Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406140287
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PENHOOK LENGTH: Medium
There's absolutely nothing high-tech about Rodney Naff. Except his game.
Proving his victory in last year's Valley Amateur was no fluke, Naff outdueled Scores in Scoreboard. B4 the more experienced and more celebrated Mike Smith down the stretch Sunday at Water's Edge to win the 1994 Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame men's championship.
Undaunted by the aristocratic surroundings at Water's Edge, the blue-collar golfer fired a 1-under-par 71 to beat Smith by two shots.
Smith, who carried a two-shot lead into the final round, skied to a final-round 76, including a crushing four-putt, double-bogey 6 at No. 16.
Naff finished with a 54-hole total of 1-over 215. Smith, the favorite, wound up at 217.
Ned Baber and Jack Allara tied for third at 218. Baber, 52, had 10 3s on his scorecard en route to a sparkling 4-under 68, the lowest competitive round ever shot on the Smith Mountain Lake course.
Baber's sizzling round sparked Roanoke Country Club to its record seventh team championship. RCC, which trailed Hidden Valley by three shots entering the day, shot 444 on Sunday and won going away. RCC's total of 1,329 beat defending champion Blue Hills by 13 shots.
But the big story was Naff, a self-employed 38-year-old Roanoker who incredibly has never had a teaching lesson from a golf professional.
"I'm pretty much a self-made player," Naff said. "I started playing a little bit of golf 20 years ago at Brookside on Williamson Road. I never once thought I'd be in something like this, much less ever win it.
"I'm just lucky. Mike Smith is a better player than I am, I'm sure."
Not Sunday.
The tournament was decided on the green at the 377-yard 16th hole, where as Smith later would say, "I went brain dead."
Tied with Naff at 1-over, Smith raced a 40-foot birdie putt over a hump past the hole by nine or 10 feet. After missing his par putt, Smith lipped out a 18-incher for bogey.
"And that was the tournament," Smith said. "That really takes it out of you. The way I look at it, when you shoot 76 in the final round you ought to get beat.
"Give Rodney credit. He shot 71 and deserves it. Face it, he did what he had to do and I didn't."
Naff, who has bent over some putts for a buck or two at Blue Hills and his home Botetourt Country Club course, drained two big putts dead-center coming home - a 10-footer for par at No. 16 and an 6-footer for par at No. 18.
"The guy is solid," said Danny Hopkins, one of Naff's close friends. "I think he was immune to the pressure in this thing because he does play for a dollar or two every now and then.
"He's pretty amazing. Four years ago, he would have had to play his rear end off to shoot 230 in this thing. He has learned how to harness his strength and it's helped him.
"Rodney Naff, he's got a $100 set of golf clubs and a $1,000 game."
Baber's round bettered the competitive course record of 69 owned by Richmond's Vinny Giles and Bedford's Jim Stanley.
"I found some stuff on the practice tee Saturday," said Baber, who last week had a pair of 82s in the Kendridge.
"It was one of the unique rounds I've ever played. I had only two 4s on my card. The rest were 5s and 3s.
Baber's round, which included six birdies and two bogeys, virtually clinched the team title for RCC. It was the club's record seventh title in Hall of Fame competition.
"Depth was the big factor," Baber said. "Probably everybody we had on our 12-man team contributed at least one day.
"Me, I'm just the supporting cast. The others are the main dogs who are supposed to do the hunting."
\ SAND BLASTS: Baber and Naff were the only players to break par on the 6,708-yard course. Hanging Rock's Bill Burton was 2-under late in the round before settling for 73-219. . . . Sunday's round was delayed for 55 minutes because of lightning. A bolt struck the flag pole in the club parking lot. . . . Allara, who didn't play competitively last year because of physical problems, had a solid tournament, shooting 72-73-73 . . . Some of these guys will be playing again today at Water's Edge and RCC in qualifying for July's Signet Open and State Amateur.
by CNB