Trey Marrion of Chesapeake captured a major prize before going to college, winning the 67th Eastern Amateur in a sudden-death playoff against Robb Kinder on Saturday at Elizabeth Manor Golf & Country Club in Portsmouth.
Marrion, a Great Bridge High graduate who soon will compete in the Big Ten for Illinois, shot a 3-under-par 67 in the final round for a 10-under-par 270, equaling Kinder. The former New Kent High star and Christopher Newport All-American, a two-time individual runner-up in NCAA Division III, finished at 69.
UNC Greensboro’s Branden Boyce, who shared the third-round lead, fired a final-round 70 for third place at 9 under.
Bobby Dudeck, a former Jamestown High and Radford standout, carded a final-round 70 to complete 72 holes at 8-under 272, tying rising 11th-grader Smith Summerlin of Raleigh, North Carolina, for fourth place.
Marrion bogeyed three holes in his final round, but made up for them with birdies on holes 2, 3, 6, 8, 11 and 18. Kinder birdied 2, 3 and 6, but bogeyed 5 and 12.
In the playoff, both players missed the fairway. Kinder’s second shot was just long and left. It kicked hard off the side of the green and into a hazard. Marrion played his second shot to 15 feet and two-putted for the win after Kinder’s par chip missed.
Kinder, playing in the last group for the third time in the past four years, had a chance to win outright in regulation, but his 9-foot birdie putt slid just by the hole.
Marrion became the eighth Hampton Roads resident to win the event, joining Tom Strange, Curtis Strange, Steve Liebler, JP Leigh, Sean Dougherty, Roger Newsom and Evan Beck.
Sixty-two players completed all 72 holes after making the cut at 5-over 145 or better through 36 holes.
Former Hickory High and Radford player Patrick Gareiss (tied for 13th, 3 under), recent Jamestown High graduate and future West Virginia player Ryan Leach (T-16, 2 under), Churchland High graduate and Washington and Lee University standout Jonathan McEwen (T-21, 1 under) and William & Mary player Preston Burton (T-34, 2 over) were among them.
