The 2016 Maine Amateur and Match Play champion Matt Hutchins has been a busy man this summer.

He’s traveled throughout the United States, competing in some of the top amateur golf tournaments, as well as some professional tournaments. His next stop will be teeing it up at Augusta Country Club for the Maine Open, a two-day tournament which begins Monday.

The former Falmouth native’s summer was planned way out in advance to get into the best possible tournaments he could.

“Back in the wintertime, you got to sign up pretty early and I just went through trying to play in the top amateur tournaments in the world,” Hutchins said. “Fortunately I was ranked high enough that I could get into a lot of them. So I was trying to play against the best fields I could.”

He’s currently 479th in the official World Amateur Golf Rankings.

When setting his schedule, the Maine Open wasn’t on his docket, as he thought it was a midweek tournament which would conflict with his schedule.

“I just decided to play it last week,” Hutchins said. “Again, like I said earlier, I am trying to compete as much as possible. I actually got the dates mixed up. I thought it was Tuesday-Wednesday and it conflicted with another tournament. That’s why I didn’t sign up earlier, but it’s Monday and Tuesday so it works out perfectly.”

On Wednesday, Hutchins will make his way down to the Boston area for the Francis Ouimet Tournament, which comprises the Brae Burn Country Club in Newton, Massachusetts, The Country Club in Chestnut Hill and Woodland Golfn Club in Auburndale. The tournament runs through Friday.

The Maine Open will be his first Maine State Golf Association-sanctioned event since the Match Play Tournament, as he now resides in Naples, Florida. The change of scenery made him ineligible to defend his Maine Amateur title, which he won at York Golf & Tennis Club in July 2016. The Maine Open is a professional event which is open to both pros and amateurs in and out of state.

Hutchins, who was recruited to play on the UCLA golf team before going a different route, had a summer schedule that started with the Terra Cotta Invitational in Naples, Florida, from May 5-7. He finished tied for 24th with a score of plus-1. Then he started to pack his bags as he headed back to New England for the U.S. Open local qualifying at the Pinehills Golf Club in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on May 11, where he earned his spot in the sectional qualifier. After two weeks off, he returned to Plymouth for the Hornblower Memorial Tournament on June 2-3 at the Plymouth Country Club, where finished tied for 39th with a plus-11.

After a day of travel, it was onto the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier on June 5 at the Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey. In a field that included PGA Tour members Roberto Diaz and Cameron Wilson, to name a couple, Hutchins was even for the one-day, 36-hole event and missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by seven shots. Some call the Sectional Qualifier the toughest day in all of golf.

The following day, it was nearly a five-hour drive to Monroe Country Club outside of Rochester, New York, for the Monroe Invitational, an amateur tournament that primarily had Division I golfers in the field. He finished in a tie for 12th.

Hutchins doesn’t mind the tournaments that are back-to-back.

“For me, it’s just golf,” he said. “I treat everything like it’s the same. So it’s kind of like I am going out and playing. It was a lot of golf for a great stretch of time. It’s good for me. I am learning a lot.”

After solid showings in the mid-Atlantic, he headed back to New England for the 108th Massachusetts Open Championship from June 12-14 at The Golf Club at Sacconnesset in East Falmouth, Massachusetts, where he missed the cut. At the Northeast Amateur Invitational, he finished tied for 45th place.

He headed back down south to Pinehurst, North Carolina, on June 26 for the five-day North and South Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Resort’s famed Pinehurst No. 2 course, which has hosted events like the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens, U.S. Amateurs and the Ryder Cup, to name few. He struggled, shooting 86-78 and failed to move onto the match-play portion of the tournament.

In July, he returned to Maine for the United States Golf Association’s U.S. Amateur qualifier on July 6 at The Ledges in York and shot a plus-8, while the two qualifiers, Hugo Bernard and Joey Savoie, shot a minus-4 and minus-1, respectively. He then flew out to Hutchinson, Kansas, for the 114th Trans-Miss Amateur Championship from July 10-13, where he finished at plus-1 and a tie for 21st.

He had his best finish of the summer at the New England Amateur, where he finished the three-day, four-round tournament in a tie for sixth at plus-2, five shots behind the winner, Bobby Leopold.

Throughout his travels this summer, he didn’t find any of the courses he played on to be familiar to Augusta.

He’s glad he’s playing well heading into one of the marquee events in his former home state.

“I like to play the best golf I can at the time and it’s always great to have my better game when I am playing in Maine,” Hutchins said. “I enjoy playing in Maine.”

After a couple weeks off, he will be heading to the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship that runs Aug. 7-10 in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb outside of Toronto.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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