All last summer, it was as if Jack Wyman couldn’t miss.

The Falmouth resident won the Portland Country Club championship. He won the Maine Amateur. He reached the final as the top seed at the Match Play Championship and was the low amateur at the Charlie’s Maine Open.

Week after week, Wyman teed it up as the favorite in the field, and began to feel like it.

“After a while you start gaining confidence and believing in yourself a little more,” he said. “It was just a mentality of ‘I can do this,’ as opposed to ‘Hopefully it does (happen).’ ”

Now, Wyman’s looking for an encore. He’ll be in the field Tuesday at the Maine Am at Belgrade Lakes Golf Club as the defending champion, looking to retain the title that kicked off his standout season.

“It’s when everyone gets together and gets to show off their best stuff, and this year it’s at Belgrade, so it’s a treat for everyone,” he said. “I think we’re all pretty excited to get up there and play.”

The players seeking to deny him a repeat will look for his name on the scoreboard.

“Obviously you need to try to play against the course and not the players in the field, but you also need to recognize that Jack is out there and he’s probably going to play well,” said UNC Wilmington golfer Reese McFarlane, another favorite. “If Jack is on the tee sheet, you know you’re probably going to need a good round to stay in contention.”

For Wyman, last year’s title – his first – was a career boost.

“I didn’t have expectations (last year) but I definitely wanted to compete,” he said. “It was kind of the validation of my hard work. It was definitely one of the highlights of my career, so hopefully I could have one more, or a couple would be great.”

Eager as Wyman is to conquer the state and one of its most prized titles again, his goals extend to a broader scale. Shortly after graduating from Endicott College in 2013, Wyman made the decision to pursue golf year-round, holding off a full-time job while seeing how far he could go.

“I really just wanted to work on my game and see how good I can get,” he said. “And that’s been my focus the last couple of years, just to see how good I can get and see what happens.”

After the summer of 2015, Wyman started his now annual routine of going to Charleston, South Carolina, for the winter. He leaves in November and comes back in late April or early May, allowing him to play or practice nearly every day.

From the start, Wyman could see the improvement.

“I noticed, playing all year round, that I kind of hit the ground running as far as the season went. The trend kept going the same direction each year I came back. I felt like I was improving just by playing,” he said. “The more you play, the more confident you are. You can’t show up without playing unless you’re a pure natural … and hope to have a good round.

“It’s repetition and experience. That’s how you perform. I don’t think there’s any way to really cheat that.”

But it’s a routine that could have a time limit. Most players decide in their early 20s to turn pro, and Wyman knows at 27 he’ll have to decide soon.

“(Playing professionally is) an option I’d definitely pursue if I felt like my game was at that level. But I’m also getting to the age where I have to build a career at some point, too, and start a life,” said Wyman, who earned an MBA after graduating. “I’ll know when to throw in the towel. I’ve been fortunate to be able to play as much as I have, and I’ve had a great time doing it, but it either works out or it doesn’t.”

That call can wait. For now Wyman is eager to add a second chapter to his storybook run, which began when he beat the field at last year’s Maine Am at Brunswick Golf Club by two strokes.

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