Jonathan Elkins, of South Deerfield, will be playing in his third straight Massachusetts Amateur Golf Championship.
Elkins shot 1-under-par 71 to top the 70-player field at Monday’s qualifier on his home course of Springfield Country Club, earning a spot in next month’s championship field.
He was the only player to finish under par and captured the win by one shot over Anthony Vecchiarelli (Springfield CC) and Connor Phillips (Longmeadow CC).
Elkins, who graduated this spring from the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, will play at Division I Villanova beginning this fall.
“(Monday) was the one date that I really circled on my calendar this summer,” Elkins said. “It’s weird trying to prepare for a tournament at your home course. I tried to take things a bit differently so far this year. I didn’t play much, mostly just practiced. So to be able to tell myself that I know how to prepare for a tournament now my way and game plan for a tournament and a course and see the results on the other side, it’s a huge confidence booster for the rest of the summer.”
The 112th Mass. Am is set for July 13-17 on two courses — The Kittansett Club in Marion and The Bay Club at Mattapoisett.
Monday’s qualifier, which took the top eight finishers and ties into next month’s tournament, wasn’t for the faint of heart. With temperatures climbing into the 90s, Elkins said his goal was to keep things simple and not put himself in tricky spots along the track at Springfield.
“I really just focused on getting myself to my numbers where I want to hit it, not give myself awkward shots,” he said. “Playing there was definitely an advantage. I think half of the field probably hadn’t seen the course yet and it’s not a course you want to go blind into. It plays to my advantage but at the same time, the course is playing so difficult right now. I didn’t think many people were going to play well.”
Elkins, who was in one of the first groups to tee off, recorded a birdie on No. 1 and was 2 under after eight holes. He dropped shots at Nos. 9 and 11, but rebounded with birdies at 12 and 17 before a bogey on 18 closed out the round.
“The only green I missed today was 18,” he said. “Once I got through 11 at even (par), I kind of got the sense that no one was doing anything behind me and you’re able to open it up a little bit more. There were a lot of comforting factors for me today, I just had to go out and execute.”
Elkins said his focus at the championship will be on handling his own business, and not worrying about anyone else.
“It’s probably the biggest tournament on my schedule this year,” he said. “Last year my goal was ‘match play or bust’ and that didn’t really work out for me so I want to set expectations this year but I don’t want to think of it as ‘match play or bust’ again. I’ll just try and take that tournament similar to how I did today. At the end of the day, I’m still going to have to play the golf course and not against the players in the tournament.”
Elkins said the slow start to the golf season due to COVID-19 made for an adjustment to his season. The Taft School golf team didn’t get to play a spring season, and he has had to quickly get back into playing shape with the late start.
“There was definitely a layoff between when I usually start and when I actually did this year so I lost a lot of time,” he said. “I had to ramp up faster than I normally would have. I’ve taken a lot of time, especially early in the season, to really learn to keep the ball in play, try and hit center of greens and make a couple putts. Just keep it simple.”