October 4—You’ll have to excuse Taconic assistant Josh Hillman for not behaving like a traditional assistant.

Sure, he gives lessons, cleans the odd set of set of clubs every now and again and probably takes tee times from the membership.

But he sure doesn’t play like a run-of-the-mill assistant, the type who’ll tee it up in Saturday Sweeps and struggle to take $2 from you.

Case in point: This week’s Northeastern New York PGA Assistant Match Play Championship, where Hillman played four separate matches, 63 holes of golf and was pushed to the 18^th hole only once en route to a $600 payday that rivals the dominance he displayed during a 6-stroke romp in the section’s assistant stroke-play championship two months ago.

Then again, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by this type of performance. After all, Hillman, who roomed with Lee’s Jim Salinetti for four years during a standout career at URI, attended PGA TOUR Qualifying School on three separate occasions, and made it to the second stage once, just like Salinetti and Matt Donovan.

“It was a solid performance,” said the 29-year old Hillman, a first-year assistant under the legendary Rick Pohle. “I go out there for fun. If I got beat 6 & 5 in the first match, I still got my two days off. Rick’s been very good with me. I didn’t know how many great players we had before I came in. But he’s walked me through what events to play in. He’s even told me what back roads to take to the events. He’s thrown me under his wing.”

While Donovan and Salinetti, who both missed the cut on Wednesday in the New England Pro Golf Tour’s season-ending event in Atlantic City, begin to prepare for qualifying school, Hillman’s season has slowly come to a close.

Not that he minds.

“I’m very comfortable where I am right now,” he said. “I didn’t like traveling as much as they do. We’re still good friends But we don’t really discuss golf and how we’re doing. We leave our friendship to do the work.”

Hillman’s most recent performance continues a recent trend of dominance by Berkshire County club professionals in NENY events. With three events remaining on the schedule, Pohle is in line to garner the Senior Player of the Year. And Berkshire Hills’ Bob Meheran stands a good chance to capture the Vardon Trophy for low scoring average, as well as Player of the Year honors.