AUBURN – Mike Baker was happy to be back home, Rob Corcoran was happy he accepted a friend’s invitation, and much of the field at the 88th Charlie’s Maine Open was happy to have survived the whipping winds and precarious greens of Fox Ridge Golf Club on Tuesday.

Baker, a one-time pro at Sugarloaf Country Club, and Corcoran, who is here after an invite from friend, and Hebron Academy ice hockey coach Rob Gagnon, fired matching 3-under-par 69s to edge early leader Ricky Jones, an amateur from Thomaston, by one on the first day of competition.

“I controlled it well today,” said Baker. “Actually, a lot of what I did today, I picked the yardage to the front of the green and tried to hit it there and hope it would release to wherever I needed it to be. You can leave yourself in some bad spots out there.”

“I really putted beautifully today,” said Corcoran. “I had a lot of par saves earlier in the round, and I kept it going and made a couple of birdies coming in.”

Corcoran last played in the Maine Open in 2001, and now teaches at Spring Lake Golf Club in Middle Island on Long Island, N.Y.

Don Robertson of Texas, a regular at the Maine Open, was the only other golfer to tame Fox Ridge and shoot under par in Round 1. Four others – Shawn Hester of Medway, Mass., Maine Amateur champ Shawn Warren of Windham, four-time Maine Amateur champ Sean Gorgone of Casselberry, Fla. and Michael Ryan of North Providence, R.I. – are tied for fifth at 1-over 73.

“After the way I started, I’m really happy,” said Warren, who made five bogies over his first seven holes. “I started like a pig. The turning point of the round was on No. 9, I had 240 yards in out of the left rough. Probably 99 times out of 100 I’d lay up there, but I was just so aggravated with the way I was playing I just pulled out 3-wood and said, ‘If I knock it it in the water, it’s just another bogey. What else would be new?'”

Warren knocked it on, two-putted for a birdie and then made three more birdies on the back nine to finish at 73.

The course – and the weather – had a lot to do with the rising scores. There may now be a dent in the cart path near the scoreboard, as golfer after golfer finished their round, paused in front of the boards and gawked.

“You have to hit the ball really well out here just to even have a chance,” said Fox Ridge member Craig Chapman.

Chapman finished with an 87 Tuesday. Fellow local amateur John Emerson finished at 94. Fox Ridge club champ Jace Pearson shot an 82, and even the course’s own pro, Bob Darling Jr., carded an 8-over-par 80 from the first group of the day.

“I knew Eddie (Michaud, the course superintendent) would have the greens fast, and we wanted them that way,” said Darling, “but it certainly took away whatever little course advantage that I had. I’m just like everybody else out there with a bag of clubs now, but hey, that’s golf.”

Unlike at Monday’s pro-am, the wind whipped up early, and came in from the opposite direction.

“The golf course is just in perfect shape,” said Corcoran, who went for a walk-through Monday night. “Earlier in the round, the wind was up. I saw the forecast, it was probably going to blow about five or 10 miles an hour, but it was probably blowing about 20. It calmed down on the back side a bit, but the wind whipped all these greens out. They’re just rolling fast.”

Jones may have had the least exciting round among the leaders, with no bogies and two birdies.

“This might be the first round I don’t have at least a couple of three-putts,” said Jones. “I got good practice yesterday because we were playing up in Canada, and the wind was blowing, like, 50 off the ocean, so this was nothing. I had a three-footer on 10 and about a three-footer on 17.

Ironically enough, the only fairways Jones missed – on Nos. 10 and 17 – resulted in his only two birdies.

John Hickson of Litchfield currently sits tied as the low Maine-based professional in the field at 4-over-par 76 with former champion Jerry DiPhilippo of Gorham.

“I didn’t have any three-putts, but boy, I didn’t putt very well,” said Hickson. “The greens roll well, but they don’t necessarily stay rolling on the line. They kind of, they wiggle.”

Action starts back up at Fox Ridge this morning at 7 a.m. After today’s round, the low 40 golfers plus ties will advance to Thursday’s final round.