CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLF ASSOCIATION

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Golf is typically known to be a tough challenge mentally, as many of the best who have ever played the game attribute some of their strongest play to staying mentally composed. That adage proved to remain true for Joshua Kirkham (Hinsdale) Wednesday at Bloomington Country Club in the second round of the 92nd Illinois State Amateur Championship.

Kirkham, who carded an opening-round 68 and entered day two four shots behind the leader, fired a second-round 65 to obtain a three-shot lead ahead of Thursday's 36-hole finale. The strength of his game currently? Staying mentally tough and in the moment. A process the fifth-year senior at Northern Illinois University admits doesn't always come easily.

"Yeah, I mean, it's so easy to get result oriented, if you will," said Kirkham, "but something that my coach and I really worked on is just being process oriented and staying in the moment. It's what I preach. I think it's the most important part of the game and it's definitely my weakness. If I can make it a strength, it's usually when the best skills come out."

His best skills were surely on display Wednesday.

The 22-year-old began his second round in the morning wave on Bloomington's par-4 10th hole. Four pars to begin his round steadied the ship before everything started to click, as Kirkham eagled the par-5 14th to reach 4-under on the tournament.

"If you get it down the left side into that first cut…I wasn't necessarily trying to do it, but you can get it into that first cut and on a flat spot," said Kirkham of the eagle. "If you're anywhere else it's kind of on a side slope, and I got lucky enough that I got into that first cut and then I had a jumper. I was able to hit pitching wedge, I had like 161, hit it to like 15 feet and knocked it in."

A birdie to follow at No. 15 before three-consecutive pars turned Kirkham at 32, matching his first-round score on Bloomington's back nine.

His lone blemish of the day occurred at No. 1, a hole he has now bogeyed in each round. A triad of birdies at Nos. 4, 6 and 8 brought Kirkham into the clubhouse at 65, the lowest round of the day.

Following Kirkham on the leaderboard are Thomas Baker (Rockford) at 4-under and a quintet others at -3.

Baker, whose second-round scorecard wasn't necessarily as par-filled as Kirkham's, fired a second-straight 68 Wednesday. Three birdies, three pars and three bogeys on the front nine resulted in an opening 35 for the rising-senior at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. An eagle on No. 14 and a pair of birdies and bogeys after the turn brought Baker home at 2-under.

"It was a great day," said Baker after his round. "I couldn't have asked for better conditions today. It was a little up-and-down for me; I made a few birdies where I wanted to, but also made a lot of bogeys on top of that. But, it was a great day. We had a good group, had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Also looking forward to tomorrow is defending champion Mac McClear (Hinsdale) who, admittedly without his best stuff and even with some of the "worst shots" he's maybe hit all year, finds himself back within the top-5 as one of the five tied for third at -3; a position that Kirkham, a high school teammate of McClear at Hinsdale Central, anticipated before the championship began.

"It's always good if you beat Mac," Kirkham said. "To start the week, I texted my dad and said, 'If I beat Mac this week, I win,' so he's always a tough opponent. And, yeah, I mean winning your State Amateur is kind of everything you dream of growing up playing golf and playing against these kids every day and, yeah, it'd be awesome."

Kirkham is halfway from turning a life-long dream into reality.

Joining McClear in a tie for third and rounding out the top 5 are 55-year-old Mike Henry (Bloomington), Charlie Kulwin (Chicago), Mason Minkel (Pekin) and Justin Schwab (Beach Park).

Kirkham and the 35 others who made the cut at +3 or better have 36 holes to play on Thursday before a champion is crowned at Bloomington. Players are set to begin play at 7 a.m. off both the front and back nines. The final pairing of Kirkham and Baker are scheduled to tee off at 8:21 a.m. in the morning and 12:51 p.m. in the afternoon.

Quotes of Note

Joshua Kirkham (Hinsdale) on transferring from Bradley to Northern Illinois ... "Actually Jeff came out today, Jeff Roche, my head coach at Bradley, so it was great having his support and he was more of a best friend than he was a coach to me for four years. It was tough moving on, but, you know, getting to play at Northern [Illinois], playing Rich Harvest Farms, a top-40 schedule and show me what it's like taking that next step into professional golf, it's kind of what I needed for my fifth year."

