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His game and life now in order, Gillis ready to shine

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jul 8, 2020

Could this be the time to shine for Brandon Gillis?

It would be fun to see beginning today as we enter into the round of 64 match play in the 117th New Hampshire State Amateur Championship, wouldn’t it?

It would be fun for Gillis, too. He finished Tuesday with three birdies in his final five holes, finishing with an even par 71 and a two day stroke play total of 144. He begins match play today vs. Green Meadow’s Griffin Brown at Nashua Country Club, the place to be all this week.

“I think actually, this showed maturity in my game,” he said of his strong finish. “Whereas last year, two years ago, three years ago, I wouldn’t have finished the way I did or held myself together the way I did. I probably would’ve posted a 75 or 76 where today I grinded it out to even par.”

The State Am is one huge grind. Two days of stroke (medal) play, and now the match play begins. Gillis is ready.

We haven’t heard a whole lot recently from the former Telegraph Player of the Year, a standout a few years ago at Nashua North who earned a spot at Wake Forest University to play golf.

He could be leading the charge of the younger guard. What he called “a lot of different variables” made him leave Wake Forest and transfer closer to home to the University of Rhode Island.

“My grades weren’t great, but I was still eligible (at Wake), but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to school or not,” he said. “I took a semester off.”

And during that time he heard from URI head golf coach Gregg Burke, whom he’s known for awhile.

“I need a couple of years there to work on my game,” the communications major said.

Gillis felt the qualifying at Wake in the ACC “believe it or not isn’t too different” from New England, “but there’s less of a gap between those that play and those that don’t.”

If Gillis hadn’t gone back to school, what would he have done? He didn’t really know. “I guess I needed a semester,” he said, “to figure some stuff out.”

He doesn’t need to figure out the fact he loves it at URI. He’s a regular in the lineup, loves his teammates, and as he says, “Play good golf, and the rest will take care of itself.”

He just joined Sky Meadow in Nashua as a student member, has been practicing there and feels great about his game.

“Getting consistent practice has been kind of an issue for me,” he said, “for I’d say a year and a half, two years. I’ve been practicing now for a week and a half straight, and I’m feeling really good.”

Gillis has his act together. He knows he has one advantage going into match play beginning today.

“Experience,” Gillis said. “I feel very comfortable playing match play. I’ve played in a lot of match play tournaments. My goal is to make as many birdies as possible. They say in some scenarios you play the player, but in other scenarios you try to make birdies.

“But this is a deeper field this year. Match play is going to be a little more difficult. Even if you have a good seed, you’re going to be playing a good player by the second or third round.”

We say Gillis is one of those good players. All is now right in his universe, and he’s starting to play like it, too.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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