MANCHESTER — Given the amount of golf Emily Bouchard played prior to the Maine Women’s Amateur this week, there was little surprise when she showed some rust in carding an opening-round 85.

But those who’ve watched her play — especially those who saw her win in grand fashion a year ago — also knew it was only a matter of time before her real game showed up.

Bouchard kick-started her round with a birdie at the first, and took off with an eagle at the fourth on her way to a 1-under 71, erasing a four-shot deficit to earn a resounding seven-stroke victory over second-round leader Leslie Guenther at Augusta Country Club on Wednesday.

“I’m kind of speechless right now,” Bouchard said. “Last year’s win didn’t sink in for a while, and this one probably won’t either.”

Bouchard, 22, of Saco, is a former Maine State Golf Association intern and star athlete at Thornton Academy. She now helps run the First Tee of Maine program at Val Halla Golf and Recreation Center in Cumberland, and plays competitive golf sparingly.

“I don’t know the exact number (of rounds this year), 15 maybe?” Bouchard guessed. “I find that if I play too much golf, I fall out of love with the game.”

Monday’s first-round left Bouchard reeling. She carded six 6s to post an 85.

“I’ve kind of been a yo-yo this year. I’ve had some bad rounds,” Bouchard said. “Monday, I didn’t really have any luck on my side. I made some poor shots, and it showed in my score.”

She was down, she said, but not out.

“I don’t really know what I was thinking, but I wasn’t counting myself out of it,” Bouchard said. “It’s a three-day tournament for a reason, and I knew I was capable of putting a couple of good rounds together.”

There was little for her to be upset about Wednesday, as Augusta’s lightning quick greens made it difficult for the golfers around Bouchard to maintain their standing, especially as she started to make a run.

After a birdie at the first and a bogey at No. 3, Bouchard pounded a drive to 170 yards on the par-5 fourth. She hit a 6-iron to six feet and made the putt for an eagle three.

“That was a hole where, all week I was giving shots away,” Bouchard said. “Not necessarily bogeys, but settling for par, and that’s a hole where I should have no problems.

“That was huge momentum, I gained two right there,” she added. “And who knows what they’re going to do behind me at that point.”

Guenther, of Norway Country Club, began the day with a one-stroke advantage on Springbrook Golf Club’s Pennie Cummings, a six-time women’s champion, and a four-shot lead over Bouchard and Micki Meggison of Sable Oaks.

“I couldn’t keep up with what Emily shot. That’s just phenomenal,” Guenther said. “She plays a game that none of us play.”

Guenther lost her lead to Cummings on the opening hole with a bogey. Cummings birdied for a two-shot swing and the early final-round lead. But a double bogey at the second and a bogey at the third, while Bouchard carded her eagle at the fourth, put the lead in Bouchard’s hands for the first time in the tournament.

She gave a couple of strokes back to par on the front nine, but still turned at even par for the day. Her lone hiccup came at the par-4 14th when she dumped her second shot into a greenside bunker.

“I had a good lie there, but the slope was directly away from me, I had no chance,” Bouchard said. “With how fast these greens are, I wasn’t getting it close. I just had to take my medicine, chip up and make the double.”

She rebounded with birdies at 15 and 16, and just missed opportunities at 17 and 18 to finish at 71.

“That was the difference this round, I made birdies to cover my mistakes,” Bouchard said. “(Tuesday) I had 77, and it could have been better, I didn’t have many birdies, and Monday, I didn’t make any to cover my mistakes.”

Mary Brandes (249) and Meggison (251) rounded out the top five. Kristin Kannegieser out of Martindale Country Club, a two-time champion, finished in a tie for seventh, which is the same position in which her 15-year-old son, Will, finished at the men’s Maine Amateur two weeks ago.