89th West Virginia Open underway at Stonewall Resort
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PARKERSBURG -- It looks like David Bradshaw is more than ready for the 89th West Virginia Open, which gets underway at 7:30 a.m. today at Stonewall Resort.
Tuesday afternoon marked the fourth time in his career he captured the Coca-Cola Shootout. Bradshaw, the defending champ who has won the event a dozen times, will tee off on No. 1 at 8:24 a.m. alongside Gilmer County/East Carolina graduate Philip Reale and Capital/Marshall graduate Christian Brand.
Vienna's Chuck Henderson has the earliest local start at 7:48 a.m.
Kenny Hess, the 2020 winner, participated in the Coca-Cola Shootout once again but was unable to defend that title as Joseph Kalaskey finished runner-up to Bradshaw with Mike Rogers placing third.
"I've had strep since last Sunday," Hess explained on Monday. "Today (pro-am) was the first day playing since last Monday. Still no energy or focus. It was terrible (on Monday). I have zero expectations at the moment."
Hess, who said he was "hitting it everywhere" did note that at least his "short game feels good."
Ravenswood graduate and Mountain East Conference 2021 Player of the Year Alex Easthom of West Liberty has no clue how things might go during the next couple of days. The 132 players will compete today and Thursday with the top 60 low scores and ties advancing to Friday's final round.
"I just started working on a huge swing change about five days ago," stated Easthom, who is going to use this fall as his COVID year with the Hilltoppers since he's already earned his degree and now will work toward his master's. "I went from swinging right and hitting draws to now I'm trying to swing left and hit fades."
"The struggle is the new release pattern. If I release it like I used to it's way left.
"I hold on and don't release at all it's way right. Finding that balance of letting it release naturally and not adding anything to it has been hard. I look at it as this will be my only shot of making it on tour. My old swing, while effective at times, was mainly about timing. The new one will be less about timing, making it more consistent. I looked at it as I only have another year before I try to turn pro, so I needed to get on this as soon as possible."
Roane County graduate Garrett Simon, who is at Marshall University and might consider trying to walk on for his sophomore season, is just glad to have qualified for his second career W.Va. Open.
"I learned a lot from last year's experience to say the least," Simon said. "I learned that there is very tough competition in the Open and it's no joke. I look forward to this year. I've played Stonewall a couple of times. I think it will be better than last year."
Simon only attempted to qualify once and he was successful in Wheeling.
"To be honest, I think my expectation is to make top 50, realistically," added the ex-Raider. "This past winter I ended up having two bulging discs and a torn sciatic nerve.
"I couldn't move during the winter and I ended up having surgery. I'm not going to lie. I feel better than ever and I'm ready to play."
Other area golfers competing this week include Belpre's Lydel Norman, Spencer's Cole Moore, Glenville's Travis Woodford as well as Parkersburg's Michael Koreski, Ben Palmer and Matthew Hess.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com.