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Former Gilmer County High School golfer Travis Woodford is still making golfing news, according to the Charleston Daily Mail.
The 31-year-old budget analyst for the Federal Bureau of Prisons should be able to qualify for his seventh West Virginia Amateur competing in a qualifier at the Bridgeport Country Club.
Monday's qualifier will complete the 100-player field for the Amateur, scheduled August 6-9 at the Greenbrier.
The first two rounds will be played on the Old White course, with the final two scheduled for The Greenbrier course.
A member of the Glenville Golf Club, Woodford remains a "public course" golfer, which allowed him to play earlier this month in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Catigny Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill.
He finished 12-over-par on the 7,028-yard course, but it was an experience he won't forget.
"That was my first USGA event and I was one of the older players in the field," Woodford said. "It was truly awesome. They pick you up at the airport in a limousine to take you to the hotel. It's really first class.
"I was probably about as nervous as I've ever been. I didn't play badly. I was telling my wife on the way home that I'd give myself a B. It's a tough golf course," he told the Daily Mail.
Perhaps his biggest qualifying win came at Riverside Golf Club in Mason County - the only Public Links qualifier held in West Virginia. He won in a playoff, with a par on the second hole.
On the other hand, he has plenty of experience in the West Virginia Open and the State Amateur.
Woodford has played the Open in three of the last five years and the Amateur the last six years. He failed to make the cut in last month's Open at Lakeview Resort in Morgantown.
Among his problems is time to play. He can get in nine holes sometimes after work hours, but consistency suffers because of the circumstances.
"We don't have a driving range in Glenville, so it's just a matter of going out in the evening and hitting it around for nine holes," Woodford said.
His goal remains earning a spot in the West Virginia-Virginia team matches. Despite not having any children and a wife willing enough to be his caddy at Catigny, Woodford has no aspirations of going pro.
He told the Daily Mail, "I'm not nearly good enough to turn pro. That requires a lot of time."
As far as qualifying for the Amateur goes?
"If I play well, I'll make it," Woodford said. "If I don't, then I won't make it."
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