News

By Mark Gaughan

NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. – Anthony Delisanti, who just finished an outstanding collegiate career at Valparaiso University, set the competitive course record at Yahnundasis Golf Club Wednesday with a 7-under-par 64 in the second round of the 102nd New York State Amateur Championship. 

Related: Championship Central / Results / Rd 1 Recap / Photos / Preview

Delisanti, a 22-year-old from Sanborn in Niagara County, improved to 5-under par 137 at the halfway point of the event. He takes a one-shot lead into the final 36 holes of play on Thursday.

Chris Blyth, a 32-year-old from Rochester who is a two-time runner-up in the NYS Amateur, shot 3-under 68 for a two-day total of 138. Matthew Lowe, a 29-year-old former pro from Farmingdale, also shot a second-round 68 and is three back at 2-under 140. 

Eighteen players are within seven shots of the lead.

Delisanti made eight birdies and one bogey – on his final hole, the par-5 ninth – to post the lowest round ever in a competitive event at Yahnundasis, designed by Walter Travis in 1922.

“I’m definitely proud of the round, but we’ve got a lot of golf to go,” Delisanti said. “I felt like my course management was really good other than the last hole, where I got a tough break. This place is all course management, for sure. It’s so important to be in the right spot, because you can find yourself in the absolute wrong spot out here.”

Delisanti entered the event as one of the favorites and is the best collegian the Buffalo district has produced in at least the past 15 years. He was a four-time all-conference selection at Valparaiso and twice won the Missouri Valley Conference title. He’s a three-time Buffalo district champion and won the prestigious Northeast Amateur in Rhode Island in June 2024. He also claimed a NYS Junior 18U title in 2021.

Delisanti fell just shy of a spot in the U.S. Open at a sectional qualifier in early June but hasn’t felt as good about his scoring the past month. 

“I’ve been hitting it decent and just not getting rewarded for it,” he said. “The putter has been letting me down a little bit. Today was a good little jump start to the rest of the summer.”

Starting on the 10th hole Wednesday, Delisanti made birdie putts of 6, 16 and 12 feet early in his round, then had a tap-in birdie on 18 after a 335-yard drive and a 60-degree wedge from 85 yards. He had another tap-in birdie on the 340-yard first hole after a 325-yard drive. Two birdie putts of 12 feet, on the par-4 second and par-4 fourth, got him to 7 under. He hit a 52-degree wedge to 5-feet and made birdie on the 117-yard seventh to get to 8-under. His closing bogey came after his second shot landed in thick, high grass short of the green.

Blyth, a former three-time Division III All-America at St. John Fisher, was runner-up in the NYS Am in 2018 and 2019.  

“I can use that experience tomorrow to try to help me,” Blyth said. “Back in Rochester, I’ve played well in the districts. So I’m used to the pressure, and I enjoy the pressure.” 

Blyth, the 2018 Rochester district champ, could have backtracked after bogeys on Nos. 2 and 3 (his 11th and 12th holes). But he rallied. An 8-iron from 158 yards to 2 1-2 feet produced a birdie on 4. He made a 9-foot birdie putt on the par-5 sixth. He hit a pitching wedge to 5 feet and made the putt on the par-3 seventh. 

“I’ve not been playing much this year, so this is a surprise to me,” Blyth said of his play. “Coming into the week I had a strategy to just hit fairways and middle of the greens, and I kept to my game plan today. I made a few putts, it was a nice, solid round of golf.”

Lowe has been on a roll this season. He won the New York City Amateur on Memorial Day weekend, then won his second Metropolitan Golf Association Public Links title by six shots on June 12.

Lowe starred collegiately at the University of Richmond, spent four years as a pro and regained his amateur status in 2022. The Farmingdale resident plays public-course golf out of Bethpage Golf Course and Pine Hills Golf Club on Long Island.  

He opened his round with an eagle on the par-5 No. 10, hitting 3-wood from 265 yards to 30 feet. He closed the round with a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth.

“I fortunately got off to a good start because the middle of the round was a nightmare,” Lowe said. “My swing went from being really in control to very out of control, which is not my style. . . . I’m typically a decent ball striker, and it’s all about whether or not I’m able to make putts.”

Tied for fourth at 1-under are James Allen of Scarsdale GC and Jeff March of Penfield CC. Allen, 23, won the 2021 NYS Am and was runner up last year. March, 41, tied for eighth last year and has been in the top 22 four straight years.

Syracuse’s Jackson Saroney (Drumlins GC), the New York high school champion and a Penn State commit, is tied at even par with Mercer University’s Charlie Fischer (East Aurora CC).

A 36-hole cut fell at +8 (150), and a total of 44 players will advance into Thursday's final two rounds of competition.