Plummer more relaxed, ready for NE Amateur

Mark Plummer of Manchester doesn’t feel the same pressure going into the 71st New England Amateur Golf Championship at Waterville Country Club in Oakland that he did before playing the Maine Amateur last week.

“I’m a lot more relaxed,” said Plummer, who earned his 11th Maine Amateur title with a four-stroke victory over Greg Hanna of Augusta at Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth on Thursday.

“Nobody expects anything [from me],” said Plummer. “You’ve got all these hot shot college kids from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, ….”

Plummer heads the Maine contingent in a field of 156 of New England’s finest players who will be competing over the course of the three-day tournament which opens today.

Waterville Country Club boasts a 6,412-yard par-70 layout which has several holes carved out of the trees, but even the ones that aren’t require precise play.

The first two days are 18 holes each, but Thursday’s finale for the players who make the cut is a 36-hole marathon.

“It’s an endurance contest. It obviously favors the college kids,” said Plummer, whose college days are more than a quarter of a century behind him.

That doesn’t mean he has no chance to win.

Plummer, 48, won at Falmouth Country Club in 1994, and he also won at Portsmouth Country Club in New Hampshire in 1979, the year he regained his amateur status.

“I feel my chances are as good as I’ve ever had,” Plummer said.

And he does like the course. He won one of his 11 Maine Amateurs at Waterville in 1986.

Plummer doesn’t mind playing major tournaments in consecutive weeks, with one provision.

“If you’re playing good, it’s nice,” said Plummer. “If you’re playing bad, it’d be good to have another week to work it out.”

In addition to Plummer, Maine players who could have a chance at winning this title include Hanna; Ryan Day of Lamoine, who won this year’s R.H. Foster Energy/Mobil Paul Bunyan Amateur Golf Tournament; and ’99 Maine Amateur champ Ron Brown Jr. of Cumberland Foreside.

Some members of the home club are also participating, including Neil Laliberte and Harold Hutchins Jr.

Plummer points to his playing partners for the first two days as being likely contenders from the out-of-state contingent.

“I know Phil Pleat has won the New Hampshire Amateur, and the other guy, [James] Ruschioni, has won the New England Amateur,” said Plummer. “It should be fun.”