Caleb Manuel knew his busy summer schedule had a Maine stop built in for the Maine Amateur Championship. Fortunately for the Topsham resident, that stop became an extended trip home, with the Maine Event and New England Amateur also making their way onto the docket.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this many,” Manuel said. “You’re traveling a lot and playing a lot of tournaments in college. It’s nice to have a little break where you’re just sleeping in your own bed and driving to the tournaments versus flying across the country.”

The state’s best male and female golfers are entering a busy month of big tournaments in their backyards. There’s the Maine Amateur, being played Tuesday through Thursday at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. The Women’s Amateur takes place July 17-19 at Brunswick Golf Club. While that’s running, the New England Amateur is up for a Maine turn and will be held July 18-20 at The Woodlands in Falmouth.

For the state’s best male players, the Maine Amateur is always a circled event on the calendar. Throw in the New England Amateur happening locally just days later, and it’s a bonus. Thirty Mainers are signed up to play, after only three played last year and five did in 2021.

“It’s a really big deal,” said Eli Spaulding, who was the top Mainer in the New England Amateur last year, tied for 21st. “A lot of Mainers are going to be playing in it, and (it’ll be) giving guys who normally wouldn’t travel to Rhode Island or whatever (a chance) to play in a tournament like this.”

Ruby Haylock, the defending Women’s Amateur champion and winner of two of the last three, said she gets more excited for that tournament than any event on her schedule.

“The Women’s Am is my favorite tournament of the year, and it has been since I started playing in it,” she said. “There’s a pressure for every tournament, that doesn’t go away. You want to win, you want to do your best.”

Manuel, the two-time defending Maine Amateur champion, might be playing that event for the last time, with a switch to professional golf likely awaiting after his final season at the University of Georgia.

“It’s a special one,” he said. “To try to go three in a row is pretty cool, too.”

Manuel is the favorite, but he’ll have to contend with a deep field. Previous champions John Hayes, Andrew Slattery and Ricky Jones are in the field, as Mike Arsenault Jr., Ronald Kelton and Jace Pearson, who all finished in the top five last year. There’s also a flock of talented high school players, including Spaulding, Mick Madden and Jack Quinn.

“You could throw 20 guys out there, really, who any week could go out and win,” said Arsenault, the runner-up last year. “I know everybody’s kind of out there chasing Caleb … but it’s one of those things where there are 20, 25 guys that have a solid chance of winning.”

The Samoset Resort could even out the field. The course’s location on the Rockport coast will likely bring wind into play and force players to be extra careful with their shots.

“Depending on the wind, some of the scores could be high,” Arsenault said. “I think some people probably don’t really have the shot-shaping ability to play in that. … It’s not a terribly difficult course, but if the wind’s up, the course could play three to four shots harder.

“That can really eat people up. … (It can) mentally mess with you.”

When the New England Amateur comes to The Woodlands the following week, it could be a similar story.

“The trees there are very tall, so the wind, you don’t always get a feel,” said Madden, a rising sophomore at Cheverus. “A lot of people won’t know what club to play, kind of like Augusta (National).”

Madden, who makes The Woodlands his home course, said out-of-staters expecting a simple Maine course they can carve up will be surprised.

“People will try to get aggressive on certain shots where they think they can, because The Woodlands will make it look like that. In reality, they’ll get punished,” Madden said. “This course is really just about playing it safe and going for the wide part of the fairways and greens. My guess is it’s not going to be too-low scores for the tournament coming up.”

In addition to Manuel, Madden and Spaulding, the Maine contingent will include Reese McFarlane, who won the regional tournament in 2018. Other past champions playing include John Broderick (2020), Nick McLaughlin (2015) and Matt Parziale (2009) of Massachusetts, and Bobby Leopold (2017) of Rhode Island.

Spaulding, who works at The Woodlands, said he’s pleased to see the state hosting the event, and at that course in particular.

“It brings another super-high quality tournament to Maine when we don’t have a ton of them,” he said. “I know the course well, I’ve played it a lot. It’s nice to see how everyone there, all the members, are talking to me about it and wishing me ‘Good luck.’ Everyone’s excited to host such a big event.”

Brunswick will host the Women’s Amateur, where Haylock, coming off of her first year at Bates College, will try to repeat as champion.

“Definitely my short game,” she said when asked what the key to a successful defense will be. “At the Maine Event, I must have three-putted five holes on the back nine. It was crazy. I couldn’t sink a putt to save my life. That’s what I’m focusing on now. My irons felt good, my drives felt really good.”

Asked if she feels pressure being the defending champion, she was quick with an answer.

“Always,” she said. “I’m living with the girl that puts the target on my back.”

That would be her younger sister, Jade Haylock, a rising junior at Leavitt High, who has emerged as one of the state’s top players. The 16-year-old was the runner-up at the Maine Event and knows she has the game to keep the trophy in the family.

“I feel like it’s definitely an event where I can do well this year,” she said. “My game is definitely there.”

Jade Haylock struggled in the Women’s Amateur last year. She’s more comfortable this time.

“I feel a lot more confident now than I did last year,” she said. “Just thinking ‘I could go out here and be the champion, it’s possible,’ gives me an extra layer of confidence.”

The Haylocks will have opponents eager to knock them off. Runner-up and two-time champion Bailey Plourde is out, but Thea Davis, who won the Maine Event in May, is expected to play, as is 2019 champion Jordan LaPlume and Erin Holmes, the former Bucknell University golfer who finished third last year. Kristin Kannegieser, who missed last year after four straight top-five finishes, and newcomer Shivani Schmulen, a rising sophomore at Bowdoin and the lowest handicap (0.7) in the field, are also players to watch at Brunswick.

“It’s all going to be about approach shots,” Holmes said. “There are a couple of greens where, if you hit a bad approach shot, you’re not going to set yourself up in the best way. It’s not a long course, so I think long hitters will have to be picky about what they go for and what they play safe.”

Copy the Story Link