BANGOR – When the 26th version of the R.H. Foster Energy/Mobile Junior Bunyan Golf Tournament is teed off at 8 this morning at Bangor Municipal Golf Course one thing will be painfully obvious. Interest in the tournament is dwindling.

Only 14 golfers are registered for this year’s version of the tourney.

Skip Chappelle of Bangor Daily News Enterprises, the organizers of the junior and senior Bunyan tournaments, said there are a number of factors involved in the low turnout.

“I think there have been a lot more junior tournaments pop up. The junior [Maine State Golf Association] events take players away,” Chappelle said.

Chappelle said that the Junior Bunyan fields were traditionally never large.

“I can go back eight or nine years and there were probably 35 or 40 players in it,” Chappelle pointed out.

Still, with the tournament down to only 14 players, Chappelle said some things must be changed.

“We are going to spend more time and effort on the Junior Bunyan from now on,” Chappelle said.

He said the tourney organizers were going to look into the possibility of increasing incentives to play in the event.

“The Junior Bunyan should provide the winner with entry into the MSGA junior state tournament,” he said.

But most important to Chappelle is the amount of publicity the tournament receives. He acknowledges that the organizers haven’t done a very good job of making the public aware of the tourney. He said that three mailings are made to potential players in the senior Bunyan tournament and that organizers missed the boat on the opportunity to reach potential junior players through those mailings.

“We are going to publicize it more. We have room to publicize it in the mail outs. And we only ran one ad for the tournament in the Bangor Daily News. All it needs is a little more attention and I think it will fly,” Chappelle said.