Nashua Country Club's James Pleat will go for a threepeat this week in the NH State Am at Abenaqui Country Club. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

James Pleat got off the MBTA train after work and headed to a driving range just outside Boston with a few things he wanted to focus on.

It’s that time of year: New Hampshire State Amateur time.

And for Pleat the last two summers, it was championship time.

When he heads to Abenaqui Country Club out at Rye on Monday, Pleat will be wearing bullseye on his back with a double ring around it. That’s because he enters the 119th annual State Am as the two-time defending champion – something he never dreamed of.

He won his first State Am title ever at his home course, Nashua Country Club, in 2020, an epic historic win as he followed in the footsteps of his father Phil, grandfather Thomas J. Leonard, Jr. (an incredible eight-time champion) and great grandfather. Thomas J. Leonard, Sr.

Then last year at North Conway he defeated fellow local Brandon Gillis for what he may have thought an improbable – but not impossible – second straight crown.

“Obviously it’s been a great past couple of years,” Pleat said. “Doing it in Nashua on my home course was something really special and having so many people out there watching was great.

“Last year at North Conway, I wasn’t really sure what to expect – I just wanted to have a good title defense. Win a few matches and hopefully make it far. I started playing better as the week went on. Shook off the rust a little bit early, had some tough matches early, and then had some luck there, too. I was able to squeak out the tough ones then I was able to play well. It was certainly more than I ever would have thought I could have done; at the end of the day it was really great to have won one and be on the same plaque as my dad, my grandfather, my great grandfather.”

Was the second one tougher?

“I think in terms of some of the matches I had, the mentality I had with kind of a target on my back, in some ways, yes,” Pleat said. “I never had that feeling before because I hadn’t won it before.”

But Pleat also went into last year’s tournament feeling the weight of coming close but never winning was finally off his back.

“I had wanted to win it so badly, so when I finally did I was like, ‘Hey, no one can ever take that away from me’,” he said. “I’ll try to take the same mentality into this year. But it was kind of ‘I won one, let’s see if I can do it again.’ And I was lucky enough to do it again.”

Playing at NCC was a different kind of pressure, looking for his first title with all the historical pressure. There was definitely less pressure in his mind at North Conway.

“The pressure I had at Nashua was self imposed,” he said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself; I had come so close the previous time it was at Nashua and who knows when the next time it would be there. But yes, I would say there was less pressure overall.”

Pleat said winning it last year didn’t really enter into his mind until he reached into the finals. He was happy with the way he defended his title, so if he had lost to Gillis, the former Nashua North and University of Rhode Island standout, so be it.

“But you only get to the finals so many times,” he said. “I may never get there again, so I wanted to make the most of it.”

The funny thing is now that target is still on his back, and the expression “Three-peat” is out there.

But Pleat won’t any of that affect him.

“I’m going to try to take the same mentality I did last year,” he said. “Not worry about the fact that everyone’s going to want to beat me (chuckling).”

He’s doing his preparation, getting mentally and physically ready for tournament golf again.

“I’m just hoping I can string together some good rounds, stay tough, and just hoping I’m never really out of it,” Pleat humbly said. “The same mentality, only knowing it’s possible to win it again. Trying to build off last year knowing that I can do it. We’ll see. It’s just fun to play, it’s going to be great.”

What does it take to win this event? The first two rounds are medal rounds, you have to make the cut into the match play competition that begins on Wednesday, survive one match on Wednesday, then win two matches on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals, and win quarters and semis on Friday to get into Saturday’s 36-hole final.

It can be grueling.

“It takes practice, it takes a lot of rounds of golf,” Pleat said. “Both competitively and otherwise. Get used to playing under pressure, get used to match play, get used to playing tournament golf, and it takes a lot of focus over the course of a very long week when you’re playing a lot of golf. And like I said, it takes some luck as well. It’s a combination of all of those things.”

Managing the mental aspect, Pleat said, is key.

“Just stay focused on every shot,” he said. “Not worry about anything else, not get ahead of things, no worrying about what the other guys are doing. It’s a combination of things.”

Pleat has had his three-time champion Dad caddy for him if it worked out that Phil was, unfortunately, out of contention and could do it. Have the two noticed anything that has changed in James Pleat’s game the last two years to elevate his status from contender to champion?

“The key to my game has always been my short game and wedge,” Pleat said. “I do have some length off the tee, and that leads to some wedges, and a lot of these other guys are better at wedges than I am. I think if you asked (Phil), I’ve improved in that category, also chipping and putting. It’s certainly helped to have him to kind of help guide me around and also distract me if things weren’t going well. It means so much and has been invaluable.”

