Although she's an accomplished violinist, Cortney Tilley has been making sweet music with her golf clubs lately.

After helping lead Siena College to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference women's golf title and an NCAA Championship regional berth as a junior this spring, the 20-year-old Plaistow resident recently qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship.

With a 76 at Cyprian Keyes Golf Club in Boylston, Mass., on May 23, Tilley scored her first trip to a U.S. Golf Association national championship. Open to female public course players, the tournament is scheduled for June 18-23 at New Jersey's Neshanic Valley Golf Course.

At the Massachusetts qualifier, Tilley earned the last of six available championship slots. After playing in the first group, the Atkinson Country Club golfer waited two hours to see if her score would hold up.

Although five players posted rounds lower than hers, Tilley survived by a single stroke, thanks in part to a hot putter. She made three birdie putts of 20 feet or longer and converted a couple of key 10-footers for par.

After failing to qualify the past three years, Tilley attributed her success this year to her mental approach.

“When walking between shots, I tried not thinking about golf, and then when I got to my ball I went straight to it and tried to keep my thinking process and my preshot routine slow,” she said.

Standing just 5-feet-2, Tilley has distinguished herself with strong performances in the New Hampshire Women's Golf Association Championship, finishing second in 2010 and third last year. Named the MAAC golfer of the month in March, she tied for fifth individually in the conference championship at Walt Disney World's Magnolia Course in April. And despite a letdown in last month's NCAA Central Regional at Ohio State, where she finished near the bottom of the leaderboard, she believes her experience there will help her at the Public Links.

Although she's understated, Tilley is a well-rounded player, said Marc Spencer, a Windham Country Club teaching pro who has worked with her for more than a decade.

“She's not going to wow you at anything, but she gets it done,” he said. “She's a very smart golfer who's not going to make many mental mistakes.”

Spencer first met Tilley at Garrison Golf Center in Haverhill, Mass., where Tilley began attending junior clinics as a 7-year-old. She took up the violin around the same time and sees parallels between her two passions.

“You need to have good tempo when you're playing golf, and obviously tempo is the main focus in music,” she said. “So I feel like I have a pretty good rhythm when it comes to both.”

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Water hazard: Keene's Bretwood Golf Course was cleaning up last week from flood damage caused by the severe thunderstorms that hit western New Hampshire last Tuesday night. Flooding of Sturtevant Brook washed out a section of East Surry Road leading to the 36-hole facility and deposited considerable debris on three holes on Bretwood's South Course, not to mention the practice range.

“Sturtevant Brook turned into a raging rapid,” said Chuck Shortsleeve, Bretwood's pro shop manager. “The back half of our driving range was a flowing river.”

Bretwood reopened 27 holes last Thursday and expects to have all 36 open this week, Shortsleeve said. Although the storm damaged some cart paths on the North Course, that layout is expected to be ready to host the New England Interscholastic Championships on June 18 and a U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship qualifier on June 20.

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Junior focus: A recently announced partnership with the Golf Club of New England to support and assist the Stratham club as its prepares to host the 2012 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship is the first significant initiative of the nascent New Hampshire Golf Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote the game and support junior programs in the state. Board members established the foundation last year by renaming the New Hampshire Golf House, a 10-year-old collaborative entity of state golf organizations that, according to New Hampshire Golf Association Executive Director Jeremy Sprince, never evolved as envisioned.

As part of its Golf Club of New England partnership, the NHGF will help promote the U.S. Junior Amateur and assist the club with fund-raising to support the championship, said Patrick Spooner, president of both the NHGF and NHGA. In return, the foundation will receive a contribution from the tournament's net proceeds, Spooner added.

Scheduled for July 16-21, the U.S. Junior Amateur will be the first U.S. Golf Association national championship contested in New Hampshire.

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Through the green: A 59-year-old Berlin golfer recently made three holes-in-one within three weeks on the same hole. Androscoggin Valley Country Club member Gary Roy aced the 185-yard, par-3 sixth hole at the Gorham course on May 2, May 7 and May 23. A 6-handicapper who's an eight-time club champion, Roy used a 7-wood for the first and last aces and hit a 5-wood into the wind for the second one. ... The Golf Coaches Association of America named Dartmouth golfers Peter Williamson of Hanover and James Pleat of Nashua to its men's Division I Ping Northeast All-Region team. … Pine Grove Springs' Charles Konkowski (72) was low State Amateur qualifier at Souhegan Woods last Tuesday. Twenty players shot 78 or better to qualify for the State Am, scheduled for July 9-14 at Concord.

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.