OAKLAND — On the 14th hole of the final round of the 96th Maine Amateur Championship, John Hayes IV’s tee shot landed in a bunker to the right of the fairway. Coming off a bogey on 13, was Hayes’ round slipping away?
Hardly. Using a wedge, Hayes not only got out of the sand, he landed his ball two feet from the pin to the applause of a group of onlooking players, their rounds already completed. Before he moved on to sink the birdie putt, Hayes flashed a huge “I can’t believe I did that” grin.
“I knew I just had to skull it out of the bunker, but it turned out way better than I thought,” Hayes said.
Hayes led the Maine Amateur wire to wire, and was the only player to shoot under par all three days of the tournament. On Thursday, Hayes completed his outstanding week with a 3-under-par 67, finishing at 9-under for the tournament.
It was the first Maine Amateur win for Hayes, 25, who won the Maine State Golf Association’s match play championship in 2012 at Natanis. Hayes joins his sister, Alyssa Hayes, as a Maine Amateur champion. Alyssa Hayes won the Women’s Amateur at Sugarloaf in 2002.
“I’ve been playing in these since I was probably 12. I’ve been playing in MSGA tournaments since I was 10. It’s taken a while, but I’m glad I got it done,” John Hayes, who plays out of Nonesuch River Golf Course, said. “The last four years I’ve felt if I played well, I could win it.”
Thirteen-time Maine Amateur winner Mark Plummer, of Manchester and Augusta Country Club, finished second, five strokes behind Hayes.
“(Hayes) just played great. I birdied the first hole, then he rattled off those three birdies in a row. He never really opened the door, and I didn’t make much happen,” Plummer said. “I didn’t play badly, but I wasn’t hitting the shots in close enough to make many birdies. He was just playing so good.”
Plummer’s birdie on hole one cut Hayes’ lead to one stroke, but Hayes quickly pulled away, with three consecutive birdies on two, three and four. When Plummer scored par on all three holes, Hayes’ lead was back to four strokes.
“It was a really tough putt (on two). I was surprised it went it, because it was a five-foot break. Fortunately it went in, and I started making birdies from there,” Hayes said.
For the tournament, Hayes had 12 birdies on the front nine, including four on Thursday.
“The back nine kind of slowed me down every day, but I got off to a good start, and tried to hold on to it,” Hayes said.
When Plummer bogeyed eight and nine, Hayes had a seven-shot lead, and the tournament was all but his.
“Obviously, that was the end of it, unless something drastic happened. It didn’t look like it was going to, the way he was playing,” Plummer said. “That’s probably as good as I’m going to play for three days. It wasn’t like it was one shot or two shots. He was pretty well in control.”
Hayes’ short game was strong throughout the tournament. For that, Hayes turned to a club he borrowed from his father.
“My putting was on all three days. It’s actually my dad’s putter (an Odyssey Marxman). I just took it out of his bag. I’ve been putting so much better with it,” Hayes said.
Three-time tournament champ Ricky Jones shot a 2-under 68 on Thursday to finish in third place, 10 strokes behind Hayes. Sam Grindle, who entered the day in third place, was 3-over on the day and finished fourth.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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