Thomas Baker (Rockford) on playing Nos. 14 and 15 at 5-under through two rounds, including an eagle on the par-5 14th Wednesday ... "I mean, right there is honestly where you should score. Especially that par 5, if you hit it in the fairway it's a little mid-iron or long-iron in there, so if you can attack that and get that on the green, you're pretty much good to go."

Defending champion Mac McClear (Hinsdale) on his mindset going into Thursday four shots back ... "It's 36 holes tomorrow, it's a lot of golf. I've been in the position before, obviously, so I know what it feels like and four shots over 36 holes is not very many shots. I'm just going to stick to my gameplan and see if I can execute a little better tomorrow and hopefully it'll work out."

Mike Henry (Bloomington) on competing in the State Am as a 55-year-old ... "The last five years or so I've still been trying some U.S. Am qualifiers and State Ams, so it's not like I haven't played with these guys in 20 years; I play with them all the time. If I have four more clubs than them into a green, it doesn't mean they're going to beat me on the hole."

Justin Schwab (Beach Park) on how the course played different in Round 2 vs. Round 1 ... "[The course] definitely dried out. The fairways were running out a little bit more, it wasn't just hitting and sitting. You definitely had to figure out exactly where you wanted to hit it, because it's rolling another 10-15 yards compared to yesterday."

Charlie Kulwin (Chicago) on his 3-under 67 in Round 2 ... "Obviously whenever you shoot 67, you're playing solid. The State Am's always a big deal, being a rookie in it, playing this well, I'm proud of myself and I feel like I've had a good tournament regardless of tomorrow."

Will Troy (Naperville) on playing in State Ams ... "I just think my confidence at this point in the summer is really good. I've had the whole summer to work on my game and get it as good as I possibly can. I'm always super excited for this event being the home-state Amateur Championship, it's always exciting to play in, so I just always look forward to this one."

Timmy Crawford (Arlington Heights) on closing his round with four birdies to make the cut ... "I looked at the scoreboard and I knew I had to make probably three, maybe four birdies coming in. I had good looks on Nos. 2 through 5 and then made a short putt on No. 6. I just told myself, 'You gotta birdie the last three,' and luckily I made three really nice mid-range putts. I hadn't made any all day, so it was really nice to see those go in. I was happy with how it finished."

Notables

• The scoring average for the second round Wednesday at Bloomington was 75.10, in comparison to 74.96 for Tuesday's first round.
• The field carded eight eagles on the day, all of which came on the 481-yard par-5 14th. This hole played as the easiest of the day with a scoring average of 4.60.
• The most difficult hole of the day was the 415-yard par-4 13th, on which the field averaged 4.67 strokes and tallied only four birdies overall. The hardest hole from Round 1, the 435-yard par-4 seventh, played as the seventh easiest in Round 2, with a scoring average of 4.28. On Tuesday, the average was 4.60.
• The seven Bloomington Country Club members competing averaged a score of 74.57, compared to 74.0 on Tuesday. The two lowest rounds among this group belonged to Parker Wisdom (Bloomington) and Tyler McNeely (Normal), who both shot 1-over 71. Wisdom, McNeely and  T.J. Barger (Bloomington) were the three who made the cut.
• Robert Beaubien, Jr. (Barrington), who won the 103rd CDGA Amateur Championship in June at Lake Shore Country Club, bounced back from an opening-round 7-over 77 with a 3-under 67. He missed the cut by one stroke.
• First-round leader Will Stewart (Lake in the Hills), who shot a 6-under 64 on Tuesday, carded an 11-over 81 on Wednesday and missed the cut by two strokes. Josh Anderson (Saint Joseph), who was one shot back of Stewart following Tuesday's opener, followed up his 65 with a 76. He is 1-over overall and tied for 16th.
• Two mid-amateur (age 25 and up) players sit in the top-5 after the second round - Justin Schwab (Beach Park) and Mike Henry (Bloomington). They sit 3-under overall, four shots back of the lead.
• All three players in the 1:20 tee time off of No. 10 - Derek Meinhart (Mattoon), Michael Mounce (El Paso) and Jack Paeglow (DeKalb) eagled the par-5 14th. All three players proceeded to make the cut, with Meinhart doing so on the number.