CHAMPIONSHIPS
“A big part of it was watching Brian
win the Palmer Cup, ” said Conroy
then petitioned to have his amateur status reinstated last year.
His biggest challenge on Friday might have been sitting on a 5-up lead between
rounds. “There was a point at lunch, I was like, I can’t wait to get back out there. The more
I sit here and think about it, the more I’m going to work up my nerves. I was really happy
to make a birdie on one [to go six up] in the second round, that kind of got me back into
the swing of things.”
It was a friendly match. When Gross asked Conroy to make a short putt for par on
the 14th in the morning, he apologized and explained:
“You know, I’m five down in a final.”
“And there’s that two-footer I missed a couple holes ago,” laughed Conroy.
“That might have had a bearing on it,” said Gross.
Overall, Conroy’s putting was superb. He made seven birdies in stroke-play quali-
fying, including four in his opening 68. He followed with 17 birdies in match play.
But that short 3-putt miss on 11 in the morning, Conroy said, was a wake-up call.
“I said to myself, hey, there’s a lot of golf to go.” Nineteen more holes to be precise, until he
won the 116th Connecticut Amateur Championship with a conceded birdie on the par-3
12th in the afternoon.
Grenus and Nick Piersall led
TPC River Highlands to team title
14 | CSGA Links // July 2018
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