Jack Brown looked up when he was hitting his tee shot on the 16th hole at Nashua Country Club in the sweltering heat on Thursday afternoon.

He saw the carts along the trees. Who says today you can’t play sports in front of fans?

If you want to know why the NHGA State Amateur Championship is such a holy event, well, all you needed to do was bake in the sun or find some shade at NCC yesterday and watch the show.

A couple of them, actually.

“It was a pretty big crowd, so that makes it a lot of fun,” James Pleat said after he outlasted fellow NCC member Eric McCoy on the second extra hole in the afternoon round of 16. “It’s matches like that that you play in this tournament for. That’s why you play golf.”

Seriously, you were looking for Jim Nance in the CBS tower near 18. Usually when a Pleat plays – son James or dad Phil – there’s a following. But this was different. Pleat’s match with McCoy had everyone putting up with the heat for the final few holes. Carts galore, or walkers.

“It was really, really fun to be a part of, honestly,” Pleat said. “If the outcome had been different, I don’t think I’d look back on it and say I didn’t play well. We were both playing well, we both went back and forth.”

Then there was the heat. It wasn’t as bad in the morning, but in the afternoon it was grueling. McCoy was constantly toweling off, and Pleat himself look wilted.

“It was tough,” Pleat said. “We tried to block out the heat and stay focused on what we were doing.”

Brown, who escaped his round of 16 match on the first extra hole, loved the crowd. His was the last match of the day, he’s an NCC member, opponent Rick Moreau of Sky Meadow is from Nashua. Everything from Pleat’s match was repeating itself.

“I love it,”Brown said. “I love that atmosphere, just being a sports fan. I always played basketball in front of crowds (at Alvirne). It gets the adrenalin going, and makes me focus a little more.”

In fact, Brown prepares for it. His match was nip and tuck, just like Pleat’s. And just like Pleat’s, a bad tee shot on 17 opened the door for a comeback. In front of fans.

“I love that atmosphere,” he said. “That’s what I practice for every day, to get into those situations.”

McCoy was quite a story. He bested Abenaqui’s Fletcher Sokul one up while Pleat was the tourney medalist, he had cruised in two matches already.

“The crowd was great,” McCoy said. “I’ve never played in front of people like that, very supportive. This is the furthest I’ve been in the tournament, so doing it for the working man, kind of. Proud of myself, kind of held it together as long as I could. I wish James the best.”

McCoy said he and Pleat first noticed the crowd on the 11th hole.

“I said to James, ‘Man, this is fun, isn’t it? Look at all the people here.’ And it just kept growing.”

McCoy drove the green on 15, and the two again commented on the crowd reaction.

“A lot of golf,” Moreau said.

And a lot of interest. Great event.

“It was,” McCoy said, “the best golfing day or experience of my life. It was great.”

And then he was part of the crowd following Brown’s match.

Who says golf is boring?

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

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