There is hot, there is July hot, and then there is Drew Weaver hot.

The High Point native, who won the 2007 British Amateur championship during his Virginia Tech career, may be the hottest golfer on any professional tour at the moment.

In his past eight starts on the eGolf Professional Tour, Weaver, 25, has two victories and four runner-up finishes. In that span, he is 106-under par in his past 30 competitive rounds. He’s won more than $100,000 on the eGolf tour this year (fastest to that mark ever), and four of the six eGolf players who have reached six figures in earnings in a season are now on the PGA Tour.

“I feel a nice sense of calmness going into each tournament now, just knowing that if I continue to prepare the way I have and keep the pedal down, things can continue to get better,” Weaver said this week.

“Some people who have had runs like this seem to have gotten complacent. They take a break, relax a little and maybe lose their edge. I’m going to try to keep working.”

More than two years ago, Weaver moved to the Sea Island, Ga., area after signing with Crown Sports Management, based there. The move allowed Weaver to be around a group of PGA Tour players, including Davis Love III, Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Matt Kuchar and others while also working closely with fitness guru Randy Myers and swing coach Mark Love.

With no status on the PGA or Web.com Tours, Weaver has used the eGolf tour to raise his profile, his bank account and his confidence. He’s tried to qualify for some Web.com events, and he’s hopeful of landing a sponsor exemption for the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro next month. But Weaver said he’s learned he plays better when he keeps his mind off things he can’t control.

“The thing for me is to work hard and do the things I can to get in tournaments but just let it play out,” Weaver said. “(Not having tour status) has been difficult at different points, but one reason I’m at Sea Island is to surround myself with the right people.”

CHIP SHOTS

Three Charlotteans – Stefan Brewer, Zachery Munroe and Barry Dyche – were among five players to qualify for next month’s U.S. Amateur in a 36-hole qualifier at The Warrior. Also earning spots at Cherry Hills outside Denver, Colo., were Isaac Spencer of Winston-Salem and Ryan Eibner of Greenville, N.C., who beat Charlotte’s Joe Jaspers in a playoff for the final spot.

• Lancaster Golf Club will reopen Thursday after a two-month, $500,000 course renovation. The primary work was done on the greens, which were converted from bent grass to the more heat-tolerant Bermuda.

• Ron Kirkpatrick picked up more than a trophy with his victory Sunday in the Carolina Am at Providence Country Club. Kirkpatrick won by four strokes over Taylor Banks, and both players earned an exemption into the Aug. 9 pre-qualifying event for the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship.

• Mike Fresina has been named tournament director for the inaugural Symetra Classic Sept. 10-16 at Raintree Country Club. Fresina, a Davidson graduate, most recently worked with the Street & Smith Sports Group.

OBSERVATIONS

Is a decision looming on the legality of the long and belly putters?

It sounds like it.

During his post-Open Championship press conference Monday, R&A chief executive Peter Dawson explained that his organization and the USGA are giving the subject a long, serious look. Not coincidentally, the question was raised again after belly-putter-wielding Ernie Els won the British Open after long-putter whiz Adam Scott kicked it away over the final holes.

If you ask me, you shouldn’t be able to anchor a club to your body during a stroke whether you’re doing it like Scott does it, like Els does it, like Bernhard Langer has done it and like any other putting-afflicted soul does battle on the greens. It doesn’t mean I’m right, only that I think golfers should be required to make a stroke, not use a pendulum.

That’s not to discredit in any way the major championship victories of Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson or Ernie Els. If belly putting or long putting is so great, everyone would do it. They don’t.

“Anchoring is what we’re looking at, method of stroke, and it’s all about putting around a fixed pivot point, whether that fixed pivot point is in your belly or under your chin or on your chest,” Dawson told reporters Monday. “I don’t distinguish between the two. It’s a matter of stroke issue.”

Don’t expect an immediate announcement but perhaps something later this year.