BOOTHBAY – Player after player straggled into the clubhouse at Boothbay Country Club on Tuesday, most of them scratching their heads as they gazed at their scorecards.
The first stop for most of them – after signing their cards – was to the deck, and the clubhouse wall adjacent to the entrance. There, five green boards swung gently in the breeze, carrying the hopes of several golfers back and forth.
Tuesday was cut day at the 86th annual Maine Amateur golf tournament, and scoreboard watching became a sport unto itself.
“I don’t think I’m in,” said Steve Lycette of Nonesuch River Golf Course as he alternated between sitting on the railing and pacing across the grounds.
Any chance he got to discuss the cut with passers-by, he took. At 77-79-156, Lycette teetered squarely on the earliest projected cut line. Several players who were at 77 after the first day came in with higher scores, but some players who had been at 79 or 80 came in much lower.
All afternoon, people threw numbers out.
“One-fifty-six? You’ll be sticking around all afternoon to wait this out,” MSGA director Nancy DeFrancesco told David DeSmith of Val Halla.
Other people in the room with lower projections scrunched their brows and bore puzzled looks. When half the field had finished its rounds, the projected cut line was at 155.
With three groups left, a collective groan came from the gathering crowd as Nick Pelotte of Waterville posted an 81, giving him a two-day total of 154.
The 155s were out.
Thirteen-time champion Mark Plummer? Out at 156. Two-time champ Ron Brown? Also out, he at 158. Last year’s runner-up, Cash Wiseman? Another casualty at 155.
Ouch.
Plummer may have spoken for the host of almosts and not-quites when, after missing a short putt at 18 for the second consecutive day, he simply looked up and shrugged.
“It just wasn’t much fun at all.”
Maybe next year, fellas. Maybe next year.
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