As a kid, Rich Berberian Jr. took his first golf lessons in the garage of his family's Derry home.

His father, Rich Berberian, was the pro at Derry's Hoodkroft Country Club and a believer in Ben Hogan's “Five Lessons.” Once his son expressed interest in the game, Berberian began imparting Hogan's fundamentals, starting with a proper grip, in the garage. After a month of practice setups and swings, the youngster graduated to hitting balls.

Honing his game on the nine-hole Hoodkroft layout, the kid developed into one of the state's top juniors, winning the NHGA State Junior Championship and NHIAA Class L crown in 2005. Now an assistant pro at Hoodkroft, the 24-year-old is a leading New England PGA competitor who attributes success to his old man's tutelage.

“He did it right by teaching me the fundamentals before I even started playing,” Berberian said.

Counting a team victory in January's NEPGA Winter Pro-Pro in Florida, Berberian has won five section tournaments this year and advanced to sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open. While helping his father run Hoodkroft's golf operation and working toward Class A PGA membership, he's also chasing his dream of becoming a tour pro.

Berberian has entered the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament the last two years, and although he has yet to advance past the first of three qualifying stages — he missed by a stroke in 2010 — he's learned from his experiences.

“I had never really played four-day tournaments up until then,” said Berberian, who plans to try Q-School again this fall. “I always just assumed that everybody who's making the cut is playing incredible golf and not missing a shot. I used to get down on myself for not hitting it well or putting well for a day or two. ... I learned that you can still shoot a good score while not hitting it as well as you can or not putting as well as you can. It's staying patient and sticking to a game plan.”

A two-time New Hampshire Chapter PGA champion (2009, '10), Berberian also gained valuable experience last winter playing the Florida Professional Golf Tour, an Orlando-based mini-tour. Since coming back north, he's won a New Hampshire Chapter pro-am at The Oaks, an NEPGA Assistants' Association tournament on Cape Cod and an NEPGA pro-am at Portsmouth, where he shot a sizzling 65. And two weeks ago, he shared the title at an NEPGA Ahead Stroke Play tournament outside Boston with Kirk Hanefeld, the New Hampshire-bred pro who's enjoyed success on the Champions Tour.

In a U.S. Open local qualifier the next day, Berberian shot 69 at Pinehills Golf Club in Plymouth, Mass., to advance to sectional qualifying for the first time. On June 4, he'll be one of 74 players at New Jersey's Canoe Brook Country Club vying for a slot in the national championship, which is scheduled for June 14-17 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

The 36-hole Canoe Brook sectional is one of 11 the U.S. Golf Association will stage across the country that day, with only a handful of players at each site advancing to the year's second major. Because he's been playing well, Berberian plans to approach the qualifier like any other tournament, although he has picked the brains of a couple of acquaintances who are familiar with Canoe Brook, including fellow NEPGA competitor Shawn Warren, a Maine pro who played in the sectional last year.

Although Warren failed to qualify for the 2011 U.S. Open, he was surprised at how reasonable the qualifying scores were.

“Last year I think it took 4-under (par), which for a player of Rich's caliber is definitely a realistic goal,” Warren said. “I told him not to go in there thinking he has to do anything fancy.”

Solid ball-striking is the hallmark of Berberian's game, Warren added, a quality that likely owes to all those hours in the garage practicing the fundamentals his father taught him. And as Berberian juggles PGA Tour aspirations with his assistant pro duties, his father remains his biggest supporter.

“My son works his share, but I make sure that he has time to practice, play and enter tournaments,” said the elder Berberian, Hoodkroft's head pro for three decades. “I'd like to see him do what I've always wanted to do.”

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THROUGH THE GREEN: Two amateurs with New Hampshire ties will join Berberian in the U.S. Open sectional at Canoe Brook. Keene's Chelso Barrett is exempt into the field by virtue of his runner-up finish at the 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur, while Dartmouth golfer Charlie Edler (69) qualified along with Berberian at Pinehills. ... Plaistow's Cortney Tilley (76) qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship last Wednesday in Boylston, Mass. The national championship is slated for June 18-23 in Neshanic, N.J. ... Hanover's George Craft (73) was the low State Amateur qualifier at Lake Sunapee last Thursday. Seventeen players shot 78 or better to qualify for the State Am, scheduled for July 9-14 at Concord. … Hampstead's Lauren Thibodeau, who won the 2011 NHWGA Junior Championship as an 11-year-old, set a new course record from the red tees at Derry's Brookstone Golf Course earlier this month. Playing in a middle-school match, the 12-year-old sixth grader shot 3-under-par 24 on a nine-hole layout New England Golf Monthly recently named the second-best par-3 course in New England.

Mike Cullity's column on New Hampshire golf appears weekly during the golf season in the New Hampshire Sunday News. E-mail him at mcullity@unionleader.com.