Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405290011
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Yes, I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of what's happened," said Deal, a redshirt freshman from Virginia Beach. "It really makes me feel good that things turned out this way."
While the Hokies hop a flight today for Dallas, where they will tee it up Wednesday at Stonebridge Country Club in the 72-hole NCAA Tournament, Deal's former team, Virginia, is sitting at home cleaning its clubs.
"What do you want me to do . . . trash those guys?" said Deal, when asked about Tech's sudden rise and UVa's fall this season. "Let's just say I feel good about what has happened and leave it at that."
Coming out of Great Bridge High School, where he was the 1990 Group AAA champion and '91 Virginia Junior Player of the Year, Deal turned down scholarship offers from Tech and North Carolina State to accept a full ride to UVa.
But before Deal took his sticks to Charlottesville in the fall of 1992, his potent game lapsed into a dismal slump.
"I had played poorly all summer long," Deal said. "I had bad problems with my swing. I was trying to learn to the play the ball from right to left and my swing just wasn't conducive to doing that. Plus, I was changing clubs."
As it turned out, it didn't make any difference what kind of clubs Deal lugged to Charlottesville. The highly touted recruit never hit a ball in competition for UVa.
"The other guys all seemed to play well right off the bat," he said. "I was proud of them, but personally, it was really discouraging. I knew then that I would have to start playing really, really well to get a chance. Things just went downhill and I never got to play at all."
In the spring of 1993, Deal said UVa coach Mike Moraghan told him "to play hard and maybe you can be the sixth man" in '94.
"That didn't sit particularly well with me," Deal said. "He sort of told me that I didn't have a chance. I had never heard anything like that before.
"Don't get me wrong. There was nothing [Moraghan] could do. The other guys were playing well and I wasn't.
"I do feel like that he lost confidence in my ability pretty quickly. But I had lost confidence in myself, too."
Deal asked for and was granted a release from his UVa scholarship, making him eligible immediately at another school. Then, he called Tech coach Jay Hardwick.
"Before the spring [of '93], I knew I was transferring somewhere," Deal said. "It was a natural decision to call Jay. Tech had been my second choice to start with. I needed a new outlook, so to speak."
Deal became a steal for Tech. In his first season with the Hokies, he has been the real Deal.
Playing No. 2 behind junior Brian Sharp, Deal has posted a very respectable 73.8-stroke average. He has finished in the top 10 in seven tournaments, including two seconds and a third. His fourth-place showing last week at the NCAA East Regional in Opelika, Ala., led the Hokies to an eighth-place finish in the team standings and one of 30 berths in the NCAA championships.
"We knew we had the talent to do this," Deal said. "But you really don't think you're going to do it until you do. We're all excited and looking forward to playing in the NCAA."
This is Tech's first trip to the championships since 1967, when the Hokies finished sixth. Hardwick remembers. He was a freshman on that team.
"This is the closest bunch of kids I've ever had," Hardwick said. "They've really come together down the stretch [winning the Metro Conference for the second consecutive year and taking the prestigious Palmetto Classic]. We felt if we could keep 'em focused, we could do it this year."
\ HOME COOKING: Bluefield's Mike Krulich and Tazewell's Charlie Green played the home-course advantage to the hilt in last weekend's VSGA Four-Ball Championship at Fincastle Country Club in Bluefield.
In one of the biggest runaways in VSGA history, Krulich and Green strung rounds of 64-62 and rolled to an eight-shot romp over second-place Mark Lawrence and David Partridge of Richmond. Martinsville's Keith Decker and Billy Cross tied for third with Tim Crouse and Tony DeLuca at 136.
Mark Humphreys and Arman Fletcher paced the Roanoke entries, tying for 12th at 142. Lexington's David Brogan and J.W. Entsminger, who teamed to win the title in 1991 and '93, tied for 18th at 143. Roanokers Jack Allara and Charlie Turner, the 1990 champions, tied for 20th at 144.
\ SAND BLASTS: Tim Finchem, the new PGA Tour commissioner, has state ties. He is a graduate of Virginia Beach's Princess Anne High School, the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia Law School. . . . Chip Sullivan of Hanging Rock, Tim Holbrook of Hidden Valley and Jimmy Williams of Cox's Range in Blacksburg have qualified for the Maryland State Open to be played July 11-13 at Congressional Country Club. Sullivan shot 74, Holbrook had a 76 and Williams a 77 on the par-71 Montgomery Village course in Gaithersburg. . . . Ed Allen and Ray Oyler shot 3-over 74 to win the RVGA's recent two-man blind draw tournament at Countryside. Larry Cecil and George May finished second with a 75. . . . The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs still needs volunteers to help with the U.S. Women's Amateur on Aug. 8-13. Call Debbie Anderson at 839-2323 or Wayne Nooe at 839-7506.
by CNB