VASSALBORO — That massive oak in the middle of the fairway doesn’t wear a HIT ME sign, but it might as well. That’s the one that Jade Haylock and the rest of the Maine Women’s Amateur golf championship field will see in their nightmares.

“The huge tree,” Haylock said, shortly after winning the tournament for the second consecutive year. “Who knows what can happen to your ball from there?”

The ninth hole on Natanis Golf Course’s Tomahawk side is narrow, but not ridiculously so. For the Maine Women’s Am, it wasn’t a particularly long par 4, coming in at 293 yards. It flexes its muscles in other ways.

There’s that tall oak tree in the middle of the fairway, less than 100 yards and to the right of the tees competitors used throughout the tournament. That tree turns the hole into an obstacle course. Get past the tree, and the fairway bends slightly to the left, and downhill into a gully that’s pretty much wetlands. Over that is the green, sloping downhill back to front. A rock ledge guards the front of the green, two dozen boulders of varying shapes and sizes poking out of the earth like a dare.

The green doesn’t sit on the edge of the woods as much as it emerges from them. Tomahawk 9 feels more secluded than the rest of the course, which for the most part feels wide open. From the tees on the third hole, one can see numerous greens. If you don’t know which one is yours, it can become a Choose Your Own Adventure in a hurry.

But Tomahawk 9 feels like an island. Maybe it was designed that way, so when you release a primal scream after your shot ends up in a miserable place you won’t startle the rest of the course.

“There’s no bailout area,” said Dick Browne, Natanis’ head golf pro said of Tomahawk 9.

Tomahawk 9 was played 196 times over the course of the three-day tournament. It was birdied just twice, about 1% of the time. Counting those two birdies, players scored par or better just 15 times, a shade under 8%. On the other hand, players recorded a bogey or worse 92% of the time, By the end of the tournament, Tomahawk 9 did more damage to more scorecards than any other hole.

“Every single shot, you have to think about, and it’s a mentally exhausting hole,” said Erin Holmes, who finished runner-up to Haylock.

Holmes took a bogey on No. 9 in the first round, then earned one of the rare pars on Day 2. Wednesday, she clipped that oak with her tee shot, and that set her on the double bogey path.

“For me it’s the tee shot. My natural shot is a draw. So, to hit it in the middle of the fairway on that hole, the tree comes right into play. (Tuesday), I perfectly got it over the tree where I wanted it. And on the second shot, there’s a tree overhanging there, so if you don’t hit it high it’s a tough hole,” Holmes said. “Today I got clipped by the tree and it came down, and I had to go for (the green) in three and play it like a par 5 instead of a par 4. It’s just one of those courses, you have to take your medicine.”

It’s a hole that can shake a player’s confidence, Browne said. With Haylock, who pulled away on Wednesday to win by six strokes after starting the day down four to Holmes, it was a puzzle that just needed figuring out. The confidence was there, even after shooting a nine on the hole in the first round.

“That tree in the middle of the fairway is pretty intimidating. I just know how easily I could hook my iron and get into that stuff on the left, which I did on the first day,” Haylock said. “Just trying to overcome those shots and get a good ball out there set me up for success on that hole.”

For Wednesday’s final round, the flag was set in the front of the green, close to the right corner.

On Monday, the ninth hole was the second jab in the one-two combination that set Haylock eight shots behind Holmes. Haylock took a nine on the hole, after taking an eight on eight, and there was her deficit in 20 miserable minutes.

Haylock was better on 9 in Tuesday’s middle round, taking a bogey. Finally, in Wednesday’s final round, she figured it out, sinking an 18-foot downhill putt for birdie, exorcising that demon from her scorecard.

What lesson from the first two days of the tournament did Haylock apply to finally have success on Tomahawk 9?

“Just get off the tee well and try to keep it left,” she said.

But not too left.