BELGRADE LAKES — Manchester’s Luke Ruffing didn’t mind the pouring rain on Wednesday. It essentially cleared the tee boxes at his home course, Belgrade Lakes, and gave him free reign to work on his game for next week’s Maine Amateur.

Ruffing, 18, is hoping to climb up the leaderboard at Waterville Country Club this year after a solid and, at times, impressive showing at last year’s tournament, which was played at The Woodlands Club in Falmouth.

“I didn’t play too well the first couple of days, but then on the final day, I got that putter going and moved up 15 spots,” he said.

The 2013 state Class B champion representing Maranacook Community High School shot a 2-under-par 70 on the third day, tying for the lowest round of the tournament. He had twice as many birdies in the final 18 holes (four) as he did in the first 36.

The round vaulted him into in a four-way tie for seventh overall at a 10-over 226.

Ruffing believes the putter also holds the key to this year’s tournament, which runs July 7-9. He’s been a bit uneven on the greens so far this season, but has made some progress in recent weeks “through hard work, practice and the fundamentals — all of the cliches,” he said.

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The 2013 Maine Junior Championship runner-up, he took the year off from school to refine his game while working at LL Bean and T’s Driving Range in Manchester. He followed up the Maine Amateur with a 12th-place finish at the Charlie’s Maine Open, finished fifth in the state junior championship and reached the Round of 16 in the state match play championship.

It was a fairly quiet spring for Ruffing.

“I’ve been playing a lot of MSGA (Maine State Golf Association) weekend events and just scraping around,” he said.

He said he plans to visit Waterville over the holiday weekend and bring his notebook.

“I played it a couple of times in high school. The greens are nice. I like that,” he said. “I don’t remember the layout all that well and I haven’t played the back nine.”

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A field of 132 players will compete in the 96th Maine Amateur at Waterville Country Club in Oakland. The three-day, 54-hole tournament will cut to 40 players (plus ties) for the final round.

On Wednesday, the MSGA released tee times for the first two days of the tournament. Defending champion Andrew Slattery is scheduled to lead the first threesome onto the first tee at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, then 10:40 on Wednesday.

Thirteen-time champion Mark Plummer, of Manchester, who had to pull out of last year’s tournament due to personal reasons, is slated with the fifth group teeing off at 7:40 a.m. and 11:20 on Wednesday.

Among other golfers of note: New England schoolboy champion Gavin Dugas and West Gardiner’s Sean Goggin (8:20 a.m. Tuesday and noon Wednesday), 2014 runner-up Joe Walp (10:40 a.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday), three-time winner Ricky Jones and Augusta’s Jason Gall (10:50 a.m. Tuesday and 7:10 a.m. Wednesday) and Manchester’s Luke Ruffing (11:40 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday).

Waterville is accepting tee times for practice rounds at $20 per player. Tee times can be reserved two days in advance by calling the pro shop at 465-9861. Practice rounds will not be allowed after 10 a.m. on Friday or before noon on the weekend. Also, drivers will not be allowed from the range due to its limited length. Players are asked to limit shots to a maximum of 250 yards.

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Staci Creech won the Women’s State Golf Association weekly tournament at Madison’s Lakewood Golf Course on Tuesday. Creech, wife of University of Maine athletic director Karlton Creech and assistant women’s golf coach at Husson University, shot 75, six strokes ahead of runner-up and former University of Maine basketball star Liz Coffin.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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