He’ll begin his senior year at Gardiner Area High School in just a few weeks, but there’s a round of golf from almost three years ago that sticks with Jack Quinn.

Quinn enjoyed a solid day as a freshman at the 2022 state championships at Natanis Golf Course but came up just short of the Class B title. He shot 1-over 73, one stroke behind winner Eli Spaulding of Freeport. 

“He got me by one that year, and then he got me by two my sophomore year,” Quinn said. “He’s a very good player, and he’s just consistent. We’re good friends, and it’s always great playing against him because he’s one of the guys I try to keep up with and try to beat.”

Regardless of the setting, the two amateurs have had some battles over the years. They are ready for another starting Monday in the Charlie’s Maine Open at Augusta Country Club. Quinn and Spaulding tied atop the amateur leaderboard last year. They finished at 1-over 209, Quinn shooting scores of 68, 72 and 69, while Spaulding shot 68, 71 and 70.

Those scores are indicative of just how tight the two were throughout the tournament. At no point were Quinn and Spaulding ever separated by more than two strokes. Quinn had a one-stroke lead heading to the tournament’s final hole, but Spaulding birdied to draw even.

“We were neck-and-neck the whole way,” Spaulding said. “(Augusta Country Club) is his home course, he knows that place very well, and I know he’s capable of some really good scores. I know he really, really wants to win this event, and it’s fun to go up against a guy like that.”

Quinn had an outstanding junior season at Gardiner. Last October, he won the individual Class B championship and Gardiner won the team title. In January, he committed to play at the University of Rhode Island.

Spaulding has been on an upward trajectory, too. He enjoyed a solid freshman year at Loyola University in Maryland, where he was a second-team all-Patriot League player. He then won both the Maine Amateur and New England Amateur.

“I think one thing I’ve learned over the past year is how to play well and score well even when I don’t have my best stuff,” Spaulding said. “(The Maine Amateur) was a big moment for me because I realized if I could just find a way to shoot 1- or 2-under every day, that I had a shot to win, and that’s what happened.”

Yet as Spaulding pointed out, Augusta is Quinn’s home course, and the Litchfield native knows the ins and outs of it as well as anyone. Just a few days before last year’s Maine Open, Quinn shot a 63, just three strokes shy of 14-time Maine Amateur champion Mark Plummer’s course record.

The key to success at Augusta, Spaulding said, is maintaining accurate position and placement off the tee on a course that’s especially hilly on the back nine and has a number of blind spots. Quinn, meanwhile, expects the course to play a bit differently than it did last year.

“I think this year’s scores are going to be a lot lower because of the amount of trees Augusta has cut down,” Quinn said. “I think we’re both going to try to take advantage of that, and with the good golf Eli is playing right now, I know I’m going to have to play three good rounds if I want to keep up with him.”

In the overall field, reigning champion and former PGA Latin American tour professional Sean Bosdosh (Clarksburg, Maryland) returns to defend his crown. Bosdosh finished with a three-day score of 199 after shooting a 9-under 61 — one shy of the course record — on Day 1.

There will be a new Maine professional champion this year, as Caleb Manuel of Topsham, who was second overall to Bosdosh, is not be competing. Shawn Warren of Falmouth, who finished 3-over last year, is the top returner in the Maine pro field.