A five-shot win last week in the State of Maine Championship has Fox Ridge pro Bob Darling at the top of his game.
AUBURN – Last year, Bob Darling Jr. of Lewiston could taste a win at the Charlie’s Maine Open.
Starting in the final group as one of the leaders, Darling had several chances to take control of the tournament on the final day.
“I think I was too tentative last year,” said Darling. “Last year, on the first two day, I tried not to be greedy and just set myself up for the last day. I wasn’t aggressive enough when I needed to be.”
If last week was any indication on his progress, Darling should be looking for a much better result this time.
“I had a five-shot lead last week going into the final day (at the State of Maine Championships at Sugarloaf),” said Darling. “I ended up winning by five, so I think that the key is going to be to go as low as possible early, just in case.”
Since last year’s Maine Open, Darling has played in numerous events in Maine and Florida, racking up a few wins and several top-five finishes at professional events.
“I’ve had a decent year,” said Darling. “The key is to just play as much as I possibly can. I don’t want to come to the age of 50 and try and make the senior tour cold. I need to be playing enough to get physically and mentally ready for four-day events. What we play now are two- and three-day events.”
The tour – now call the Champions’ Tour – has been a goal of Darling for some time. Now a year into his job as Director of Golf at Fox Ridge in Auburn, Darling, 47, is finding a little bit more time to play in tournaments.
“I still have my job,” said Darling, “but with the way things are spaced out, it’s worked out really well this year, especially during the Florida swing.”
In Wednesday’s opening round of the Maine Open, Darling will tee off in the first group at Riverside Municipal Golf Course with top Maine amateur Mark Plummer and last year’s champion Ryan Ouellette of Florida.
“I like that early tee time a lot,” said Darling. “The course is fresh, and if the weather turns like it’s supposed to, it’s going to be a very good course to score on.”
With all of the rain and muggy weather over the last two weeks, the rough is sure to be thicker, but the greens will be much more receptive.
“That should make for some low scores,” said Darling. “Even if you lose a bit of driving distance with softer fairways, it might not bounce into the rough as much, which sets up better for approach shots.”
As always, though, the greens and the par-3s will be the biggest factor at Riverside.
“Those par-3s can make or break your round,” said Darling. “If you can get through all of the par-3s at even par, you can shoot really low, especially if the greens are receptive.”
With a new, center-shafted two-ball putter in tow that helped him win at Sugarloaf last weekend, Darling knows that if a few putts start to drop, the tournament may well be a shoot-out.
“If that putter gets hot, for me or for anybody, the scores are going to go really low at that course,” said Darling. “I’m looking forward to this week. It should be an interesting tournament.”
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