​Both the medalist and the defending tournament champion moved on from the Round of 64 at the 123rd New Hampshire Amateur Championship on Wednesday at Cochecho Country Club in Dover. The medalist and 2024 State Am champion Rob Henley, who represents Lake Sunapee Country Club, defeated 64th-seeded Matt Gifford, 3 and 2, to reach Thursday’s Round of 32.
Both the Round of 32 and Round of 16 will be played on Thursday. Gifford, a member of Stonebridge Country Club, began Tuesday by taking part in “The March,” a 10-player morning playoff that filled the final five match-play spots. After the 64-player field was determined, match play began with a shotgun start.
Defending champion and No. 8 seed Josiah Hakala advanced to the Round of 32 with a 7-and-6 victory over 57th-seeded Cody Stevens. Hakala, a 19-year-old from New Ipswich and a Beaver Meadow Golf Club member, found himself 4 up on Stevens, who hails from Rochester Country Club, after seven holes. “I feel like my game, if I play well, I’m tough to beat just by playing my game, so I don’t really change too much (between match play and stroke play),” Hakala said after the stroke-play final on Tuesday.
Henley, Hakala, John DeVito (2019), Jack Pepin (2023), James Pleat (2020, 2021), and Jim Cilley (2011) are the former State Am champions still alive in the tournament field. In the only match between former State Am champions on Wednesday, DeVito earned a 7-and-5 win over Nashua Country Club’s Phil Pleat. DeVito, a Nashua native, birdied the eighth and 16th holes and made pars on 10 holes in total. Pleat, a three-time State Am champion (1981, 1985, 1997), recorded six bogeys, including the final hole of the match at the par-4, 443-yard second.
James Pleat, Phil’s son, advanced to the Round of 32 with a 4-and-2 victory over Baker Hill Golf Club’s Ben Knott. Knott, the No. 60 seed, and James Pleat, the fifth seed, started on the third hole and birdied the same three holes on the front nine: the fourth, seventh, and eighth. James Pleat trailed by 2 up after the par-3, 214-yard ninth hole, which he bogeyed, while Knott made a double bogey at that same point.
James Pleat, from Nashua Country Club, said on Tuesday that he planned to use the same approach in match play as he did in stroke play. “For me, the key is fairways and greens, hit some good wedge shots, and try to make some putts as well. I think you just stick to the game plan, don’t worry about what others are doing, stay solid, and try to force them to make mistakes.”
Dan Arvanitis, the 2001 State Am champion and longtime Derryfield Country Club member, did not advance from “The March” on Wednesday morning. It marked the third time in Arvanitis’s 51 appearances at the State Am that he failed to make the cut. The 72-year-old Manchester resident also failed to advance when the State Am was last played at Cochecho Country Club in 2009.