Spector cruises to eight-stroke lead

MANCHESTER – The dew had finally, for the most part, been burned away by an increasingly hot sun at the Augusta Country Club Tuesday morning as Abbie Spector and her father Gary dodged the traffic crossing Route 202 from the 18th green back to the clubhouse. Though only nearing noon, Spector’s work was done for the day and what a day’s work it had been.

The University of North Carolina sophomore and Waterville native had laid waste to the 104-player field in the Women’s Maine State Golf Association Championship before a quarter of the players even had the opportunity to tee off.

Playing in the first group of the morning, the four-time champion fired a 1-under-par 71 which gave her an eight-stroke lead over Pat Demueres of Litchfield’s 79. Tied at 80 are Jeanne Dumont of Augusta, Alyssa Hayes of Cape Elizabeth and Tiffany Shoppe of Lamoine.

Spector’s huge advantage after 18 holes of the 54-hole event surprised few. Spector, after all, is the people’s choice to win anything golf related she enters in the state. And with good reason: She plays, as so aptly put by five-time WMSGA champion Pennie Cummings of Lewiston, “a different game from the rest of us.”

Cummings should know. It is the second straight round she has played with the 19-year-old Spector in the tournament. The pair were in the last group of the final round of the the tourney a year ago at the Martindale Country Club in Auburn. On that day Cummings had closed a five-stroke deficit at the beginning of the day to just one after three holes, only to become just another player in field as Spector went on from there to a six-stroke stroke win.

Tuesday, again playing with Cummings and Cummings’ sister, 13-time WMSGA champ Martha White of Hermon, in the first round of this year’s event, Spector created a lead that White says will be tough for anyone to overcome.

“Abbie played very well. When she puts herself in tough situations, she comes out very well,” White said.

An example of Spector’s prowess came on the seventh hole, when her second shot landed well below and left of the elevated green. With only about 10 feet of green to work with, Spector showed delicate touch when she lofted a wedge high to the flag that plopped and stopped two feet from the pin, allowing her to save par.

“That was my best shot because up until that point I didn’t really need to get up and down. That kept me going,” Spector said.

She followed that up by making one of her few mistakes for the round on the eighth hole. She pulled her tee shot down the left side of the fairway and into the thick rough. She also had a tree to contend with and her second shot found a limb.

“I had a really deep, buried lie,” Spector said. “And I tried to do a little more than I should have out of that lie.”

Her bogey on the eighth was followed by a par on the ninth hole, giving her a 37-shot total for the front nine.

Her back nine was a model of consistency with some exceptional shot-making.

On 10, she played a bump and run from the front of the green some 30 feet in which the ball glanced off the flag stick, leaving her an easy tap in for par. After pars at 11 and 12, Spector’s power game surged when she blasted a 250-yard drive on the short 368-yard par five that left her a short approach shot to the elevated green.

“It was a 9-iron,” she said with a chuckle. “I should have made the eagle putt.”

She settled for birdie and moved on to par 14 and then picked up another birdie when she drained an 18-foot putt on the par-3 15th. Another ho-hum par on 16 was followed by yet another birdie, this one coming when she played lawn darts with her golf ball, placing her tee shot on the 118-yard par three to within two feet of the pin.

Her only trouble on the back nine came at the par-5, 460-yard 18th hole where her second shot found a protective bunker 30 yards in front of the green and she blasted out and into another bunker. She settled for a bogey six and a back-nine total of two-under-par 34.

Spector gives credit for her success to her father, Gary, who carried her bag for her Tuesday and who she says helps keep her mind on the business at hand.

“He givs me confidence. Sometimes he’ll line me up and he keeps me focused,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll wander offer [mentally] and he’ll say what club are you going to play here and why. He brings me back.”

White and Cummings had rough rounds, each attempting to fight through problems that plagued them throughout the morning. Each carded an 83 as White couldn’t make her putter work and Cummings sprayed the ball around the course off the tee.

“It was a disappointment,” White said. “Very much so. I three-putted several greens.”

The 17-year-old Shoppe, on the other hand, was happy with the way things turned out, particularly after last year’s opening-round 87 in the tourney.

“Yeah, I played a lot better today, didn’t I,” she said with a laugh. “I couldn’t putt but other than that I kept it together pretty much. I was consistent. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”