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VERONA, N.Y. -- Talk about feeding off each other!

Two groups of three recorded six under-par scores at Turning Stone Resort’s Kaluhyat Golf Club on a breezy Wednesday, and those six golfers, from 18 to 23 years of age, dominate the leader board heading into Thursday’s final two rounds of the 93rd New York State Men’s Amateur Championship.

First-round co-leader Sam Bernstein, of Century Country Club in the Westchester County community of Purchase, fired a 69 to go with Tuesday’s 70 and stands at 5-under-par 139, good for a two-stroke lead.

Fellow competitors Trevor Sluman from Rochester and Derek Bard of New Hartford improved their positions with rounds of 67 and 70, respectively. Sluman moved into a tie for second at 3-under 141; Bard, the University of Virginia junior who won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur last month, is at 143.

“We all fed off each other pretty much,” said the 21-year-old Sluman, whose uncle, Jeff Sluman, won the 1978 State Am at Moon Brook Country Club in Jamestown before embarking on his storied professional career.

A recent graduate of the University of Louisville, the younger Sluman recorded five birdies and no bogeys for the tournament’s best round so far.

Bernstein, the 2014 Yale University graduate, who will begin a job in New York City next month after considering professional golf, was likewise bogey-free, but double-bogeyed the par-4 12th. “One bad swing off the tee cost me two strokes,” said Bernstein off his hooked 3-wood into a lateral hazard.

The other all under-par group consisted of first-round co-leader Cameron Young from Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Westchester County, John Clare from Bellevue Country Club in Syracuse and Gavin Hall of Oak Hill Country Club in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford.

The 18-year-old Young, who’ll enroll at Wake Forest University next month, birdied his final two holes, Nos. 7 and 8, for 71 and 3-under 141. “I kind of salvaged the round there,” said Young, a quarterfinalist in last year’s U.S. Amateur at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Clare, 20, a rising junior at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, which he led to only a second-ever berth in the NCAA Division II National Championships this spring, made five birdies against two bogeys for 69 and shares second with Sluman and Young.

Clare, the Central New York Open champion, scored five birdies and an eagle to offset five bogeys and a double-bogey in the first round. “My coach (Joe Tesori, PGA) and I went over that round. I decided to look at it that I shot even-par, despite five bogeys and a double, and that was a good thing”.

Hall, a junior at the University of Texas, was floundering at 6-over-par through 27 holes. He then played the next six holes in 6-under and got back into the tournament. “I finally got some numbers,” said Hall of his suddenly radar-like approach shots, made easier by not being between two club selections.

Hall’s 70 left him at even-par 144.

One additional under-par score was turned in late in the day, a 70 by Locust Hill Country Club member Adam Condello, which placed him in fifth place at 2-under 142. Condello was the runner-up in the 2014 N.Y.S. Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Teugega Country Club.

The cut to the low 40 players and ties fell at 155.  

Thursday’s play will be in groups of two off the first and ninth tees, with the players keeping their pairing for both rounds. The lead groups will begin play off the ninth tee in the morning third round and off the first tee in the afternoon final round.

To view full results from Round 2, click here.

To view pairings for Rounds 3 & 4, click here.

To view photos from Round 2, click here.

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Chuck Harty