SACO – Ryan Gay knew what he was up against.

Standing beside the first tee before the final round of the 89th Maine Amateur Golf Championship at Biddeford-Saco Country Club on Thursday, Gay was stoic. To his left stood 13-time champion Mark Plummer. To his right, two-time victor Ricky Jones.

Plummer, with whom Gay golfs several times every summer at Augusta Country Club in Manchester, cracked a joke, started to laugh, and Gay cracked a smile.

And while he stayed loose, the 17-year-old senior at Gardiner High School also stayed focused. He saved par from the sand on the second hole, rattled off four straight birdies thereafter and cruised home to a two-shot win, adding his name to the list of Maine Amateur champions alongside Plummer and Jones.

“I played pretty well, but I made no mistakes,” Gay said. “When you make no mistakes – well, until 18 – you’re going to score well. I just played flawless golf, 17 holes of flawless golf.”

Gay made things interesting on the 18th. His drive went left off the tee, but hung up in the rough to the left of a sharp dogleg right.

“I had about 155 into the wind, I thought,” Gay said. “I pulled out an 8-iron and hit it about 175. It had to be adrenaline.”

The ball bounded over the green and came to rest by the cart path near the 10th tee.

“That was like playing out of a bunker almost,” Gay said. “I knew I would be lucky to make six from there.”

Gay did card a six, his lone blemish on an otherwise stellar round. His 3-under-par 68 left him at 5-under-par 208 for the three-day tournament, two better than Plummer’s 210 and five better than Jones’ 213.

It was the shot on the second hole, though, that got Gay going.

“I’d hit a big pull hook off the tee; I was right in between clubs,” Gay said. “I knew there was no chance putting spin on that ball out of the sand, so I used the height of the ball to soften the landing and rolled it down there about eight feet.”

Plummer was one of Gay’s biggest fans on the course throughout the day, too, congratulating the youngster on the several solid shots he played.

“I thought he handled himself really well,” Plummer said of Gay. “He looked comfortable. I think the only chance he had to not win is if he got off to a bad start, and he didn’t. He made a great par on two then ran off those birdies.”

Gay, of course, returned the respect.

“Mark and I have talked about that for a long time, playing together in a final group,” Gay said. “He’s a great player. Like he said, if he didn’t win, he wanted me to win, and the same goes for me. If it wasn’t going to be me, I wanted Mark to win. In my mind, he’s the best Maine’s ever seen.”

Jones, meanwhile, who led the tournament by one over Plummer to start the day, played even through eight holes, but while Gay caught up to – and eventually passed him – Jones couldn’t gain any momentum of his own.

“I got a little frustrated on the front, those guys were rolling in birdie putts from everywhere,” Jones said. “I had to keep trying to get it closer and closer, and I started to miss them a little bit.”

Gay led the tournament by one over both Jones and Plummer after eight holes Thursday. Jones bogeyed the ninth, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes to fall back to even par for the tournament. Plummer suffered setback at Nos. 10 and 11, saved a great par on the 12th, but dropped another on the 13th hole to fall off the pace, too.

Through 16 holes, Gay led by five over Plummer, and by seven over Jones.

“I played aggressively to get where I needed to be,” Gay said, “and then I played conservatively to finish it off.”

Plummer got one back on the 17th to set up Gay’s adventure at 18.

Presidential support

Plummer has made some great friends over his years of playing high-end golf, but none likely higher in stature on the world stage than former President of the United States, George H.W. Bush.

Bush arrived at the course Thursday as Plummer and the final group approached the 10th green. He watched Plummer make back-to-back bogies on the 10th and 11th holes before disappearing back into the woods with his three-golf-cart entourage.

“I was making a bogey before he showed up,” Plummer laughed. “

After the round, Bush and Plummer shared a light moment before Plummer left the green to sign his scorecard and congratulate Gay on his performance.

Bush also left a special gift for the champion – he signed an official Maine State Golf Association golf flag, which Gay also received during the post-tournament award ceremony.

Local golfers

Keegan Fennessy of Minot led the local contingent with an 8-over par 221, after shooting a 76 in the final round. Other local players included Sean Keenan of Sugarloaf (224), Spring Meadow’s Brian Bilodeau (228) and Fox Ridge’s Todd Stratman (234) and Jace Pearson (239).