HANOVER – Back in the final round for a third straight year, Matthew Paradis didn’t leave any doubt that this was his time to be crowned a champion.
Paradis rolled a 40-plus foot putt from the fringe to the cup for eagle on the third hole Friday morning, setting him off on a dominant 36-hole round that was decided in 31 with a 6-and-5 win over Carter Country Club’s Patrick Pelletier on the final day of the 115th New Hampshire Amateur Championship.
The Concord Country Club member and Southern New Hampshire University junior made several key putts through six days and 150 holes at Hanover Country Club, starting with a 20-foot make on the 18th hole in the Round of 64 while on the brink of elimination.
“That hole got me going the rest of the week,” Paradis said. “After I beat Tim (Baines) in some playoff holes, I said this year is mine. It feels unbelievable to finally do it.”
He added two birdies after his eagle to go 5-up on Pelletier on the front-nine Friday morning. He carded a 6-under-par 65 on the first 18 holes at the hilly Hanover course and commanded a 7-up advantage on his opponent.
While the putts were rolling in for Paradis, Pelletier wasn’t finding the same luck on the greens.
“A couple three-putts killed me and then not making any birdie putts, whether it was a 5-footer or a 20-footer, you just can’t survive against anybody putting that badly, especially a player of (Paradis’s) caliber,” Pelletier said.
Paradis threw his arms up after sinking a short putt for par on the 13th hole in the afternoon to seal the match. After losing 4-and-3 to Chris Houston in 2016 and 2-and-1 to Michael Martel last summer, Paradis is glad he won’t have to hear any more verbal jabs.
“It’s a big relief to finally do it,” he said. “I’ve gotten too much, you know, little snide comments over the last couple of years about second-place finishes.”
Paradis played bogey-free golf with an eagle and four birdies through the first 18 holes. He tried to drive the third green again in the afternoon, but his ball clipped the trees on the left and fell out of play.
Pelletier, meanwhile, opted to lay up and birdied the hole, cutting his deficit to 6-down. Paradis played a more conservative game from there and parred each hole through the 11th.
A bogey on the par-4 eighth hole put Pelletier back down by seven holes.
Paradis needed to halve the hole on the par-3 12th to end the match, but his tee shot landed on a steep slope to the right of the green. Pelletier putted for par to keep the round going, but it ended on the 13th hole as both players made par.
The annual tournament is a grind, especially for the players that reach the final stage. After two rounds of stroke play Sunday and Monday, match play began with one round Tuesday, followed by two rounds Wednesday, another two on Thursday, and finally the 36-hole championship match on Friday.
Pelletier defeated 2015 champion Connor Greenleaf (Windham), 1-up, in the quarterfinals Thursday, and then dispatched Brandon Gillis (Souhegan Woods), 2-and-1, in the afternoon.
“It’s such a long week of mental game, and I would say today my mental game probably wasn’t as strong,” Pelletier said.
“I don’t know why, I don’t know if it’s maybe fatigue from the week, but I could tell he was ready.”
Paradis earned his place in the final round by way of a 2-and-1 win over Nashua’s Tom Ethier in Thursday’s semifinal.
He defeated fellow Concord CC member Fletcher Sokul, 6-and-5, in the quarterfinals.
Paradis has a couple more tournaments in the coming week. He’ll compete in a U.S. Amateur Championship qualifier at Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, Mass., on Monday. He’ll then head to Portland, Maine, for the 89th New England Amateur Championship, which begins Tuesday.
Paradis will head into those rounds with some new confidence after getting over the hump and winning his first state am.
“The last few years I happened to not play very good in the finals, silly mistakes and not thinking,” he said. “I made sure I was ready to go today and made sure I didn’t do anything dumb that was going to get me in a lot of trouble.”
Did he do it?
“I did pretty dang good,” he said. “One bad hole out of (31)? I’ll take it.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)