North Hampton's Quinn cards Seacoast-best round of 3-over-par at N.H. Open

GREENLAND - Thursday morning not only marked the beginning of the 88th New Hampshire Open, but also marked the debut of Breakfast Hill Golf Club hosting the event for the first time.

Still, there were many familiar names who were participating in the three-day tournament that concludes on Saturday, with a total of 156 golfers in the field.

"It's a good track," Brentwood's Valentino Cheek said. "It's interesting to see what a lot of the big golfers will shoot out here. The course is in good shape, a little different layout for something like this. It's fun to watch, I like it."

Ben Reichert of Buffalo, Dylan MacQueen of Palm Harbor, Florida, and Paul Pastore of Stamford, Connecticut, all carded a 6-under-par 64 to share the first-round lead. Ryan Sielger of Baltimore, at 5-under-par 65, is one shot back.

After Friday's round, the low 40 players and ties advance to Saturday's final 18-hole final round.

Along with Cheek, other Seacoast area natives competing in the tournament include Newmarket's Scott Hacker, Greenland's Jeffrey Sovis, Hampton Falls' Michael Fiacco, North Hampton's Ryan Quinn and Portsmouth's Chris Kelloway.

Rye's Jack Zioze withdrew from the event.

"I grew up playing here," said Quinn, who shot a 3-over-par 73 and is in a five-way tie for 53rd place in the 150-golfer field. "I was a member from like age 10 to about 20. The course is in great shape this week; firm, the greens are fast. You can tell they've been working on it, and they've been limiting tee times and member play because it's a big event."

Quinn, who won last year's Seacoast Amateur, called his first-round play as "sloppy."

"I had a couple of three putts, and just a couple of bad misses," Quinn said. "I had three birdies in a row on the back (11, 12, 13) which was nice; that kind of got me going. Then I bogeyed 14 and 15, so it was just sloppy. I wasn't playing steady."

Quinn mentioned that you need to have good wedge shots on this course, and said he didn't have that on Thursday.

"I just didn't have enough close putts to give myself really good looks, so a lot of my putts I had to be a little defensive on," he said. "I didn't have too many putts I could go at and try to make. But, for saying all of that, 73, I guess I'll take it. I'm not happy with it, but, it's a 54-hole event, so we have plenty of golf left, this is just the start."

Quinn said two words that don't mix are "stressful" and "golf", and that's how he was playing early on.

"I had a lot of long par putts I had to make," he added. "I wasn't stressing the tournament, I was stressing myself out with the way I was playing, I didn't make it easy for myself. So the fact that I shot 73, it could've gotten away from me for sure, but I'm glad I kind of corralled it in, and I'm not in terrible spot."

Cheek had a 5-over-par 75, while Fiacco had a 12-over-par 82, Hacker and Sovis both shot a 15-over-par 85, and Kelloway had a 17-over-par 87.

Cheek joked that although he's played this course his fair share of times, he didn't necessarily think that gave him a large advantage over others.

"It just makes me a little more comfortable and knowing where some of the misses are," he said. "But, I haven't played it enough to have a true, huge advantage."

Cheek was grouped with Jonathan Pannone of Warwick, Rhode Island and Jeff Berkshire of Scottsdale, Arizona.

"Our group was quiet today, we talked a little bit," said Creek, who shot a 38 on the front nine and 37 on the back. "We didn't really talk about golf, though, we just kind of talked about life."

Kelloway, just like the others, enjoyed the course and complimented the shape it's in.

"There's a couple of corky holes out there, and a little tighter than I'm used to," he said. "But, it's in overall good shape, and some good placements out there today."

Kelloway said he didn't have his best game in the opening round.

"There wasn't much rhythm out there today," Kelloway said. "I didn't really have anything going good, but I just tried to hang in there, keep my head up and do the best I possibly could."

MacQueen, who started on the front having only seen about three holes at Breakfast Hill prior to his first round, got off to a steady start, making par on his first four holes. From there, he birdied the next three holes and closed out his front nine with another birdie taking the lead early on.

“I got off to a nice start, pretty steady with a couple pars,” MacQueen said.  “I kind of went on a good stretch and made three birdies in a row.  I had a fun shot on nine where it flew in the cup and just bounced out, and it was nice to make the turn at 4-under.”

Danville's Stephen Ramos, Colin Andrade (Sandwich, Massachusetts) and Jack Tegan of Northborough, Massachusetts are the low amateurs, all shooting an even-par 70.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Ryan Quinn cards Seacoast-best score at New Hampshire Open at Breakfast Hill Golf Club