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VASSALBORO — Erin Holmes knew the keys to her success going into the first round of the Maine Women’s Amateur Championship: Play safe, not bold. Be smart, not aggressive. Stay relaxed, not tight.

“It was just steady shot playing, all day,” Holmes said. “I didn’t take a single risk that I didn’t know I had in the bag, and that helped.”

The measured approach worked out well, as Holmes shot a 3-over 75 at Natanis Golf Course’s Tomahawk side to take a four-shot lead after the first round of the Women’s Am.

“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this out of myself today, which helps,” said Holmes, the 2023 champion. “If I expect it, I get in my head. I stayed out of my head all day.”

Maria Cianchette shot a 79 on a breezy day and is in second place, while Danielle Rock and Jordan Laplume are tied for third after 81s. Ruth Colucci (82) is fifth while defending champion Jade Haylock and Elizabeth Holden (83) are tied for sixth.

“The only super frustrating thing for me was putting today, I think I just missed some short ones that I tried to not get super mad about,” Cianchette said. “But I hit the ball really well, it just wasn’t always quite close enough to the hole.”

They’re all chasing Holmes, who birdied the par-5 first and 14th holes to help negate three bogeys and a double. The 26-year-old took advantage of the safer club choices the Natanis layout offers.

“The course is short and it’s tricky, so being able to hit multiple different shots really helped me today,” she said. “Putting the ego down and taking iron off every single hole, basically. Sometimes it’s hard to make that mature decision, but I was just hitting solid shots all day.”

When the mistakes happened, such as a double bogey on the fifth hole followed by a bogey on the sixth, Holmes didn’t get rattled.

“This is a course where mistakes are going to happen,” she said. “There is not going to be a bogey-free round. I guarantee it.”

Cianchette had struggles herself with eight bogeys and a double on the 18th, but she was efficient off the tee (hitting 10 of 14 fairways), putting herself in consistent position to score. She notched three birdies, converting two of them when she found the putting touch and rolled in first a 15-footer on the 12th and then a 45-foot bid from off the green on the 14th.

“That was a bonus,” Cianchette said with a chuckle. “A couple of them went in. That helped. That was a good one. That was ‘I want to get this close,’ and it ended up dropping.”

Cianchette played with Haylock, whose title defense got off to a good start with two birdies and a 1-over score through seven holes. But the 18-year-old stumbled into a pair of nightmare holes, carding a quadruple bogey 8 on the eighth and a 9 on the ninth that crippled her round.

“Even though I had two really bad holes … I was really proud of myself for how I handled it,” Haylock said. “My dad did a really good job of supporting me through it and telling me to focus on each shot.”

Haylock recovered with pars on six of the last nine holes, and got some momentum towards a potential tournament rally when she eagled the 17th, holing out a 60-degree wedge from 39 yards away.

“That was huge,” she said. “It made me feel really good and shaved a couple of strokes off, and got me ready for (Tuesday).”

Laplume, the 2019 champion, shot 43 on the front but steadied herself with two birdies and a 38 on the back to stay in striking distance for the next two rounds.

“It’s all target golf,” Laplume said. “(You’re) trying to hit the front of the green rather than going for pins, trying to focus on one shot at a time, hit the fairway, hit the green, be around the green. Focus on missing in a good spot.”

Rock double bogeyed the eighth and ninth holes and tripled the 14th, but used birdies on the 12th and 18th holes to stay in contention.

“My putting was clicking the best today, and my wedge work,” she said. “It gets really intimidating when you don’t know how these greens play. I didn’t get a practice round in, and so it was just confidence.”