With Maine schools open, an inquiring mind asked the Maine State Golf Association and First Tee of Maine if that has impacted the organizations’ fall scheduling.

Ron Bibeau, First Tee’s executive director, almost never has grass growing under his feet, so he is always busy.

First Tee currently has programs in physical education classes at 42 Maine schools, and that number will grow as the school year progresses. Depending on the school, those programs generally are for three weeks in the fall and three in the spring, or golf is done for two weeks in fall, two in winter and two in spring.

Mostly, the schools use SNAG (Starting New At Golf) equipment, which is plastic material designed to be injury-free for indoor and outdoor use. Schools interested in beginning an indoor golf program should contact Bibeau at (207) 809-9030.

A new program dear to Bibeau’s heat is about to start after school at the Riverside Golf Course in Portland, where Bibeau was head pro before becoming First Tee executive director.

Many parents of Riverside juniors told Bibeau, “We don’t want our children to stop golfing” because of the season. So Bibeau has enlisted the services of a coach, Phil Gignac, to run a unique fall program Monday through Friday.

Only snow can stop the MSGA from its huge program of tournaments. But the organization remains cognizant of seasonal weather conditions.

“We just posted a reminder of text alerts for our tournament players,” said Nancy Storey, executive director of the MSGA. That covers fog alerts and frost delays, which are an integral part of autumn golf in Maine.

“We will change to 7:30 a.m. starts in October, and to double starts for the three events we have in November,” said Storey, who calls fall golf “the social golf season.”

“It’s a more fun than competitive time of year,” she said.

The MSGA also is helping the schools and colleges, which play their golf schedules in the fall. It will assist in the running of the Maine Collegiates on Sept. 12-13 at Bangor Municipal, and later in the fall the MSGA will assist in running Maine high school championships in multiple locations.

Summed up: Because Labor Day has come and gone, Maine golf organizations do not call it a season.

Into the Hall

Bibeau is one of three men who will be inducted into the Maine Golf Hall of Fame Sept. 11 at Poland Spring. That induction dinner will be shared with Alan Bouchard and Chris “Spike” Herrick.

Bibeau, who also has worked at Martindale and Turner Highlands, was 2008 New England PGA Professional of the Year, and was 2013 NEPGA Junior Golf Leader of the year. He also was the 2011 NEPGA Merchandiser of the Year, meaning he has touched people in several aspects of golf over his many years in Maine golf.

Bouchard has twice won the Maine Seniors and City of Portland championships, and he qualified for the 2001, 2005 and 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur. He remains a valued member of the MSGA board of directors.

Herrick began coaching golf Falmouth High in 1991. Teams he has coached have won eight high school state championships — two ‘A’, two ‘B’ and four ‘C.’

Near miss

Most golfers understand that a hole-in-one can happen as the result of a lucky shot.

MacArthur Kim of Oxford Hills Regional High School discovered on Aug 25 at Poland Spring that failure to record a hole-in-one can be the product of an unlucky shot.

Playing the 170-yard 13th hole in the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce Tournament that day, Kim hit a pure shot at the pin, which rolled to a halt a few inches short of the cup. For Kim, one of the top players on the Oxford Hills High School golf team, that was unfortunate.

Rob McCarthy, proprietor of Dr. Rob’s Garage in Oxford, monitored that hole for the chamber of commerce, which offered a new car to a player who made an ace there. He was at least as disappointed as Kim, because he was right there alongside of the green.

“The shot was dead on the hole,” he said. “I started getting really excited because I was sure it was going in. Then it stopped, like it had brakes.”

Regrettably in this case, the “brakes” were the early morning dew

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