But you still need to activate your account.
BANGOR – Jeff Bouchard walked down the fairway on the 18th hole at Bangor Municipal Golf Course Tuesday with an anxious look on his face.
Tied for the lead of the R.H. Foster Energy/Mobile Junior Bunyan Golf Tournament, the lefty had just pulled his tee shot high and dangerously close to the trees down the right side of the fairway.
“I wasn’t sure where it was,” the Hampden native said. “I really thought it was in the trees.”
So much so that Bouchard played a provisional tee shot in the event the ball was lost.
But Bouchard was in luck. There turned out to be more room down the right side than he thought from the blind tee shot. His ball was just off the fairway in the rough and Bouchard followed the good fortune with a shot to within 21/2 feet of the pin for a virtual tap-in eagle. The putt gave him a 4-under-par total of 67 and a one-stroke win over Jesse Speirs of Bangor. It was Bouchard’s second consecutive Junior Bunyan championship.
Bangor Muni assistant pro Mike Baker had found Bouchard’s ball on the 18th. Baker had monitored the tourney throughout the morning.
“When Mike Baker said it was mine it really pumped me up. I told myself to stick it close and make the putt and see how we finish,” the 16-year-old Bouchard said.
Bouchard skied a 9-iron from 158 yards to a pin placement in the front right corner of the soft green. The ball stuck.
But it wasn’t over. Sure his putt was a gimmie in friendly competition and he wasn’t likely to miss. But he and Speirs had been doing this to each other all morning. And although Speirs was sitting just off the green in the fringe roughly 21 feet away, no one who had watched the pair to that point was willing to give up on Speirs.
“I was trying to ignore [Bouchard’s second shot],” the 14-year-old Speirs said. “I tried not to let whatever he did affect me.”
And Speirs had followed Bouchard’s second shot with a pretty good second shot of his own.
But his putt ran out of steam at the hole and curled just inches right of the cup.
“I hit 7-iron to the green,” Speirs said. “I hit it a little fat. Then I hit my putt off the toe. I should have hit it a little harder.”
Bouchard and Speirs played cat and mouse with each other throughout the round. Bouchard took the early lead with a birdie on the first hole. Speirs fought back with a par on the par-3 third hole to even up the match and then built a two-stroke lead with a par on the par-5 fourth and birdie on the par-4 fifth while Bouchard went bogey-par on the two holes.
Bouchard struck back with birdies on eight and nine to even the match. He would have taken the lead at the turn if not for a miraculous save by Speirs on the eighth hole. Speirs punched out the deep and thick grass down the right side of the fairway to within 10 yards of the green. He then got up and down in two to save par. The pair went to the 10th tee box at 1-under 34.
Bouchard built up a two-stroke lead early on the back nine with a par on 12 and birdie on the par-4 13th hole but gave it right back on 14 when Bouchard’s tee shot was errant, forcing him to punch out of the trees. Meanwhile, Speirs worked himself into position to birdie the hole and sank an eight-footer to even things up.
“That was a two-stroke swing,” Bouchard said. “I knew I could birdie or maybe even eagle 15, so I told myself not to get down, not too down.”
Bouchard was right. He could eagle the 15th and did by nailing a long, swerving putt but Speirs kept the match even with an eagle putt of his own.
“He sunk like a 35-footer and then I made my 15-footer. That’s some pretty good golf right there,” Speirs said. “He played good and I played good. There were a couple of shots I wish I could have avoided. But that stuff happens.”
Tim Hardy, a 15-year-old rising sophomore at Bangor High School, was the third member of the group. Hardy fired a 4-over part 75 to finish third in the 12-man field.
Cole Benson of Ohio, who is summering in Blue Hill, won the 12-and-under division with a 51.
JUNIOR BUNYAN
At Bangor Municipal GC, par 71
Jeff Bouchard 67, Jesse Speirs 68, Tim Hardy 75, Nick Estabrook 77, Matt Jarrell 79, Bodrai Thomas 80, Jackie Royal 81, (tie) Dan Dalfonso and Wally Tardiff 82, Neil Lyons 86, Chris Zeilinski 90, Kenneth Hodgson 94; 12-under: Cole Benson 51, Matthew Baber 63
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