Roanoke Country Club's tight, tree-lined layout proved to be an unbeatable case for the field in Saturday's second round of the 35th Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame championship.
Well, there was one guy who walked out of RCC's oven-baked golf courtroom with a pardon. It only figures he's an ex-lawyer.
Darrell Craft, who gave up his law practice a couple years ago to run an assistant living facility, found a couple of brilliant loopholes -- holing two fairway approach shots for an eagle and a birdie -- en route to a sizzling 4-under 67 to highlight the middle round of the 54-hole shootout.
Talk about a major acquittal. Not only was Craft's number the best score of the day by five shots, it propelled him into contention for the biggest triumph of his career. The 38-year-old Roanoker, who was seven shots off the pace following a first-round 74 at Blue Hills on Friday, trails Virginia Tech teammates Marshall Bailey and Aaron Eckstein by one stroke heading into today's final round at Hanging Rock.
Craft, whose major claim to golf fame until now was his runner-up finish to Gary Leroux in the 1998 Roanoke Valley Match Play Championship, had a magical day, jarring a 40-yard wedge shot for an eagle at the par-5 eighth hole and 67-yard approach for a birdie on the par-5 17th.
"I've probably holed out six or seven times from the fairway in tournaments, but I don't think I've ever had two in one round," said Craft, a two-time club champion at Daleville's Ashley Plantation. "Hey, give me the luck any day. I'll take it."
Craft, an All-ODAC golfer at Roanoke College in 1994, had two other birdies on the front to turn in 4-under 32. He made only one bogey -- on No. 10 -- on a course that had the rest of the field for lunch.
Eckstein's 72, which included a pair of back-nine double bogeys, was the next best number on the board. That left him tied for the 36-hole lead at 2-under 140 with Bailey, who struggled to a 73.
"I let a good round get away," said Eckstein, the 2006 champion who turned in 3-under.
Bailey, who like Eckstein started in Tech's rotation as a freshman this past season, said he "was all over the place."
"I'm not hitting the ball that great," he said. "It's kinda if I can get it up and down and make some putts."
The two Hokies will be pulling for each other today at the Rock. If one doesn't win, they hope the other does.
"We're good friends," Eckstein said. "Marshall is a good guy. No complaints with him ... I mean, he could probably be a little more outgoing. He's quiet, you know."
Besides Craft, the biggest move of the day was made by long-knocking Barry Wirt Jr., who recovered from a hideous bogey-bogey, triple-bogey start to get home in 73, leaving him three shots back.
"I had three or four seconds last year and I would like to win something," Wirt said.
Wirt had a two-shot lead in the recent Hunting Hills club championship before making a quintuple bogey-9 on the final hole, which allowed youngster Jack Wilkes to win the title. A distraught Wirt then pounded down a few choice beverages in the clubhouse, and then wagered he could beat his ill-timed "9" with a putter.
"I went out and made a 7 with a putter," a laughing Wirt said. "That was my 'Tin Cup' moment. Everybody has got to have one."
Led by Bailey and his brother, Kyle (75), Botetourt Country Club leads the closely bunched team competition by two shots over three-time defending champion Hidden Valley. Hunting Hills is three shots back, while Blacksburg Country Club is four off the pace.
