ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050157
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: GOLF NOTES
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
Now that she has taken care of chores inside the state, Lee Shirley's next item of golf business goes national.
Fresh off her first State Amateur title 11 days ago, Shirley moves up in class today when she tees off in the U.S. Women's Amateur championship in Lincoln, Neb.
Shirley, a 20-year-old junior at the University of North Carolina, will be playing in her second consecutive U.S. Amateur. She qualified for last year's tournament, which, coincidentally was played at The Homestead's Cascades Course, where Shirley whipped the field in the recent State Am.
This time, Shirley hopes to hang around a little longer. Last year, she missed making the low 64 and qualifying for match play by one stroke.
"My main goal is to make match play,'' Shirley said. "I should have made it last year.
"It's the best players in the country you're facing. All I know is I feel like I'm more prepared this time. Certainly, winning the State Am, and going everything you have to do to do it, has to have made me a better player.''
The 150-player field will be pared to 64 after 36 holes of qualifying today and Tuesday. Match play begins Wednesday and concludes with Saturday's 36-hole final.
Wendy Ward, who won the title last year in Hot Springs, has since turned professional and ineligible to defend her title.
VALLEY AM ON TAP: Defending champion Tim Chocklett and two-time former champion Bobby Penn highlight the field for this week's Roanoke Valley Golf Association's Valley Amateur Championship.
Chocklett, who defeated Cam Young 4 and 2 in last year's final, is exempt from qualifying, which begins Wednesday at Hanging Rock and continues Thursday at Blue Hills.
Besides Penn, who won back-to-back titles in 1990 and '91, other strong contenders include '93 champion Rodney Naff, '93 runner-up Mark Funderburke, Miller Baber, Ted Comer, Bobby Clark and Scott Hunter.
In the 50-and-over Senior division, defending champion Bill Proffitt will be tested by the likes of Gibby Wingfield, last year's runner-up, and three-time former champion Reggie Clark.
Match play in both divisions begins Friday. All match play will be contested at Countryside.
DOT ON SPOT: A 41-player field will be gunning to stop Salem's Dot Bolling in this week's Roanoke Valley Women's Golf Association City-County championship.
Bolling has won the tournament a record five times, including four of the past five years.
Two-time winner Marilyn Bussey and former Hall of Fame champion Kathy Hull are the best bets to stop Bolling. Other possible contenders include Nancy Shuck, Audrey Najjum, Bonita Howell, Janet Cochran, Judy Knight and Valeta Pittman.
Notables missing from the field include former Hall of Fame champion Mar-C Milona, who recently sustained a broken right ankle, and 1994 winner Sara Cole, who is unable to play due to a job transfer to Virginia Beach.
The 54-hole tournament begins Tuesday at Hidden Valley. Action continues Wednesday at Ole Monterey, with Thursday's final round at Botetourt Country Club.
JUNIOR JAMS: Blackstone's Cameron Yancey opens defense of his title in the 44th State Junior Amateur Championship on Tuesday in Charlottesville.
Yancey captured the State Junior Match Play title in June and was 2-under-par through 36 holes of last month's AMF-Signet Open before settling for a tie for 30th.
Brandon LaCroix, sixth last year in the 14-15 division, and Lexington's Eric Reynolds, who paced on-site qualifying at Roanoke Country Club, head the Southwest Virginia entries in the 16-17 class.
Lee Taylor, who won the 12-13 trophy last year, and Trey Clower top the Roanoke entries in the 14-15 bracket.
The 54-hole tournament runs through Thursday at Birdwood Golf Club.
Meanwhile, Wytheville's Joannah Pattison will shoot for her second consecutive State Junior Girls Championship. The 36-hole tournament will be played Tuesday and Wednesday at Greenbrier Country Club in Chesapeake.
JUNIOR POINTS: Brandon LaCroix of North Cross continues to build his lead in the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame's McLelland Junior rankings.
Through July, LaCroix had amassed 1,760 points, more than double the amount of second-place Lee Taylor (800) of Patrick Henry.
Clower,of North Cross, and Jason Orlando of Northside are tied for third with 570. William Byrd's Mike Damiano (530), Franklin County's Matthew Chandler (430), PH's Ryan Patterson (430), Lord Botetourt's Daryl Byrd (400), North Cross' Brian Whitaker (370) and Byrd's Greg Austin (350) rounded out the top 10.
MONEY ON LINE: Next Monday's Kazim Temple Mid-Atlantic PGA Club Pro tournament at Hanging Rock will carry a purse of $17,500, organizers announced.
Fifty professionals accompanied by 150 amateurs will play in the event. Clark Sisson of Bethesda, Md., is defending champion.
In conjunction with the tournament, 25 qualifiers from area clubs will square off in a hole-in-one contest that offers $100,000 for an ace.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB