
VASSALBORO — Erin Holmes walked off the 16th green at Natanis Golf Course’s Tomahawk side, moments after watching Jade Haylock roll in another birdie putt, and greeted her caddy and father, Mark, with her putter and a “what can you do?” grin.
“No beating 5 under,” Holmes said. “That’s lights out right there.”
Indeed, there was no beating Haylock Wednesday as the 18-year-old used a dominant final round to roll to a second straight Maine Women’s Amateur Championship title at Natanis Golf Course. Haylock ripped through the course’s Tomahawk side with a 3-under 69, allowing her to erase a four-shot deficit and finish with a six-shot victory at 12 over par.
After quadruple and quintuple bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes her first round, Haylock was 10 over. She played 2 over for the remaining 45 holes, and finalized her rally with her lowest round in Women’s Am competition Wednesday.
“(It’s a) huge feeling of accomplishment,” said Haylock, who plays out of Turner Highlands Golf Course. “I wasn’t sure after the first day how this tournament was going to turn out, but I knew that I had to keep my head up and grind to get the job done.”
Holmes of Val Halla Golf and Recreation, the 2023 champion and leader through two rounds, shot 79 and finished second at 18 over, and Maria Cianchette of The Woodlands Club (20 over) was third, Biddeford-Saco Country Club’s Ruth Colucci (26 over) was fourth and Martindale Country Club’s Danielle Rock and Springbrook Golf Club’s Abby Flanagan (28 over) tied for fifth.
“I kind of knew after the first nine I was playing for second,” Holmes said. “(Haylock) had a handful of birdies and I had a handful of blow-up holes, and with only a four-stroke lead that’s really all you need to fall back by a significant amount.”
With Haylock pulling away — she led by as many as 10 shots — Holmes got to transition from competitor to spectator.
“After I had that acceptance of ‘OK, clearly I’m not going to win today,’ it was just unbelievable to watch,” she said.

It was quite the show. Haylock made seven birdies, including four on the front nine. She rolled in an 8-footer for birdie on the first hole and then chipped close for a tap-in birdie to pull even on the third, then dropped an 11-foot birdie putt on the sixth to take the lead.
She made only two bogeys and one double — on the 18th hole with the tournament all but over — hit nine of 14 fairways and found 13 of 18 greens.
“I honestly wasn’t thinking much about it, until maybe the fifth or sixth hole when I’m like ‘OK, by now I must have caught up,'” Haylock said. “I hate looking at the leaderboard. I wasn’t thinking about scores at all, just coming out here and getting in my groove.”
She even got a chance for some personal payback. On the eighth and ninth holes, the ones she played at 9 over the first day, she carded a par and then a birdie, rolling in a slippery 18-footer from the fringe on the ninth.
“After I teed off on hole 9, I said ‘Not today, hole 9. Not today, Satan.’ I’m not doing this,” she said. “I’ve come back from things before, I’m pretty good at overcoming.”
Instead, the eighth and ninth holes worked against Holmes, who entered trailing by a stroke but who dashed her comeback hopes with first a triple bogey and then a double. She birdied the last two holes and was 1 under on the back, but had already fallen out of striking range, due largely to Haylock’s untouchable pace.
“I’m still disappointed with my front nine,” she said, “…(but) I still think if I played my best, in terms of how I’m playing this summer, I think she still would have came through and won. I’m not playing at that level at the moment.”
Third place went to Cianchette, who rebounded from an 84 in the second round to shoot 1-over 73 in the third. She had three birdies and didn’t card a double bogey.
“The last 18 (holes) were at least good,” she said. “Yesterday was one of the more frustrating rounds of golf I’ve had in the last year. Just to finish strong was really all I cared about. I just came out and wanted to hit greens and hopefully some better putts, and that’s about all I did.”
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