Nashua's Brandon Gillis begins his State Am title defense on Monday at Manchester CC in Bedford. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Life is good right now for local golfer Brandon Gillis.

And because of that, so is his game.

They go hand-in-hand for the Nashua North alum, who used a renewed commitment to golf to winning last year’s New Hampshire Golf Association’s Men’s Amateur Championship, and heads into this week’s 2023 event at Manchester Country Club in Bedford with a completely new aura around him from years past.

He knows how fun and successful golf can be again. He got a taste of it in reaching the finals in 2021, but then took things a step further last July.

“I think I still had a lot to prove to myself,” Gillis said of the at 2021 tourney in which he lost to fellow Nashuan James Pleat at North Conway. “I was still able to play some really good golf, and prove to myself that I was at the winning level again. It took a little bit longer to get over that winning hurdle, and self confidence and self belief in the game of golf is so important.

“That instilled some confidence in me, but winning the State Am last year, that really catapulted me into believing I was a winner again.”

Not only winning it, but the way he won it. Gillis was in the toughest bracket, but he outlasted Pleat in a rematch and then the only way he saw the 18th green the rest of the tournament at Abenaqui was because in the finals you have to theoretically play 36 holes unless you wrap it up earlier. Gillis, 24, clinched his title win over Laconia’s Jim Cilley on the 17th hole.

He and his brother Brian, 33, who caddies for him in all the big events, still talk about how tough it looked on paper.

“It was so much more getting it done, beating so many good players, rather than winning in an easier bracket,” Gillis said. “It means so much more in a match play tournament.”

Beating Pleat, for whom he has the greatest respect, in the round of 16 “was a super cool experience.” And then he went from there, the natural high staying with him for months and taking his game to another level.

“Sometimes you can feel (his game) slipping away,” Gillis said. “But as you feel that, sometimes you can feel it coming right back.”

Gillis heads into this week’s State Am tourney that begins Monday at Manchester Country Club in Bedford on a high note, as he recently won the Lowell (Mass.) City Championship.

“Everything’s been going really well on the golf side of things,” he said, “and the State Am last year really kicked off some momentum for my game, and it carried over into the last few days with the Lowell Cities.

“I drove it exceptionally well, and I putted very well all three days. I struggled a little with wedge game but the putter made up for it.”

FROM A LOW TO A HIGH

The question is, when did Gillis’ struggles that he so openly referred to in post-match interviews last July at Abenaqui begin? When did he lose the winning golf touch? Gillis was a three-time Telegraph All-Area Golfer of the Year while at Nashua North, and it was big news when he signed his letter of intent to study and play golf at Wake Forest several years ago. A big time leap.

“I dealt with some personal issues off the golf course,” Gillis said, “which is why I decided to leave Wake Forest. Not a lot of people know that. A lot of people that are close to me know that. Everybody thinks I got kicked out or something, but it was a personal choice that I made to leave. And I think dealing with those off the course issues, I got into a little bit of trouble and started spiraling there, and it’s really difficult to play good golf.”

So he did something about it.

“Once I got my personal life under control, I was able to get things going on the golf side,” he said. “And I think with a more humble mindset with my head and shoulders.”

Indeed, Gillis was extremely grateful and humble after winning last year.

“That’s a tournament that means so much,” he said. “My older brother and I, we battled the same issues, and being able to get it done together meant the world to us. He’s had my bag for previous years and it’s kind of a tradition for us.”

Brian Gillis just provides Brandon stability mentally, very important to the State Am champ the same way James Pleat’s dad, Phil, was important in caddying for him in his back-to-back 2020-21 titles.

“He really is,” Gillis said. “And it’s not golf advice per se. He really knows me so well, he can see when I’m starting to slip a little bit mentally out there, or a momentum he can see. He’s really good at saying the right things at the right time, or maybe cracking a joke, get me to laugh at the right time. That’s really what’s invaluable. I think I’ve been around golf for enough years and played enough high level golf to where I don’t think I need so much of the golf advice piece, but definitely need somebody that can keep me mentally in check. That’s probably the most important thing; and a comforting presence on the bag, too.

“I think he has as much fun caddying for me as I do playing. Knowing that, it’s not a burden in any way, we can just have a really good time out there.”

And when Gillis got the win last year on the 17th green, he had a lot of people important to him present and come up and hug him. There was a plethora of support, and that made winning the title all the more special.

“It meant the world to me,” he said. “Everybody that was there are people who stuck by me through the years when maybe I wasn’t doing my best. They’re all just super nice, close friends and family. And everybody there were there in support of me. And some of them surprised me; I had no idea they were coming. It just meant the world to me.”

Gillis saw them through that last round, and it certainly gave him a boost.

“No doubt,” he said. “They are all people I’m comfortable with; they’ve seen me play my best golf, my worst golf. I didn’t think I had anything to prove to them and they were all really supportive.”

