The 96th Maine Amateur will play out Tuesday through Thursday on an Oakland golf course that doesn’t offer a lot of frills or incentives for golfers to get into a driving contest.

“It’s just a good, old-fashioned golf course,” Waterville Country Club pro Don Roberts said. “Everything’s right in front of you. You just have to make sure you’re below the hole a lot because the greens are sloped back-to-front.”

Waterville is hosting its 10th Maine Amateur, a history that goes back to 1920. The course hasn’t changed a lot since then.

“You have to hit your ball in the fairway and on the greens,” Roberts said. “You don’t have to be long.”

Manchester’s Mark Plummer will return to the tournament after taking last year off due to an illness in the family. He won the sixth of his record 13 Maine Amateur titles in 1986 at Waterville. He was runner-up to Oren Shiro in 1979 and fourth in the most recent tournament there, two shots behind winner Eric Higgins, who also held off Toby Spector and Joe Alvarez to collect his only Maine Amateur title.

Plummer is glad to be back in the tournament and feels pretty good about the venue and timing of his return.

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“I played there a couple of days ago. It’s in great shape,” he said. “It’s a good, fair test of golf.”

“I’m happy with my game,” he added. “I’m kind of anxious to get going.”

This year’s expected 132-player field also includes Andrew Slattery of Minot, who is trying to become the first repeat winner since Ryan Gay in 2010 and 2011. Alvarez, three-time champion Ricky Jones, two-time champ Ron Brown, Jr. as well as Manchester’s Luke Ruffing and Augusta’s Jason Gall, who both finished in a four-way tie for seventh last year, also return.

Slattery, Keith Patterson II and Lowell Watson will be the first threesome at the first tee at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Slattery, Jones and Plummer are the only three winners since 2000 who still retain their amateur status.

Waterville is a 6,450-yard, par-70 host. The first three holes — a 366-yard par 4, a 139-yard par 3 and a 488-yard par 5 dogleg right, the longest hole on the course — all present early birdie opportunities.

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“You can get off to a good start on those three holes,” Roberts said.

The back nine starts with what Roberts says is the toughest stretch, three consecutive par-4’s descending from 439 to an uphill 376 yards on 10-12, then a 228-yard par-3 that some of the members joke about having a dogleg.

After that, players will find a more accommodating back stretch with chances to score.

Roberts said the greens should be firm and fast and the rough about normal length. Each year, the Maine State Golf Association and host course superintendent work together in setting up the course, and Roberts said the tournament’s organizers didn’t request much deviation from what the club sets up for its tournaments.

“There are birdie holes,” Roberts said. “It’s not like the Woodlands last year where the guys didn’t have opportunities.”

Plummer, 63, said Waterville hasn’t changed much since he started playing and that’s fine with him.

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“It all depends on how it’s set up, where the pin placements are,” he said when asked to give his impressions of the course. “It’s probably a better course for me than the one they had it at last year. That’s a course for the young guys who can hit them a mile. The shorter course probably helps the old guys like me.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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