Adams didn’t play college golf but now wishes he had

GBO notebook

Spend a few hours hanging out by the Greater Bangor Open scoreboard located behind the seventh green at Bangor Municipal Golf Course and you can’t help but learn a little about the game, the tournament and the people who play it.

Here are a few tidbits gleaned from Friday’s second round: Adam Adams, whose two-round total of 139 has him within three shots of the lead, is one of the very few pros in the field (or amateurs, for that matter) who never played major college golf. Adams, 36, turned pro at age 18 after trying one semester at a community college near his native Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“I had a scholarship offer to the University of Miami if I wanted it,” said Adams, an All-County player at Strahan High in Fort Lauderdale. “I went to community college for a year, but my friends at the time were playing pro. So I quit and turned pro. In retrospect, I would have been better off to go to college.”

Adams hasn’t fared too badly for having missed college. He played on the PGA Tour in 1978, 79, and ’84 and, in his words, has “only had to work two years as an assistant pro out of 18 years.” Adams’ best finish on the big tour was a 15th in the Atlanta Classic in ’84. Did you know the golfer who holds the PGA Tour record for the highest 36-hole total ever recorded in the last two rounds of a tournament is a GBO alumnus?

Yep. Mike Reasor, who finished as GBO runnerup in 1973, went on to earn everlasting fame on the Big Tour. It seems Reasor made the cut in the 1974 Tallahassee Open, but then injured his left shoulder riding a horse. Because players who completed the tournament got an automatic entry into the next week’s event, Reasor decided to finish playing one-handed. He shot 123-114. Nick Carparelli, now of Cheshire, Conn. but originally fromNick Carparelli, now of Cheshire, Conn. but originally from Bangor, is believed to be the only player in this year’s tournament field to have tried out for a major league baseball team. Carparelli received a tryout with the Baltimore Orioles following his college career as a third baseman at Central Connecticut. Adams, who has never won a New England tournament despite having won in many other parts of the country, has had some continuing help from Pro-Am playing partner Tom Harris.

“I borrowed a putter from Tommy. I hit a couple of putts with it in the Pro-Am so I figured I’d keep using it,” Adams said. The 7-under 28 Peter Morgan fired on the front nine Friday was not only a GBO 9-hole record (according to Bangor Muni head pro Austin Kelly), it was also a personal best for Morgan.

“It was my lowest nine holes ever by three shots,” said Morgan, who shot a disappointing 38 on the back nine.

“I had the best of times and the worst of times out there,” he said.