HANOVER – There wasn’t much for Matthew Paradis to worry about. The 22-year-old held a share of the lead after the opening round and was never in danger of missing the cut on Monday.
William Everett, on the other hand, was fighting for his tournament life in a sudden-death playoff hole with only four seats left at the table for five golfers at the New Hampshire Amateur Championship.
On opposite ends of the spectrum on cut day at Hanover Country Club, both advanced to the first round of match play on an afternoon that saw seven local golfers make the cut in the 115th installment of the Granite State tournament.
“This is the second time I’ve been in the march,” said Everett, who plays out of Laconia Country Club and secured the 64th and final seed for Tuesday’s match play. “The odds were good, it was five guys for four spots. You’re just trying to make par and hope someone makes a mistakes and that’s what happened.”
With the cut line set at 154 (12-over-par) following 36 holes of stroke play, Everett, Tim Baines, Rob Zimmerman, Matt Keane and Bob Kearney all geared up for a five-hole playoff. It didn’t last longer than the opening 417-yard par 4 on the first hole where Everett carded par and Kearney became the odd-man out.
“I played not very well (Sunday), but scored okay and (Monday) I actually played well and didn’t score that well,” Everett said. “I shot a 78, 43 on the back nine, so it was pretty bad. I had some putting woes on both days but I was very happy to make it in.”
Everett joins Paradis, Jim Cilley, Garret Olivar, Fletcher Sokul, A.J. Correia and William Hartigan as the only locals to make the cut.
None were hotter than Paradis through the first two rounds.
Paradis, a runner-up finisher in each of the last two tournaments who plays out of Concord Country Club, was a 4-under after the opening round Sunday, and came back Monday with a 2-under-par 69 to finish stroke play tied for second with Ryan Tombs at 6-under (136).
As the No. 2 seed, Paradis will tee off against No. 63 Baines in Tuesday’s first round of match play at 9:38 a.m.
“I had a fairly slow start (Sunay) with eight pars in a row, and then made birdies on nine and 10,” Paradis said. “(Monday) I was still 2-over through eight holes with a couple of three-putts, but I happened to birdie the ninth and 10th again today so that got me back on track.”
Paradis said that nothing changes for him heading into match play.
“I just go out there, I don’t think too much about it,” he said. “I play golf seven days a week so I get my hours in at practice and when it comes tournament time I just kind of go out there and trust it.”
Cilley, the 2011 State Am champ out of Ridgewood Country Club, finished tied for 10th at 143 after shooting 1-over-par 72 on Day 2. He’s joined by Concord Country Club’s Fletcher Sokul in 10th, who shot even par on Monday.
“(Sunday) I felt like, well, that’s a fake score because that wasn’t a good ball-striking day and the putter saved me,” Cilley said. “You don’t know how often the putters going to be that good. But then (Monday), I hit it so much better and feel really good now so hopefully that translates to (Tuesday).”
The demands of the course and the small greens are just a few of the factors that excite Cilley for match play.
“I think it’s a really good match play venue,” he said. “I think that a lot of pars will win holes, but I also think if you get the wrong guy, with the small greens, if somebody hits a lot of greens they are going to have a ton of birdie looks.”
Olivar, playing out of Canterbury Woods, finished tied for 29th at 149 after shooting 74, while Concord Country Club’s Correia (10-over, 152) and Hartigan (8-over, 150) both did more than enough to advance.
New Hampshire Golf Association tournament director Greg Howell expressed his pleasure with how the course played over the first 36 holes and wasn’t shocked to see Pat Pelletier at the top of the leaderboard at 7 under.
“The course has held up great and the scores are right about where we expected,” Howell said. “Seven-under is a pretty good low score for Pelletier; he knows the course pretty well and we sort of expected if somebody was going to go low, it would be someone who knew the course well.”
There was also some surprising names under the cut line, including a pair of former champs. Nick MacDonald, the 2010 champion, missed the cut after shooting an 80 to finish 16-over at 158. Craig Steckowych, who won it all in 1990 and 1998, was right at the cut line at 12-over, but he wasn’t present for the playoff.
Other notable names not to make the cut included Concord Country Club’s Kurt Eddins (13-over, 155), Tyler Cole (14-over), Jim Cardoso (15-over), Beaver Meadow’s Derek Jensen (14-over) and Joshua Lacasse, who finished 16-over out of Pembroke Pines.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)