Singleton on a roll heading to Kingsmill

Jacob Singleton has some tangible proof that his golf game is in order heading into this week’s VSGA Amateur Championship, which begins today at Kingsmill’s River Course in Williamsburg.

After opening with an ugly 78 at Winton Country Club in the first round of the Central Virginia Invitational Golf Tournament two weekends ago, the former William Campbell standout regrouped and posted consecutive 69s at Colonial Hills and Ivy Hill.

He shot the low round at Colonial on a day when the average score was 83. He tied several others for low-round honors at Ivy and moved from a tie for 35th after the first round into a tie for fifth by the end of the weekend.

Singleton hopes the momentum will carry into this week. The rising Liberty University sophomore is one of two area players in the field — friend and former Randolph-Henry standout Corbin Pillow is the other.

Singleton is playing on an exemption earned from advancing to the round of 16 in last year’s State Am at Lowes Island. After beating Dan Derisio in the round of 32, Singleton lost to the University of Richmond’s Jordan Utley in the round of 16.

That performance jumpstarted an impressive summer of VSGA events for Singleton. He was part of victories in four of five matches during the Virginia-West Virginia and Virginias-Carolinas junior team matches, with the Virginias side winning both competitions.

Singleton also finished third in the VSGA Junior Championship, shooting a three-day 216 on the Woods Course at Kingsmill.

The River Course, the home of the LPGA’s Michelob Ultra Open, will play 207 yards longer than the Woods Course. The course will be set up similar to the Ultra, with one significant change.

The women play on fairways overseeded with ryegrass and face overseeded tall rough. The amateurs will see a course overseeded with Bermuda grass, and the rough won’t be as tall. But it will be considerably thicker.

“It’s a good match-play course, because the par 5s are reachable for most of the players,” Kingsmill vice president of golf Wayne Nooe told VSGA.org. “They are risk-reward. Long hitters can take advantage, but they have to hit the ball straight. The rough will be there, and if you hit it out of play, you need to pay the penalty.”

Singleton will tee off a 8:50 a.m. today from the 10th tee in a group with Fairfax’s Justin Wingo and Bluefield’s John David Hunter. Pillow will start from the first tee at 9:20 p.m. with Powhatan’s Paul Woodson and Fairfax’s Scott Marino.

Defending champion Pat Tallent, a Vienna resident who was seeded 32nd in the 32-player match play field last year, is in this year’s field, along with other longtime amateur standouts like Martinsville’s Keith Decker, Virginia Beach’s Roger Newsom and Tazewell’s Buck Brittain.

Tallent told VSGA.org that he doesn’t play well on Bermuda grass and that last year’s championship at Lowes Island was “an anomaly.”

“There were four factors,” he told the Web site. “I went to the long putter at the beginning of the year, (the championship) was played on a golf course where I was a founding board member, the course was the fastest it’s ever played and it was a down year for young Virginia golfers.”

Tallent’s opponent in last year’s final, John Rosenstock, will not play this week because he his finishing his coursework at Longwood University.

Some other names to watch this week include:

- Pearisburg’s Hampton Ballard, who tied for low amateur honors at last year’s SunTrust State Open of Virginia.

- Alexandria’s Dan Hosek, who won the 2007 VSGA Mid-Amateur Championship.

- Virginia Beach’s Brinson Paolini, the Duke-bound 2007 VSGA Junior champion.

- Virginia Beach’s Chris Tuttle, who won the 2007 VSGA Public Links championship.