Beaver Meadow’s Josiah Hakala had a huge day in round two of stroke-play qualifying to tie for the top spot on the leaderboard at the 122nd New Hampshire Amateur at Rochester Country Club.
Hakala, an 18-year-old New Ipswich resident, carded an even-par 72 in Monday’s first roun, but shot a 7-under 65 on Tuesday, the best round of the day by three strokes. Hakala birdied the 18th hole to end the second round, moving him up 17 places and into a tie with Portsmouth 26-year-old Justin Grondahl (NHGA e-Club).
Grondahl shot 4-under 68 and 3-under 69 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, to take the lead through day one of competition and hold a share of it through the second round.
“(Monday) I didn’t get anything going and didn’t really hit it that great,” Hakala said in an interview with the New Hampshire Golf Association of his first-round performance. “I hit it really nice (Tuesday), pretty stress-free. I actually left some out there, I had two three-putts, so it’s good to know that a low one is out there, and I’m looking forward to match play.”
Grondahl has the No. 1 seed, while Hakala will have the No. 2 seed for match play, which began Wednesday. The round-of-64 matches started following a playoff hole with nine golfers vying for the 64th and final spot in the bracket. The rounds of 32 and 16 will be contested on Thursday, followed by the quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday, and the 36-hole championship match on Saturday.
“Match play is a little bit different, but it’s still the same course,” Hakala said. “I won’t change much from what I played today strategy-wise. I played pretty solid and kept the ball in front of me. So if you can put the pressure on your opponent that way, it ends up working pretty well.”
Belmont’s Jim Cilley (Laconia Country Club) carded a 2-under 70 Monday and an even-par 72 on Tuesday to finish in a four-way tie for sixth place. Cilley, the 2011 state am champion, is one of six former champions who made the cut.
Defending champion Rob Henley (Lake Sunapee CC) had a strong opening round of 3-under to finish with an overall score of 1-under, putting him in a five-way tie for 10th.
Gavin Richardson (Concord CC) shot 2-over to finish in a four-way tie for 20th.
Will McLaughlin (Concord CC), Stephen Quillinan (Beaver Meadow) and Scott Underhill (Canterbury Woods) all carded a two-day total of 5-over to tie for 37th.
Hunter Duncan of Concord CC (tied 45th, 6-over) was 1-under on Tuesday, moving up 52 places in the second round to make the cut, while Zachary Nelson of Pembroke Pines (tied 59th, 8-over) also had a big second round, making par to move up 49 places.
Andrew Surprenant (Beaver Meadow) tied for 51st with a 7-over to advance to match play.
Concord’s Rob Parsi (NHGA e-Club) shot a combined 10-over, just one stroke behind the nine golfers who competed in the playoff hole for the final match play spot.
Wednesday’s round-of-64 matches were not completed at press time.