VSGA‘s Golf in the Commonwealth Podcast

VSGA communications intern Ben Walls catches up with two sides who competed in the recent VSGA Parent-Child Championship -- Olivia and Gregory Minjack and Joey and David Jordan. Listen to find out what keeps them coming back to one of the VSGA's most unique events.

The 2022 State Open of Virginia presented by CapTech begins Friday, July 15 at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian. Listen to catch up with four of the event's competitors, including defending champion Evan Beck and last year's low professional, Mark Lawrence Jr.

Grayson Wood and Ross Funderburke will meet in the 109th VSGA Amateur Championship final match on Friday, July 1. We visit with both competitors ahead of the big 36-hole match.

The 109th VSGA Amateur Championship begins Monday, June 27 at Cedar Point Club in Suffolk. Before Sunday's practice round, we caught up with four of the competitors in the field to preview the event -- defending champion Jimmy Taylor, three-time finalist Jordan Utley, 2022 VSGA Four-Ball champ Adam Houck and two-time Senior Open of Virginia champion Dave Pulk.

In this episode of Golf in the Commonwealth, we’re chatting with the defending champion of the VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship, Jessica Spicer. A North Carolina native who had a decorated career at Virginia Tech, Jessica and her twin sister Sarah recently won the VSGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship. Jessica talks about how the twins got started in golf, her time in Blacksburg, and her future...

In this episode of Golf in the Commonwealth, we’re celebrating the scholarship recipients at VSGA Day, which was held on Monday, May 23 at Richmond Country Club. Listen in as VSGA P.J. Boatwright intern Ben Walls chats with our five named scholarship award winners. Stick around until the end to hear from VSGA Senior Four-Ball champions Buck Brittain and Jon Hurst. Chris Lang caught up with the bac...

In this episode of Golf in the Commonwealth, Chris Lang chats with aspiring young professional golfer Peter Gasperini. A two-time VSGA Amateur semifinalist from Halifax who played for five years at Radford University before transferring to VCU, Gasperini recently qualified for conditional status on PGA Tour Canada. He has his foot in the door, as he says, and he’s ready to put in the work to make...

In this episode of Golf in the Commonwealth, Chris Lang chats with Wells Fargo Championship tournament director Gary Sobba. The event is moving just across the river from Virginia to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms this year due the Presidents Cup being played at its usual home, Quail Hollow, later this year. After that conversation, we recap the opening tournament of the 2022 VSGA championship schedu...

It’s tournament time! The VSGA championship season opens on Monday, April 11 and Golf in the Commonwealth has you covered with a full preview of the championship season. Tournament department staffers Josh Coates, Amanda Braun and Kent Holubar join host Chris Lang to discuss the high points of this year’s championship schedule, with insight into some of the venues and new things players will see a...

We’re releasing this installment on Thursday, March 10, the opening round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. We’ll hear from someone on the ground in Florida, past VSGA intern Daniel Stamper who now works for Trackman as a Tour Operator. Daniel takes us through his long journey from the state of Washington to VCU’s golf team, the value of the connections he made along the way in VCU’s Ce...

For our second episode of 2022, we’re talking with Michael Brennan, the 2019 VSGA Amateur champion who recently had the opportunity to play in the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational after winning the Collegiate Showcase at Riviera Country Club. It was another accomplishment in a career filled with them. Now a sophomore at Wake Forest, Brennan has won four individual collegiate titles, and all indicat...

For our first episode of 2022, we catch up again with VSGA manager of championships and junior golf Kent Holubar to see how his Youth on Course incentive trip to Pebble Beach went. Kent was on the podcast in 2021 prior to the 100-Hole Hike, and thanks to hitting the incredible benchmark of $10,000 raised for Youth on Course in Virginia, he earned a trip to California in December to play several ic...

For our final episode of 2021 we thought it appropriate to provide kind of an all-encompassing look at the VSGA and who better to offer that than our Executive Director, Matt Smiley. Many listeners have asked to hear a conversation with Matt over the course of the year so here you are. That being said, we actually had this conversation back in the fall as we were getting ready for the 100-Hole Hik...

