Jul. 22—MANCHESTER — Sam Maurice might have finally snapped out of his summer-long slump.
The Derryfield Country Club member shot a 1-under 69 on his home course on Monday, earning the top seed for match play in the boys elite championship flight of the Mike Ryan Memorial Junior Golf Tournament.
The three-day New Hampshire Golf Association junior tournament now switches from stroke play to two days of match play. The finals are scheduled for Wednesday.
The top 16 boys and each of the eight girls qualified for match play in their respective elite championship flights. The tournament also has a boys prep and boys birdie flight.
Maurice, an 18-year-old Trinity High School graduate, said he has struggled on the links most of the summer.
“Hopefully, I can start now — start playing well,” Maurice said.
The Auburn resident logged five birdies — two on the front nine and three on the back — alongside bogeys on hole Nos. 5 and 12 and a double bogey on the par-4 sixth hole.
Maurice, who will play golf at Southern New Hampshire University this fall, said he feels his swing is coming into form. His only bad shot of the day, he said, came on the sixth hole when he put one in the parking lot.
“Putting wasn’t great but I was able to strike it well enough to where I could put myself into good spots where putting didn’t really matter a whole lot,” Maurice said.
Maurice, who finished third in the boys NHGA Junior Championship and second in the boys NHGA Junior Stroke Play earlier this month, said he has always wanted to win the Mike Ryan tournament.
It is one of the tournaments Maurice circles on his calendar every summer and he has played in it six times. The closest Maurice came to capturing the title was two years ago, when he fell in the final to Stratham’s Jascha Johnston in 20 holes.
Maurice will open match play Tuesday against 16th-seeded Christopher Berry of North Hampton. Berry shot a 7-over 77 on Monday.
Maurice said he approaches the opening stroke-play round just looking to make the cut. Once it switches to match play, he changes his game.
“I think today is more of a survival — just get in, get a seed,” Maurice said. “Tomorrow, just (play) aggressive. You can make a really big mistake and it only (loses) you one hole whereas stroke play, it matters a lot more.”
Salem’s Will Miele is looking for one more tournament title before his junior career comes to a close.
Miele, who will enter his sophomore golf season at Roanoke (Virginia) College this fall, turns 19 years old next week. To play in an NHGA junior event, golfers must be 18 years old or younger.
The Nashua CC member won the boys NHGA Junior Stroke Play and finished second in the boys NHGA Junior Championship last month.
Miele, a Salem resident, finished Monday’s stroke-play round tied for the third-best score at 2-over 72 with North Hampton’s Jimmy Schouller and Manchester’s Joel Collins.
Wade Thompson, a 17-year-old Bedford resident, shot a 1-over 71 to earn the No. 2 seed.
Miele birdied the first and 17th holes, while posting bogeys on the ninth and 15th and a double bogey on the second.
Miele said he could have putted and wedged better but he drove well thanks in part to a new driver that he got last month.
“I feel a lot more confident in my driver,” said Miele, who tied for third in the Nashua City Championship last weekend. “I picked up 10, maybe 15 yards …”
Siblings Josie and Ty Lefebvre can walk to Derryfield CC, their home course, from their house in Manchester but this is their first time playing in the Mike Ryan tournament.
In their debut rounds, Josie Lefebvre, 14, posted the best round in the girls elite flight (12-over 82) and Ty Lefebvre, 16, earned the top seed in the eight-player boys prep flight with his 4-over 74.
Josie Lefebvre, who will be a freshman at Manchester Central in the fall, parred hole Nos. 5, 8, 13 and 16 and birdied what she considers her best hole on the course: the par-4 first hole.
“My driver has really been pretty good — towards the end here it kind of fell apart,” Josie Lefebvre said. “Hitting it far and hitting it straight was the main priority to keep it in the right spot, which I’ve been doing pretty well.”
Josie Lefebvre will open match play on Tuesday against Hebron’s Anna Steele, who earned the eighth seed with her 38-over 108 in stroke play.
Ty Lefebvre, who is entering his junior year at Central, earned consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th holes and recorded 11 pars.
He will open match play against 16th-seeded Matthew Barnaby of Derry.
The siblings have not played in the Mike Ryan tournament previously because their family is usually on vacation in Maine during the tournament, Ty Lefebvre said.
“It’s definitely a lot of fun to be able to watch Josie be out there and see her make a putt or hit a good drive,” Ty Lefebvre said. “It’s kind of neat to see your younger sibling out there playing well.”
