When William & Mary was founded in the 17th century and the golf program began playing in 1928, it isn't easy in 2021 to be a "first."  Rising junior Jimmy Taylor (Alexandria, Va.) made himself one on Friday, however, becoming the Tribe's first-ever winner of the Virginia State Golf Association's State Amateur Championship.  Taylor defeated former Richmond Spider Jordan Utley, 7 & 6, to win the title in a 36-hole match-play format at the Country Club of Petersburg.

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Taylor is believed to be the first golfer with W&M ties to win the VSGA State Amateur title.  The previous best finish was by Steve Isaacs '70, who was the medalist (low score after the stroke play qualifier) in 1975.  Previous winners in the event, which dates to 1911, includes PGA legends Curtis Strange and Lanny Wadkins.

This spring, Taylor averaged 73.67 strokes per round for the Tribe, and went 205-118 (.635) in head-to-head play over 15 rounds.  He shot a team-low 68 (-4) twice, including at the CAA Championships, and had his best finish of the year (215, -1) at the Golfweek Spring Invitational.  After his first two years with the Green and Gold, Taylor ranks third in career scoring average at 73.79 strokes per round.

This week at the VSGA State Amateur, Taylor advanced to the 32-player match-play bracket in a tie for 22nd overall, shooting 71-70 (-3) in two rounds of stroke play qualifying.  In his first-round match-up, Taylor defeated Radford's Patrick Gareiss in 19 holes, and then took the second round 2-up over Virginia Tech's Connor Johnson.  Thursday morning in his quarterfinal match, Taylor won 3 & 1 over Sam Jung, a rising senior at Virginia, to advance to the semifinals for the second time in three years.  In the semis, he defeated former Wake Forest All-American Evan Beck 1-up to make the finals.

In the finals with his teammate Matthew Feinstein (McLean, Va.) on the bag, Taylor quickly took control with wins on the first two holes to go ahead 2-up.  Utley won two of three sandwiched around another win for Taylor on 6-8 to complete the front nine with Taylor leading 1-up.  He got back to 2-up with a win on No. 13, then added two more wins on 15 & 18 to hit the break point with a 4-up lead.  The second round after lunch kept momentum firmly with the Tribe team, as Taylor again birdied 1 & 2 to go 6-up.  He reached as many as 8-up with wins on 7 & 9, and finished 7-up overall before the match was conceded after finishing the 30th hole.

With his win, Taylor also earned an automatic spot at the State Open Championships, July 16-18 at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Va.