Nancy Storey may be the retired executive director of the Maine State Golf Association, but she has not retired from the sport that has been such a big part of her life.

Simply said, she is keeping her hand in the game of golf.

She attended the Maine Amateur Championship held July 9-11 at the Portland Country Club, but in no professional activity.

“I was mostly visiting with old friends,” she said, and lots of those golf associates heaped hugs and kisses on her.

The highlight of that visit for her was seeing Ron Brown and Mark Plummer as they came off the course.

“They are two of my best friends in golf,” she said of the former Maine Amateur champions — Brown twice and Plummer 13 times.

Interestingly, Brown was champion in 1975 and 1999 with Plummer being runner-up, and Plummer was the titlist in 1983 and 1994 with Brown the runner-up.

Probably Storey’s biggest golf participation of the summer will be as a volunteer Aug. 13-14 at Val Halla during the Eastern Association’s Maine Amputee Open, which is being sponsored by the Gorham Savings Bank. But she also supports juniors events, and works Monday afternoons in the Val Halla pro shop.

“I am sticking to the stuff I believe in,” she said about helping at golf events.

As a lifelong Maine resident, she always has had a vegetable garden, and she has been known for many years to give to her friends some of her outstanding “garden growths.” With time to do even more now that she is in retirement, she owns and operates a vegetable stand, “Nantz’s Garden,” located at 333 Main St., in Cumberland Center. She participates in a CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture.)

Because the spring was so rainy, some of her plants remain in the growing stage, but he does have peapods, radishes and zucchini, among other vegetables.

“We will sell everything grown in Maine but corn, because it requires too much space,” she said, “But not yet, because the rain has us three weeks behind.”

And if vegetables do not float your boat, perhaps you should try her jams and jellies. Reports are they are so good they are sinful.

*****

The Charlie’s Vacationland Maine Open probably is the premier golf event in the Pine Tree State. With some changes this year, it will be even better during the pro-am Aug. 19 and two-round tournament Aug. 20-21.

 

• The New England PGA is financing a senior pro purse. So, senior players will have an opportunity to pick up some cash from a “senior prize pool.”

• For amateurs there will be a “fixed cut,” meaning that any amateur shooting more than 80 in the first round will be cut from the tournament.

• There will be a women’s division for the first time. Pros and amateurs can compete if their GHIN index is 10.0 or better. And there will be a prize purse.

The cost of playing in the tournament remains at: NEPGA professionals $210, other professionals $375, amateurs $160, and juniors $75.

*****

The Falmouth foursome of Len Cole, Tom Ellsworth, Gary Manoogian and Cash Wiseman shot 130 at Belgrade Lakes July 17 to capture their second consecutive MSGA Senior Club Team Championship.

The Fox Ridge quartet of Steve Brooker, Gary Chapman, Rocky Copp and Mike Fortin combined to take a tie for fourth place net with a score of 121.

*****

There was a Canadian golf “invasion” July 15 at The Ledges. Canada’s Calvin Ross (69-70—139) and Joey Savoie (72-70—140) became the only two qualifiers for the 119th U.S. Amateur, which will be held Aug. 12-18 at Pinehurst in North Carolina. Maine State Amateur champion Cole Anderson finished with the third best score (72-70—142) and became the first alternate.

*****

Topsham resident Caleb Manuel, 17, will be playing in the U.S. Junior Championship on July 22-23 at Inverness in Toledo, Ohio. If his two-day score is among the top 64 players, he will advance to the single-elimination the match-play portion of the tournament. He qualified last month at the Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, Connecticut.

*****

The MSGA schedule for the week includes the New England Amateur championship July 23-25 at the Highland Course in Quechee, Vermont, along with a Senior Tour event Aug. 24 at Fairlawn, and the Weekend Tour Aug. 26-27 at Bath.

For the women, the Maine Women’s Amateur is July 22-24 at Webhannet.

Bill Kennedy, a retired New Jersey golf writer and editor, now residing on Thompson Lake in Otisfield, is in his seventh season as Sun Journal golf columnist.

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