No one can say that Matt Lowell, the Point Sebago’s new director of golf, is in unfamiliar territory.

Lowell was raised in Buckfield and attended Buckfield Junior/Senior High School. He received his “golf education” out of state, but now that he has returned to Maine, he is living in Casco, and plans to remain in the Pine Tree State indefinitely.

Bill Kennedy, Golf Columnist

About Point Sebago, which hired Lowell in February, he said: “This facility has so much potential.”

Then he complimented the late Point Sebago owner, Dr. Larry Gould, saying: “Mr. Gould did an amazing job of laying down the foundation.”

How does a 33-year-old come about assessments like this? He has been trained well.

After graduating from Buckfield High in 2006, Lowell went to Methodist University in Spartanburg, North Carolina, a college noted for its golf administration training.

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Upon graduation, he went to the Vineyard Golf Club in Martha’s Vineyard, where he spent three years as lead assistant pro. Next, he moved to the Scarsdale (New York) Golf Club as tournament director for two years, and he was first assistant pro/director of instruction at the Silver Spring Golf Club in Richfield, Connecticut, for five years.

When the Point Sebago job opened, Lowell was eager and ready. Plus, Maine is where his heart always has been. And he had learned about Point Sebago from its former professional, Mike Cloutier, whom Lowell knew from playing at Paris Hill, where Cloutier was head pro during Lowell’s high school golf days. That was Buckfield’s home course.

During his days at Buckfield High, he was on the golf team four years and played in the Maine State Scholastic C/D Tournament, finishing 10th, sixth and second twice, individually. Buckfield won the 2005 C/D championship. At Methodist, he was a four-year player and a member of the 2009 team that captured the NCAA Division III golf title. Lowell also played varsity basketball as a shooting guard and baseball as a centerfielder at Buckfield, which earned him the honor as 2006 Western Maine Athlete of the Year.

Lowell was not born with a “golf silver spoon” in his mouth, but he did grow up using something few young golfers have at home. His father, John Lowell, built a 237-yard golf hole on their property in Buckfield.

Guess his golf friends thought he was a pretty cool kid.

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An all-female team will broadcast the Shoprite LPGA Classic Oct. 1-3 from the Bay Course of Seaview in Galloway, New Jersey.

Cara Banks will be doing the play-by-play, with analysts Judy Rankin and Paige MacKenzie, along with on-course reporters Karen Stupples and Kay Cockerill.

If you think this never has happened previously in a U.S. broadcast, you are correct. Credit the Golf Channel and NBC Sports for being the first to do this.

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The Maine State Golf Association has men’s play days scheduled Sept. 7 at Purpoodock and Sept. 10-11 at Dutch Elm. There will be no women’s play days because the State Women’s Senior Amateur is being held Sept. 7 at Augusta.

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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. 


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