KEENE – In theory he was competing against him, but Jim Cilley wasn’t afraid to do a little cheering, either.
Belmont’s Cilley was playing with Matt Paradis from the Concord Country Club on Tuesday during the second round of stroke play at the New Hampshire State Amateur Golf Championship. After shooting a 71 on Monday, Paradis carded a 6-under 66 at Bretwood Golf Course on Tuesday to finish tied for first overall and earn the top seed for match play, which begins Wednesday.
“Matt had six birdies on the last nine holes … and we were actually rooting for him to get one or two more, see if he could go really low,” Cilley said.
The 21-year-old Paradis, who was the runner-up at last year’s state am, was also rooting for more.
“It could have been real good out there,” Paradis said. “I missed a few opportunities, had a couple good par saves on the front that kept momentum going, and I just stayed patient throughout the day and finally got a few putts to roll on the back.”
After making par on his first 10 holes, Paradis birdied five of his next six and then finished things off with an 8-foot birdie putt.
“That was a bonus,” Paradis said. “It’s a tough diving hole and I was just trying to get it in play. I would have been happy with par, but I hit a good wedge shot in and it was great to walk off with a birdie and get some confidence for the week.”
That was pretty much the story of the day for Paradis – safe off the tee, deadly approach and finishing putts.
“Matt is such an extremely straight iron player,” Cilley said. “His ball doesn’t cut, it doesn’t draw and he hits it the right distance every time. So you hit it straight and you hit it the right distance, you’re going to be inside of 10 feet on every hole and that’s what he did and he made all of them just about. It was fun to watch.”
John DeVito (Passaconaway Country Club) also finished with a 137 to tie Paradis for first. Devito, a 27-year-old who graduated from Nashua South in 2008, won the New Hampshire Golf Association’s Mid-Amateur Match Play tournament at Beaver Meadow in May, but he hasn’t had much success at the state am before this year.
“Honestly, I was just trying to make the cut,” DeVito said. “But when you get out there and you’re on a run and putting it well, birdies can drop for sure.”
Cilley, the 2011 champ, finished with a two-day total of 143. That tied him for 11th with four other golfers, including John Clancy, who just graduated from Southern New Hampshire University (where he played with Paradis) and is now living in Concord and playing out of the Concord Country Club.
This is the first New Hampshire state am for Clancy, who is from Massachusetts, and he had an impressive debut on Monday by shooting a 2-under 70, which put him in third place. Clancy sputtered to start on Tuesday, finishing the front nine at 2-over, but he turned things around on the back.
“I played well yesterday, hit a lot of fairways and greens, it was stress free,” Clancy said. “Then today I had to grind a little bit more … club just didn’t feel the same in my hands.”
Cilley said it was his putting that carried him during the first two days. As well as the 3-wood he had to borrow after his brand new 3-wood snapped on Monday. After grabbing clubs from his uncle, his brother, a golf pro and trying out an old one of his own, Cilley settled on the 3-wood from his caddy, Wayne Farmer. And wouldn’t you know it, that 3-wood produced some great shots for Cilley.
“I hit it perfect all day,” Cilley said. “So Wayne’s going to have to get some credit for that.”
A third SNHU golfer, Bow’s Josh LaCasse, also qualified for match play. LaCasse shot a 71-74 to finish tied for 16th.
“I putted really well the last two days,” LaCasse said. “My tee game was a little suspect, but my short game saved me a lot of strokes.”
The father-son duo of Bob and Travis Landry once again made the cut. Bob, the elder Landry and former Merrimack Valley golf coach, shot a 75-75 to tie for 33rd.
“Those are good numbers, they get me in,” Landry said. “My putting and chipping did it. I did not hit the ball well. I’ve got to figure that out.”
Travis Landry finished tied for 37th after shooting 76-75. One of the other golfers at 151 was Kurt Eddins, a Concord High grad who now plays out of Pease Golf Course.
The other local golfers who made the cut to the match play field of 64 are AJ Correia from the Laconia Country Club (147, tied for 21st) and Will McLaughlin from the Concord Country Club (152, tied for 45th).
There were a host of local golfers who finished at 155, just two shots shy of the 153 cut – William Everett (Laconia Country Club), Bobby Williams (Lake Sunapee Country Club), Justin Dockham (Laconia Country Club) and Will Hartigan (Concord Country Club), a Concord High grad who led the Crimson Tide to a state tennis title in 2007 and played collegiate squash for Cornell.
“This is the first state am for me, and it was a great time,” Hartigan said. “It’s just amazing the swing thoughts that go through your head in a tournament that are just not there in a casual round of golf.”
The NHGA decided to tweak the match play format this year due to weather concerns. Normally there is only one round of match play on the Wednesday of the tournament, but with rain forecasted for Thursday, two rounds of match play will happen on Wednesday, cutting the field down to 16. Thursday will see one round of match play and Friday will have two more rounds leaving just two men standing for Saturday’s 36-hole match play final.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3371 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)