Roanoke's Young captures VSGA Amatuer PubLinks title

Justin Young went more than a decade without a winning a top-flight golf tournament. Now, he's won two major crowns in the past six weeks.

Forty-two days after capturing the Roanoke Match Play Championship, the Roanoker won the VSGA Public Links Championship on Sunday at Williamsburg's Golden Horseshoe Golf Club's Green Course.

Young, 35, rolled in an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to down 2009 champion Jimmy Delp of Arlington, 1 up in the title match. In the morning semifinals, Young parred the 19th hole to oust defending champion Jon Hurst of Fredericksburg.

It marked the first VSGA title for Young, who played the professional mini-tours from 2003-06 before basically ditching the game for about five years before regaining his amateur status in 2011.

The former Northside High School and Charleston Southern University golfer played a combined 72 holes in dispatching four opponents by a collective 5-up margin. Three of his victims were former champs.

"It was a lot of golf ... a crazy ride,'' said Young, speaking from cellphone after Sunday's triumph. "I'm running on adrenaline so I will be able to make the long drive home.

"We'll probably celebrate by having a pizza! I'm ecstatic!"

Young, who is a member at Roanoke's Ole Monterey Golf Club, led Delp 2 up at the turn and birdied Nos. 11 and 12 to push the cushion to 4 up. However, Young proceeded to the bogey the next four holes to allow Delp to square the match.

"I had gone 30 holes without a bogey and I felt like the way I way I was hitting the ball ... I didn't really feel like I had the thing won, but I felt like at the time that he would have to play really good coming in to beat me,'' Young said. "Yeah, it kind of went south there for 30 to 45 minutes. I don't know if it was a loss of focus ... but things still started to go sideways.

"At No. 16, I told myself, ‘that this round starts here, you're still in it.' After Jimmy put his ball in the fairway, I hit a 7-iron to about 8 feet and made the birdie to go 1 up. That was a huge shot."

Delp got back to all square when he rolled in a 6-foot par putt on No. 17. On the par-5 final hole, Young watched Delp half-blade his third shot out of a bunker that left him 20 feet from the stick. After Delp missed his birdie putt, Young then closed the deal, coaxing in a downhill, left-to-right birdie putt.

"The putt was dying around the hole, but luckily it caught the left edge of the lip ... then the ball went around to the back side of the hole, hung on the lip and then dropped in!" Young said.

- Randy King

Scott opens FedEx Cup playoffs with a win

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Masters champion Adam Scott won The Barclays on Sunday after everyone around him did their best to lose it.

Scott played bogey-free and closed with a 5-under 66 at Liberty National.

Kevin Chappell had a two-shot lead through 10 holes and went 7 over the rest of the way. Justin Rose three-putted the 18th. Tiger Woods dropped to his knees after a back spasm on the 13th hole when he hooked his approach into the water, leading to a bogey. Woods birdied the 16th and 17th to get within one, and his 25-foot birdie off the 18th green stopped short.

Teen star Lydia Ko wins again in Canada

EDMONTON, Alberta - Teen star Lydia Ko ran away with the Canadian Women's Open - again.

The 16-year-old New Zealand amateur closed with a 6-under 64 on Sunday at Royal Mayfair for a five-stroke victory with a 15-under 265 total.

Fleetwood wins at Gleneagles

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - Tommy Fleetwood of England birdied the first playoff hole Sunday to earn his first European Tour victory at the Johnnie Walker Championships.

Fleetwood also birdied the 18th to finish his round with a 70 and set up a three-way playoff with Stephen Gallacher (67) and Ricardo Gonzalez (70).

Riegger wins Boeing

SNOQUALMIE, Wash. - John Riegger won the Boeing Classic on Sunday in his fifth Champions Tour start, holding off John Cook and Fred Couples at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge.

The 50-year-old Riegger birdied three of the final four holes - holing a 20-footer for birdie on the par-5 18th - for a 4-under 68 and a two-stroke victory over Cook. Riegger finished at 15-under 201.

- Associated Press

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