THE BEGINNING

Gillis has been playing since he was young, getting into it thanks to his father Mike. His comeback began when he arrived at the University of Rhode Island in the spring of 2019, and in his words, “never got anything going on the golf side of things” partly because of COVID. He redshirted for his first semester, didn’t play; played for a semester and then the pandemic hit. He played in the 2020 State Am at Nashua, but bowed out in the early match play rounds. He got back on the course for URI in the spring of 2021 and that springboarded him to the State Am final against Pleat that July.

Following his 2022 State Am win Gillis played in his words “the best golf of my life” last fall for URI, averaging a 69.7., and was good enough for 18th in the country through the first seven events of the college golf year.

He played well again in the first two events in the spring, but then struggled with his putting down the stretch but still considered the experience a big boost.

“I’m glad I took another year (with COVID eligibility),” said Gillis, who was also an academic success with a couple of awards, studying and getting a degree in communications. He’s still figuring out what to do with that degree, but figures he’ll make Rhode Island his future home. Currently he works on the grounds crew at Sky Meadow. He likely won’t pursue a masters, saying “I’m all schooled out right now.”

But he’s certainly not golfed out. Gillis, in his winters at URI, worked on his game at an indoor facility that had all sorts of technological method, where he could chart swing paths, etc. That’s why in his mind he started the spring so well, he worked out there “more so than any other winter. I really wanted to have a good spring semester because I was in a good position after the fall to possibly make regionals individually. I really put in a lot of time, probably five or six days (a week) at night.”

Gillis said his place on the URI team and help from head coach Gregg Burke, disciplinary as well as praise, gave him the structure needed.

WHAT WORKS NOW WITH HIS GAME

Gillis says some changes with his approach as well as technically have been a big boost.

“I’d say the way I practice now is a lot different than the way I used to practice,” he said. “I don’t practice as much. I play a little bit more now instead of beating balls for hours on end.”

If he’s hitting the ball really well, he’ll only hit 30 balls on the range but not end until he hits three “really good ones in a row.

“It’s a game of confidence,” he said. “And what I’ve found out is I need to leave the range feeling awesome about my game. So next time I come back I’m only thinking about the good shots that I hit.”

If he stays too long at the range, he says, “and a few bad ones creep in there, that’s all I can think about until the next time.”

Nashua’s Brandon Gillis is beaming after he captured the New Hampshire State Amateur Golf championship last July at Abenaqui Country Club. Gillis begins his title defense Monday at Manchester CC in Bedford. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

Nashua’s Brandon Gillis is beaming after he captured the New Hampshire State Amateur Golf championship last July at Abenaqui Country Club. Gillis begins his title defense Monday at Manchester CC in Bedford. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

Technically, Gillis is swinging it the same as he normally has.But in the last year he changed his putting style to a cross-handed approach. It’s changed things, he feels, for the better.

“Last year at the State Am I used a conventional putting grip on everything outside of about 15 feet,” he said. “Inside of 15 feet I went cross handed. And now I’m slowly using cross handed for putts outside of 15 feet.”

What kind of an adjustment is that?

“I was always a little hesitant, because I’ve had rounds when with going conventional, I made everything, and I didn’t want to lose that,” he said. “But I started to see in practice that I would start to (putt) everything on line when I switched to cross-handed.”

But he hadn’t had a real low round putting with that style, but now he’s starting to trust it and use it more. Winning the Lowell title was his first real test with the new grip and it worked.

“It was the first tournament when I fully switched,” Gillis said.

Winning that title was a huge boost. The way he won it, making a clinching a putt on the 18th green at the prestigious Vesper Country Club, winning three of the last four, he said to his caddy, “Did we really just do that? It was kind of a blur.”

It was the 100th anniversary of the event, which made it even more special. Now Gillis carries that confidence into this week, as he prepares to defend his title. That in itself will be a different experience.

“You know, the NHGA, they are so good with how they treat their past champions,” he said. “There may be some more expectations I might feel early in the week. I hope to tune most of that out and go out there and play, like my brother and I have been doing. And being right up the road (in Bedford) is going to be awesome.”

Gillis played the 6,552-yard Par-71 Manchester CC a year ago in the summer.

“I think it’s a real good layout, I love Donald Ross courses,” Gilis said, referring to the famous late golf course designer of the 1920s and ’30s . “Hopefully the greens will be good, I’m sure they will be, Manchester is known for its good greens. That means you have to drive it well there, that

s a key. There’s a couple long par 3s; long irons and driving it well and making your way around the greens.”

Gillis looks at Manchester CC as a course that’s pretty narrow, and he hopes his ability to hit long will help as well.

“I’m hoping there are some parts where I can separate myself a little bit from the field with my length,” he said. “I’m not the longest hitter, but I think I can use a little bit of that to my advantage.”

And he’ll go cross-grip with putting.

The real key, though, is Gillis heads into this event after a year he’ll cherish.

“It’s been pretty awesome,” he said. “Sometimes I have to take a step back and think about all the good things that happened to me this year and just appreciate them, because sometimes you can take them for granted.”

Gillis certainly won’t, but now, with his latest success, the State Am field this week won’t take defending champion Brandon Gillis for granted, either.