Pleat says his experience is starting to also come into play, helping with his focus, measuring out distance for shots, etc.Golf IQ.

“I feel like I’m better at grinding it out a little bit more than I used to be,” he said. “And certainly some of my matches last year, particularly the early ones, were kind of ‘grind-fests’. That’s important in match play, and really stroke play as well.”

Nashua was a finesse player’s course; accuracy was more important at times than length. North Conway, he felt, reminded him of how Nashua used to be, with small greens, and was also a shorter course “with a premium on accuracy.”

So that leads to what type of course he feels Abenaqui is. The last time he played there until a practice round with his father about a month ago was when he was a junior golfer.

“It’s a great golf course, in really good shape,” Pleat said. “The greens remind me of old Nashua’s greens, small, tilted, so that’s nice. Some familiarity there.

“It is tricky off the tee. I don’t think I’ll be hitting many drivers, so it doesn’t necessarily play to my strong suit. But I didn’t think North Conway or Nashua, for that matter, really did either. So I’ll try to take what the course gives me, play smart, and be consistent.

“It’s a really solid golf course and it will be a good match play golf course as well. You can really go for some stuff on some of the par 5s (holes 2, 5, 10 and 17) coming in. (Hole) 15 (a 301-yard par 4) is driveable.”

Toughest hole? Pleat feels he doesn’t know the course well enough to say which is the toughest hole, but No. 12 (418-yard par-4), No. 7 (430-yard par 4) is kind of a tight driving hole, and (No. 5) is a little bit tricky as well, a par-5 with a few ponds, and some decisions I’d say to have to make.”

Indeed, No. 5, a 560-yard par-5 is the No. 1 handicap hole on the course.

Pleat said his practice round there went well.

“It was great having my Dad there and he’s taught me this really well, trying to figure out the course, where taking risks might be wise, and where it might not be. So we played together and just tried to figure out where to hit driver, where not to hit driver, and the greens, things like that. … It was a lot of information gathering but I think we got some good info. He makes his own little yardage notes and I tried to do that as well.

“Part of it is going out there and trying to get familiar with the course.”

Abenaqui isn’t right on the ocean per se but it is visible from a few holes in the distance and the course is close enough, being on the seacoast, to have wind as a factor. And the day that the Pleats played was gusty and windy.

“I would imagine that’s a thing,” Pleat said. “There’s more of a tree line so I don’t think it gets as windy as, say, Portsmouth. But I think that will be a factor this week. And I hope the rain holds off.”

Pleat, who works in the Boston financial world, admits he hasn’t played a lot of tournament golf in the months leading up to next week. Besides the State Am, he sets his sights on the trying to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Am, and play in the New Hampshire Mid-Am, and also the NH Stroke Play.

But he’s also just changed jobs in Boston, and has had “a lot of non golf stuff going on.” It’s not the same as it was a couple of years ago during COVID when he was living in Nashua, working remotely and was literally “two seconds from the golf course.”

The tough competition this week could come seacoast golfers Ryan Quinn and Harvin Groft (a semifinalist last year), and some of the veterans as well, including his father and Portsmouth’s Craig Steckowych, a two-time Am champ. There are certainly the locals like Gillis and former Bentley standout Tommy Ethier of Nashua, plus former Nashua North standout Bryce Zimmerman.

“There’s some college kids that play a lot and some younger kids from high school, it seems like they’re getting better and better every year,” Pleat said. “They’ll be tough to beat as well.

“We’ve got a lot of great players in New Hampshire. That’s what makes our tournament so much fun to play in.”

Still, you have to wonder whether Pleat just sits back and marvels at what the last two years have been like, winning a championship he had chased for years not once but twice in a row.

“Every now and then it definitely does (amaze him),” he said. “And it’s really nice. I grew up watching this tournament, going to see my Dad play against the legends, winning it twice in a row, it really is special. I’m just glad it has happened this way the last couple of years. I’m certainly very lucky.”

And now some familiar feelings return.

“It’s always a cool time of year, and the atmosphere around the tournament is really awesome,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to it, and hoping to play well.”

And with those feelings, maybe some nerves resurface.

“Usually it’s a good thing if you’re nervous,” Pleat said. “Because if you’re nervous, it means you’re on the precipice of something great.”

That, a lot of people would say, would be a three-peat.