Seth Sweet is ready for the college golf season to begin. The former Madison Area Memorial High School standout begins his junior year at Old Dominion University this fall, and will report to the school’s Norfolk, Va. campus next week.

Sweet — who won the 2012 Maine Amateur championship at Sunday River — spent the summer working as a caddy in his new hometown, Savannah, Ga. He entered one tournament all summer, the Georgia Amateur.

“After the first day, I was tied for second,” Sweet said. “Then I kind of fell apart.”

Sweet shot a 2-under-par 68 on the first day of the tournament, but three double bogeys on the front nine on day two set him back. Sweet finished tied for 23rd place. Sweet said he’s striking the ball well as he heads into the college season. During the Georgia Amateur, Sweet averaged 16 greens in regulation for the four-day tournament.

“I just need to get better at putting,” Sweet said.

Last season, Sweet was regularly among Old Dominion’s top five golfers. At the Conference USA championships, Sweet had the second-best score on his team, shooting a three-round 223. The Monarchs placed ninth in the 14-team field.

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“It’s a tough league,” Sweet said of Conference USA. “We’re probably middle of the pack. We can improve. I think we can crack the top five.”

Old Dominion opens the season on Sept. 7 at the Golfweek Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Sweet’s goal is to get his average score below 73.

“I want to win a tournament this year,” Sweet, a sports management/psychology major, said. “The best players have an average below 73. I hope I can do that.”

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With his win in the Maine Match Play championship Thursday, Ricky Jones joined Ryan Gay as the only golfers to win both the Maine Amateur title and Match Play crown.

Gay won both tournaments in 2011, and has three Maine Am titles — 2008, 2010 and 2011. Jones won his three Maine Amateur championships in 2003, 2004 and 2013.

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Jones picked up his Match Play title by defeating Jeff Cole 6 and 4 Thursday at Sable Oaks Golf Club in South Portland. The Samoset Resort golfer opened up strong, going 3-up through the first six holes thanks to birdies on Nos. 2 and 5.

Cole got one back with a par on No. 9, but Jones responded by taking the next three holes to take a commanding 5-up lead with six to play. After both players made pars on the par-3 13th, Jones closed out the tournament victory with a birdie on the par-5 14th.

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On Monday and Tuesday, Natanis will host the Janet Drouin Memorial Open. The two-day tournament is named in honor of Drouin, a volunteer, historian, statistician and scorer for the Women’s Maine State Golf Association.

Played since 2009, the tournament increased to two days last year. Micki Meggison won the Drouin Memorial last year, with Liz Coffin — who won the tournament in 2010 and 2012 — runner up.

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The high school golf season opens on Monday with the first team practices. The shortest high school sports season in Maine, team championships will be held on Oct. 11 and individual championships on Oct. 18.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM


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