Paris Comes Up Short at U.S. Open Sectional

The dream awaits another year for Westfield native Scott Paris. 

Paris, 43, the director of golf at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, tied for 46th place with a 5-over (76-72-148) in a 36-hole U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying tournament on a gorgeous Monday at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit. It was his second Sectional Qualifying event – he participated in his first in 2005.

Paris, who started morning play on the North Course, shot a 4-over 76 with birdies on the par-4, 362-yard fourth hole and par-4, 382-yard 15th hole.

"In the morning, I felt like my tee shots kind of let me down," he said. "I just didn’t drive it as well as I needed to. I really didn't flight my tee shots properly. I had a couple of hooks, which is what I do when I struggle and when I play well, I hit it really straight. I just couldn't quite control the flight of a couple of my tee shots. I hit some of my tee shots early on in some fairway bunkers, which I should have never been in."

Paris started the morning round a par, two bogeys and a birdie. 

During the afternoon, Paris came home with a 1-over 72 on the South Course with birdies on the par-4, 460-yard 1st; par-5, 573-yard 8th and par-5, 489-yard 15th.

"The afternoon I had a lot more chances than I did in the morning," he said.  "I had three short birdie putts and made a couple of them. I had one loose tee shot in the afternoon, otherwise I drove it pretty good. If I made some of those putts early on to start the second round, I might have been able to get on a roll."

Paris' playing partner, Eric Beringer from Delray Beach, Fla., tied for 64th place with a 9-over (79-73-152).

83 golfers (64 professionals and 19 amateurs) converged at Canoe Brook to contend for four coveted spots in the 111th U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., which starts Thursday, June 16th.

Those four spots were earned by Geoffrey Sisk, who took home medalist honors with a 6-under 137, Matt Richardson, Alexandre Rocha and 19-year-old amateur Cheng-tsung Pan. Richards, Rocha and Pan each shot 5-under 138.

Ten other sites around the nation hosted sectional qualifying events on Monday.

In the 2005 qualifying event, which also took place at Canoe Brook, Paris shot 77-74 and did not advance to the main event at Pinehurst Resort’s famed-course No. 2 in Pinehurst, N.C.

"I'm going to keep trying," Paris said, who had Scott Chisholm, another PGA Professional at Plainfield, on the bag to caddy. "The Sectional is here for three years in a row and then will go back up to the Westchester, N.Y. area, so it’s nice to be so close to home and just a few miles away."

Paris, 6-feet-1-inch and 185 pounds, advanced to Sectional Qualifying after a 1-over 73 in Local Qualifying (18 holes) at Ballyowen Golf Club in Hamburg on May 17th.

Paris' future schedule for the next couple of months is rather full, as his club will be hosting The Barclays, the PGA Tour's first official event of the PGA Tour Playoffs, Aug. 25-28.

"For me playing, one of our big New Jersey PGA events is next week, which is a nice consolation to play in and the State Open is in July, so those are the next two big things to play in," Paris said. "As far as the club is concerned, there are many member and guest events for the next couple of months. With The Barclays, the Tour runs the event, but we run the Pro-Am the day before and the Am-Am the day after. My staff and I will be heavily involved in player services, so it's going to be a new, and I think, interesting experience for all of us."

For complete information and details on the U.S. Open, visit www.usopen.com.