By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – Jim Hallet turned to Brian Lamberti on the ninth tee during Saturday’s final round of the TD Banknorth Portland Open and smiled.

“We have to turn it up a couple of notches,” Hallet said to Lamberti. “Make four or five (birdies) in a row. Otherwise, Todd’s going to run away with this thing.”

“I hear ya,” Lamberti said.

So did the rest of the field. But Todd Westfall was too strong.

Westfall drained a long eagle putt on the par-5 13th hole to vault over a charging Rob Oppenheim and held on from there for a one-shot victory over Oppenheim.

His three-day total of 202 was 11-under-par.

“I had good nerves today,” said Westfall, who started the day one shot back of leader and local favorite Jeff Martin. “I was nervous, but not in a bad way. It was all positive energy.”

As Westfall and Oppenheim played out the 18th hole, flashes of last year’s Maine Open ran through Westfall’s mind. In that tournament, shortened by weather, Westfall led into the final hole until Windham amateur Shawn Warren made a long putt to tie him. Westfall still took home the check as the top professional, but Warren walked out with the trophy. This time, Westfall took both.

“It was just so surreal on the green,” said Westfall, who watched as Oppenheim faced a 25-foot bid for birdie. “I just had a feeling that I would be forced to make mine to win, just like last year.”

Oppenheim came up short, though, which allowed Westfall a two-putt for the win, a luxury he used on his slick downhill, left-to-right breaker.

In three rounds (67-67-68), Westfall never three-putted, and in Saturday’s final round, he only hit two shots awry – his drive on the ninth hole after his back foot slipped out from under him and his tee shot on the 12th, which found a bunker and led to his lone bogey.

Oppenheim also started one back of Martin. He bogeyed two of his first four holes to drop off the pace, but birdies on the sixth and ninth holes put him back in the mix. On the 12th, when Westfall made his bogey, Oppenheim birdied to momentarily take the lead at 9-under, but a par on the ensuing par-5, where Westfall made eagle, shifted the momentum and the lead.

Two groups ahead, Jeff Gallagher, a former PGA touring professional from Henderson, Nev., was also gaining steam. A two-birdie, no-bogey front nine put Gallagher at 8-under, one shot out of the lead. He finished with a bogey-free 68 leaving him in the clubhouse tied with two other players at 9-under.

“I think I just left too many putts out there,” said Gallagher, who played on the PGA tour from 1996 to 2003. “I hit the ball so badly yesterday off the tee, but still managed to get them on the green. I tried a new putting stroke this week, and I guess I’m not going to keep this one. I’ll try something new next time, too.”

Gallagher’s wife is from Maine, and he had vacationed here many times, but this was his first run at the Portland Open.

In the group following Gallagher’s threesome, Hallet and David Spitz finished at 9-under, while Lamberti was 6-under.

Justin Goodhue, one of five players at 9-under, shot the low round of the day and equaled the low round of the tournament with a 6-under-par 65.

Martin, the leader after Day 2, struggled early – posting a bogey, double bogey, bogey string on Nos. 2-4 – to fall way off the pace. Despite birdies at eight, nine and 13, Martin never recovered.

Low amateur Ricky Jones, the two-time defending Maine Amateur champion, had a steady 1-over 72 to finish at 3-under 210, while Warren and Ben Daughan of York finished one stroke back at 211.

Locally, John Hickson of Newry and Sunday River Golf Club finished as the best Maine pro at 4-under 209, one better than Bob Darling Jr. of Lewiston and Fox Ridge Golf Club.