This week we’re sharing David Partridge’s Virginia Golf Hall of Fame induction speech. You may know David’s name from our Virginia Golfer magazine where he’s the author of our recurring Great Holes feature, or as a five-time VSGA player of the year winner or, as you’ll hear from Dottie Pepper, David is the player with the third most VSGA wins behind only Keith Decker and Vinny Giles. Thanks to our...

This week we have audio from this fall’s Virginia Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Kandi Kessler Comer was inducted with the class of 2020 and is currently the Director of Golf at Orchard Creek and has been recognized as a top teacher in Virginia by Golf Digest and as a US Kids Top 50 Junior Instructor.  Special thanks to our friends at Hourigan Construction, Lansing Building Products, Markel...

Shopping for clubs at local thrift stores was the most affordable way for a then 22-year-old to get into the game. That quickly became an obsession of searching for bargain clubs that he’d then rebuild and play with himself or sell to others. Five years later, the Goodwill Golfing Instagram account is informing new golfers on clubs from the past and scratching the itch for hipsters looking for nic...

This week we're returning to our conversations with women who qualified for the 2021 US Women’s Mid-Am and we’re talking with Alexandra Austin. Alex was medalist at the Fredericksburg Country Club qualifier making birdie on the 18th hole to shoot a one-under par 71. Alex was also the runner-up in the 2021 VSGA Women’s Amateur and earlier in the season partnered with Lauren Greenlief to win their s...

It's Giving Tuesday 2021 and your opportunity to have an impact on golf in Virginia!   Visit VSGA.org/engage/donate to make a donation today.

We’re returning this week to our conversations with women who qualified for the 2021 US Women’s Mid-Am and this week we’re talking with Kristine Rohrbaugh. Kristine is a Richmond native who attended the College of William and Mary and has really been in and around golf most of her life with her father having been a professional and owning a couple golf stores in the Richmond area. Kristine shares...

This week we're sharing a conversation focused on our veterans, their service to our country and involvement with golf. That led us to Mark Lynch the PGA professional and Vice President of Golf Operations for the First Tee of Greater Richmond and US Army veteran. Mark shares how he enlisted shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and through his deployments in Africa began to find golf as...

This week we’re talking with Andrea Miller. Andrea qualified for the US Senior Women’s Open this year and in VSGA play won her second consecutive VSGA Senior Women’s Amateur title. For the next few weeks we’re going to be sharing conversations with the Virginia women who competed in the US Women’s Mid-Am in September. Qualifying for a USGA championship is always a big deal and the diversity of age...

This week we’re sharing a conversation Matt had over the summer with Abby Liebenthal. Abby’s full-time job is the Senior Manager of US Open Fan Engagement for the USGA, a position she’s been in for almost the last two years. She’s been in the golf industry her entire career including time at Acushnet and the Tiger Woods Foundation but her side hustle is what we’re really talking about in this conv...

We're now a full month after the 100-Hole Hike and sharing our conversation with Lance Lemon. Lance and Matt Pochily have been friends for a few years leading up to the hike and had the chance to playing the first 36 holes or so with each other during the event. While everyone had a different strategy for carrying their bag and making it through the day, Lance alternated from carrying his bag on h...

Just a couple weeks after US Women’s Mid-Am in which five Virginia women competed at Berkley Hall in South Carolina, it seemed appropriate that we finally catch up with the 2015 champion, Virginia’s own Lauren Greenlief. While many listeners have seen or heard of Lauren in some way, this interview offers a different look at her journey to college golf at UVA and why an amateur at her level chooses...

This week we’re returning to meet another one of hikers from September’s 100-Hole Hike and will bounce between hiker profiles and other relevant Virginia golf interviews in the coming weeks. This week we’re talking with hiker Rachel Collins who came down from the northern Virginia area to join us at The Hollows. Rachel married into a big golf family and after not too long got into the game herself...