THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120504
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The 39th annual Eastern Amateur opens Thursday at Elizabeth Manor and it might be billed as a tournament of champions this year.
In addition to the tourney's defending champion, hometowner Steve Liebler, the field includes North-South Amateur titlist Paul Simson, ACC champion Hank Kim of North Carolina State, Virginia State Junior champ Matt Paulson of Cox High and two former Eastern winners, J.P. Leigh and Tom McKnight.
Also entered are Maryland's Miguel Rivera, the Bobby Bowers Memorial winner; Palmetto Classic champion Scott Summers of Furman; and East Carolina's Josh Dickinson, who was Colonial Athletic Association champion last year and runner-up this year.
Liebler and McKnight are paired together with Kim in the first threesome off in the afternoon. They tee off at 12:30 p.m. on the first tee.
Simson and Leigh are in the following threesome at 12:39 along with Tony DeLuca, last year's runner-up. DeLuca, from Vienna, Va., finished one shot behind Liebler.
A last-minute withdrawal due to a business conflict was David Partridge, recent winner of the Virginia State Amateur. Also pulling out was Virginia's Simon Cooke, an 11th place finisher two years ago.
The 168-player field includes six of last year's top 10 finishers. Liebler, then the golf coach at the University of South Carolina and now the director of junior golf in North Carolina, posted a winning 72-hole score of 4-under-par 276.
Liebler actually has back-to-back victories in the Eastern - 13 years apart. He won in 1981, shortly before beginning a dozen years as a professional, including 4 1/2 on the PGA Tour. He regained his amateur status, promptly won his first tournament by taking the Columbia (S.C.) city championship and returned to capture the Eastern.
Other top finishers of 1994 gunning for the crown in the four-day tourney are Brett Boner of Auburn, Ryan Parker of North Carolina, former Michigan player David Hall of Grosse Point Shores, Mich. and Galax's McKnight, a three-time State Amateur winner and former State Open champion.
Former U.Va. player Jimmy Flippen, a runner-up to Simson in the North-South, is entered. Flippen was ninth two years ago.
With the caliber of the field and the Elizabeth Manor course in excellent condition, there could be a run at the tournament's scoring records. The 72-hole mark is 268, registered by Curtis Strange in 1975 and matched by Jon Hurst in 1990. Other tournament records are an 18-hole 62, posted by Philip McCormick in 1985, and a 36-hole mark of 130, shot by Andy Bean in 1974. by CNB