through the first stage of the U.S. Amateur qualifying in Maineville, Ohio about two weeks ago,” Jude explained. “I leave from the (Mountain State Golf Classic) to go to (Southern Pines, N.C.) on Wednesday for the final stage.”
In years past, the U.S. Amateur qualifiers were one-day, 36-hole events. This year the format was changed to a two-step process.
Step one for Jude was July 1 at the TPC River’s Bend Course in the Buckeye State. With the Top 15 players advancing to round two, Jude finished tied for seventh to secure a spot in Southern Pines.
“It used to be 36 holes at one place, but they changed it a little bit to favor the younger guys in my opinion. There will be some huge hitters down there,” Jude said. “They haven’t given us exactly how many spots will qualify, but there will be about 60 players and they will likely take 10-12.”
The final stage will be contested at The Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club and as expected, it will be filled with highly talented golfers.
“The game has changed so much over the last 10 or 12 years, but it will be fun,” Jude said. “There is a kid in the group behind me that is really, really good. He is only 16, but he has already played on the PGA Tour a couple of times. It is fun to see those young kids flying it by me now.”
Should Jude make the final cut for the U.S. Amateur, he will make his way to Chaska, MN, just outside of Minneapolis from August 12-18 to compete at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Hazeltine is where Payne Stewart won the first of his two U.S. Open titles back in 1991.
Jude is also locked into a premier event in the Mountain State later in the month.
Thanks to a top-40 finish in the 2023 W.Va. Open Championship and a top-2 finish in the 2024 W.Va. Amateur Series, Jude also has an exemption to play in the 2024 W.Va. Open at Edgewood Country Club in Sissonville from July 29 – Aug. 2.
The Mountain State Golf Classic is a three-day event contested on three separate courses. Saturday the tournament tees off at Grandview Country Club. Sunday the scene moves to Pipestem Resort before the final round is played on the famed Cobb Course at The Resort at Glade Springs.
After day one last year, Jude was four shots back in fourth place. Even though he admitted he had not played Pipestem in over 10 years, Jude scorched the Geoffrey Cornish design with a 7-under par round of 65 to take a two-shot lead heading to the final round.
“I didn’t get off to a very good start there. I know the first two holes are fairly easy and the (par-5) fourth hole is pretty easy,” Jude said. “In the middle of the round I remember going birdie, birdie, par, eagle, birdie. It was good stretch from holes 9-13. It helped space things out a little bit.”
Keeping his foot on the gas pedal, Jude shot 4-under from the blue tees at The Cobb Course to win his third title by five shots.
“I got off to a good start shooting two or three-under to set myself up for success on the back nine,” Jude said about his final round. “Then it was just not do something out of the ordinary.”
The win last year placed Jude in rare company joining Mike Mays, Greg McGraw, Brandon Reece, Christian Brand, Leigh Smith and Jerry Hickman as players who have won the tournament three times since its inception in 1980.
Mays holds the top spot with six victories, followed by Reece who is a four-time champion.
“Really I just want to go out and try to not make very many bogies,” Jude said. “Grandview and Pipestem is where you make up your ground. At Glade, it is the tougher test of the three courses.”
“I struggle some with Grandview’s greens,” Jude went on to say. “You can post a good number at Grandview if you can make the putts, but I always seem to struggle with putts around 5-6 feet there. That seems to hold me back from a really good round. Pipestem it is just a couple of tee-balls that you have to worry about. Other than that it is right in front of you.”
The first foursome of the tournament goes off Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. with Jude teeing it up at 9 a.m. the first two days.
