To say that Randy Blouin of Otisfield has had a well-traveled career in golf would be an understatement.

Many young people who have grown up in Maine leave the state to make their way in adult life. Blouin is one of them, but he has returned.

“I had jobs and opportunities elsewhere,” the 43-year-old Blouin said, “but I always come back to Maine.”

His most recent return is at Norway Country Club, where he is assistant director of golf, working with director of golf Ben Goodall. It is their mission to take Norway to more memberships and more member programs. During a recent visit to Norway on a Monday morning, which is generally a slow golf course day, a visitor was greeted by an almost full parking lot, which indicated that the Goodall-Blouin plan is working.

Blouin’s golf background began at Leavitt High School, where there was no golf team, until he organized one his senior year. That first-year team played at Turner Highlands in 1996.

That was the year that Blouin won his first junior golf championship by shooting a 75 at Sugarloaf in the Alden B. McDonald Tournament.

Blouin had three years of summer golf employment during high school, as a member of the maintenance staff at Springbrook in Leeds, where he was on the golf course from dawn to sunset. That prompted him to say about his early-in-life passion for working and playing golf: “I loved it.”

After high school, he enrolled in the professional golf management program at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. He did summer internships at Waterville in 1997 and the Bethel Inn in 1998. In 1999, he was an intern in the Carolinas PGA Section, which led him to a full-time internship after graduation with the PGA of America Junior Series, a job which had him running tournaments coast to coast.

From 2000-03, he was a tournament coordinator for the Philadelphia PGA, and then did a 10-year stint as assistant pro at Cedar Brook in Bluebell, Penn. During that period, he was golf coach at an all-girls high school, Gwynedd Mercy Academy, compiling a three-year record of 30-6.

In 2006, he won his only tournament as a pro, recording a 67 in a pro-lady event. In 2008, he qualified for the National Assistant Professionals Tournament, where he shot 71-67—138.

He came back to Maine in 2010 as pro shop manager at Augusta, becoming membership director there from 2011-13. During that period, he regained his amateur status. He went into a new employment direction from 2013-15, working as a dealer at Oxford Casino.

Then he went back to the Philadelphia area in 2015 to become assistant caddy-master at the Commonwealth Country Club in Horsham, Penn. In 2017, he took a job as golf shop manager at the Talamore Country Club in Ambler, Penn.

In 2019, Blouin made his second return to Maine and bought a home in Otisfield. He was hired by Norway this past April.

“I’m extremely happy to be back in golf,” he said.

And, clearly, he also is delighted to be settled in his home state of Maine, and about being so close to where he grew up.

*****

The Maine State Golf Association has a full schedule of events upcoming, with the Maine Junior Tour having tournaments July 21 at The Woodlands and July 22 at Biddeford-Saco. Men’s play days are July 23 and 24 at Val Halla, while a women’s championship will be July 19-21 at Bangor Municipal.

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

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

Seedings set for Lobster Bowl 7-on-7 tournament

Next »

Soehren and Hathaway father-son duos share field for final time at the Lobster Bowl