BOOTHBAY – Shawn Warren knew a “decent number” would get him into match play of the 86th Maine Amateur. After a birdie on the second hole, he felt confident that he could shoot one.
Warren set a new course record at Boothbay Country Club, a 6-under-par 65, and grabbed the No. 1 seed going into today’s round of 32 match play.
“Knowing the course a little bit better, it helped out,” said Warren, who will be a junior at Marshall University this fall. “I have a rescue club in my bag, a 21-degree club, that I hit today, and that made a big difference. I only hit driver three times. I stayed relaxed and didn’t have to push hard.”
Warren birdied seven holes and bogeyed just one, the par-3 15th. He nearly eagled the 18th hole to push the record to 64, just missing the putt to the right.
Fourteen-year-old Ryan Gay of Gardiner followed his first-day 76 with a 77 to shoot 153. Gay’s score officially knocked 13-time champion Mark Plummer from the round of 32 for the first time since the tournament reverted to match play in 2000. This is also the first year Plummer has missed the cut, regardless of format, since he started playing nearly 40 years ago. Plummer shot 79 Tuesday to finish at 156.
Gay’s score, combined with a couple of late 154s, knocked the 155s out of the tournament, leaving exactly 32 golfers at 154 or better. The field will tee off in pairs starting at 7:30 this morning at eight minute intervals to whittle the field to 16. On Thursday, the 16 remaining golfers will be paired up and play down to the final four, with the semifinals and finals teeing off Friday.
The course didn’t play quite as tough as it had Monday, and some players finally cracked the elusive par barrier. Aside from Warren’s 65, James Frost Jr. fired a 68 after a first-round 82 to leapfrog into the field of 32. Webhannet’s Todd Kirn managed a 70 for a 148, as did Eric Higgins of Cape Arundel. Frost’s round also broke the old course record from the championship tees. Overall, the field’s scoring average on a much cooler day was almost two strokes less than the previous day, at 79.3 strokes per golfer.
Tom Caron of Bangor, one of the co-leaders after Day 1, ballooned with an 86 to fall out of the race. Scott Stone, who had tied Caron at 71 on Monday, set his place in the match play field of 32 with a two-day total of 148, despite “two bad holes.”
“I left my head cover on my brain on a couple of holes,” said Stone, of Toddy Brook. “I four-putted the second green and I yanked my driver left on the par-5 sixth. It was a nice morning, though, a nice pace of play.”
Some of the bubble players from Day 1 made a run Tuesday. Auburn’s Dan Hargreaves fired at 2-over 74 to assure himself a spot in the match-play portion of the tournament. After his round, Hargreaves dialed what seemed to be endless numbers on his cell phone, and the smile never left his face as he accepted congratulations from his caddie and fellow golfers.
Blake Eldridge of Winthrop also outlasted the field, shooting a 77 for a two-day total of 151, and Chris Delamater of Norway followed his first-round 76 with another to qualify with a 152.
Corey Poulin, despite a bogey on the 18th hole after driving into the fescue to the right, shot a morning-low round of 72 for a two-day score of 150 to qualify for match play for the second straight year.
“I really couldn’t have played any worse than I did yesterday,” said Poulin. “I figured mid-70’s would be reasonable.”
Last year, Poulin sank a chip on the 18th hole in his first-round match against Jason Gall. Gall then sank a 35-foot bomb on the same green to defeat Poulin 1-up. Gall will again be in the final 32, this time as the No. 2 seed after back-to-back 72s.
Other local finishers included Corey Woodhead of Martindale (155), Jace Pearson of Fox Ridge (158), Brady Chapman of the Bethel Inn and Country Club (158), Larry Ross of Poland Spring (158), Paul Pelletier of Martindale (162), Keegan Fennessy of Summit (165), Craig Chapman of Fox Ridge (166) and Robert Driscoll of Martindale (168).
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