Photo courtesy of The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot

Brinson Paolini of Virginia Beach hits a tee shot during Friday's play in the Virginia State Amateur. Paolini faces Blacksburg's Lanto Griffin in today's 36-hole final.

SUFFOLK -- Brinson Paolini will arise early today to prepare for his 8 a.m. tee time at Cedar Point Golf Club as he tries to defend his Virginia State Amateur title.

He'll roll down to his kitchen and sit down for some scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice.

And when he looks across the kitchen table, he'll find Lanto Griffin, his opponent for today.

The two are good enough friends that when Griffin won his two matches on Thursday and had no hotel reservation for the night, he called Paolini with the all-too common college battle cry: "Dude, can I crash at your place?"

"How about that?" said Paolini, who heads for Duke in the fall. "He's sleeping 20 feet away from me in the next room."

Whatever the pair ate on Friday morning, they should think about repeating the menu today. Both were as hot as the weather during the quarterfinal and semifinal match wins that got them to today's scheduled 36-hole final.

Paolini, the 18-year-old sensation from Virginia Beach, birdied six of his first nine holes in his quarterfinal match as he disposed of Fielding Brewbaker of Salem, 3 and 2.

Just in case anyone thought it was a fluke, he then birdied seven of the first 10 in the afternoon as he rolled to a 5-and-4 win over Virginia Tech's Garland Green in the semifinals.

"The way Brinson's playing, I knew I had to go about 6-under to have a chance at winning," said Green, somewhat shell-shocked after Paolini ran in a 40-footer from off the green at the par-4 eighth and followed with a 4-iron to within a foot of the hole at the 218-yard ninth.

"What he did at eight and nine didn't help my chances, but I did that to a guy earlier in the week, so now I know how it feels."

Not to be outdone, the 21-year-old Griffin came out in his afternoon semifinal match and four birdies and an eagle over his first six holes on his way to a 4-and-3 win over Richmond's Ben Keefer. Griffin was 8-under through 15 holes and said it was his first bogey-free round of the year.

Griffin, who is from Blacksburg, is a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth and was the CAA player of the year as a junior.

He had a chance to play in the Northeast Amateur this week, but passed to play here.

He came with a singular goal: winning. Griffin lost in the semifinals last year; otherwise, he and Paolini might have been staring at a repeat final today.

As for their friendship, it began years ago, when Paolini was the youngest member of a Virginia Juniors Team playing at the Virginias-Carolinas matches. Griffin was the team's oldest member.

"I was 17 and he was 14," Griffin said.

"Lanto kind of took me under his wing and showed me the ropes," Paolini said. "Since then, we've been good friends. He's stayed at my house before when playing in the Eastern Amateur."

Eight different golfers have successfully defended this title since the format changed to match play in 1922, but none were as young as Paolini. Chandler Harper was 20 when he successfully defended the title in 1934.

Griffin stands in his way.

"One thing's for sure," Griffin said. "If I oversleep my tee time, that means Brinson overslept it, too."