DATE: Wednesday, August 20, 1997            TAG: 9708190506
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Fore!: Your Weekly Local Golf Report

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER  

                                            LENGTH:   44 lines

CHAMPS LIKE BEACH OPEN

If the number of past winners entered is indication of its popularity, then the Virginia Beach Open has become a winner.

All four previous champions are back for the seventh annual Virginia Beach Open, which begins Friday at Honey Bee Golf Club in Virginia Beach. Included are defending champion Tommy Masters, three-time champion Bryan Sullivan, 1992 titleist Dennis Winters and 1995 winner John Stone, who also played in last week's PGA Championship.

``I think we have a pretty good date in that we fall the week after a similar event in North Carolina,'' said tournament director Brendan Curley. ``And we offer enough of a purse to excite the players.''

This year's is $35,000 - winner's share of $7,000 - with large chunks coming from major sponsors St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Titleist and Pro Link Golf, makers of on-cart distance gauges.

It's enough cash to keep this field loaded with quality. The amateurs also play for $5,000, with a maximum first-place award of $500.

There is an additional $5,000 purse for Thursday's Pro-Am, with a $1,000 winner's share. Stone shot 9-under-par 61 last season to win the Pro-Am.

ACES AND EIGHTS: Eight-year-old Michael Dula will have an interesting tale to tell when he enters third grade at Princess Anne Elementary in a couple weeks and the teacher asks, ``How did you spend your summer?''

Dula took part in a junior golf program at Owl's Creek Golf Center in Virginia Beach and on Monday, the program's final, he aced the 96-yard 10th hole with a 7-iron.

The clinic ran for eight weeks and Dula's age group played a six-hole tournament on Monday. Dula, who took part in the clinic for a third straight year, shot 9-over-par 29 and was edged by a shot by playing partner Matt Leach.

But there was no beating Dula's reaction to his hole-in-one.

``He hit the shot really well,'' said Kristal Cramer, a clinic instructor who was monitoring the group. ``I thought it might have gone a little long, then I checked the hole.

``Michael was stunned. I said, `Hey buddy, you made a hole-in-one. Some people play their whole lives without making one.' Then he grinned ear to ear.''

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