Spector’s 1-over 74 leads by 5 Putting woes take toll in first round at PVCC

ORONO – Abby Spector’s last shot of the day Tuesday turned out to be her best.

Standing just off the front edge of the green on the 18th hole at Penobscot Valley Country Club, Spector chipped a shot just hoping to get the ball close to the hole.

The ball bounced once and jammed itself between the pin and the edge of the cup for a birdie, giving Spector a 1-over-par 74 in the first round of the 54-hole Women’s Maine State Golf Association Championship.

Five strokes back is Martha White of Hermon, who shot 79, and Alyssa Hayes of Cape Elizabeth trails by seven strokes after a first-round total of 81.

The shot also put a smile on Spector’s face, one that she was still wearing almost an hour later.

“Tossing it in like that helps you go home with a smile on your face,” the Waterville resident and five-time defending champion of the tournament said. “It helps your score a lot, too.”

The birdie on 18 followed a more conventional birdie on 17 when the 20-year-old Spector blasted out of a sand trap to five feet and poured in the putt. The birdies were preceded by four consecutive pars.

Spector’s string of pars came in response to a challenge mounted by the 19-year-old Hayes, who jumped out of the gate with a birdie on 10 after carding a 41 and trailing Spector by three strokes after nine holes.

Hayes, who finished second to Spector in last year’s WMSGA Championship, had said entering the tournament that she didn’t fear Spector and felt she had the game to push her.

Push she did. The Cape Elizabeth native and East Carolina University golfer followed the birdie with pars on 11 and 12, picking up strokes on each hole and drawing even with Spector.

But Spector, who will be a junior at the University of North Carolina, settled down after faltering on 11 and 12 and played steady and sometimes spectacular golf down the stretch. She showed a deft touch on 15 with a chip to four feet of the pin, the ball slowly rolling down a long, slippery slope from the front edge of the green.

“[Hayes] made a run at me. I knew she would from the beginning. Actually, our match was a lot closer than it looks. It was one stroke here and there all day,” Spector said.

Spector, Hayes, and playing partner Tiffany Shoppe, 18, of Lamoine, who finished third in last year’s tourney and ended Tuesday’s round tied for third place with a group at 82, had some trouble in the early going with their putting.

“I putted like I’ve never putted before,” Spector said. “[The greens] are tough, but they’re not as tough as I made them, I don’t think. I wasn’t being aggressive enough. I started getting it a little bit but just couldn’t keep it going. So, hopefully I’ll putt better tomorrow. I didn’t play as well as I had hoped I would.”

Shoppe, particularly, was hurt by four holes: two on the front nine that she triple-bogeyed and two on the back that she doubled-bogeyed.

“I was up and down. I just tried to hang in there and keep a smile on my face and tried to hit the golf ball again,” said Shoppe, who plays for Charleston Southern University.

Even White, the 13-time champion of the tournament, had her putting woes.

“I had a very hard time with the greens. The front side I didn’t particularly hit the ball well. The back I started getting back to the game I’ve been playing most of the summer and I made a couple of putts,” White said.

And while it’s nice to play solid golf, White’s expectations don’t exceed a good time and good golf.

“I don’t feel as if I’m even in the hunt anymore. I look at the years I’ve been here and the successes I’ve had and I’m very content with those. And I don’t have high expectations of finishing high,” White said.

Nonetheless, White, Spector, and Hayes will be the final group going off the tee today at 12:30 p.m. for the second round.

And while White may not have much confidence in her own chances, Hayes continues to have her eyes on the prize.

“I still can win it. None of us really played well today. So, anybody can win it,” Hayes said.

And that’s just want Spector wants to hear.

“No. It wouldn’t be any fun if they all just rolled over. I think it’s great that [Hayes is] playing so well. And you have to have that attitude to compete and she’s a good competitor,” Spector said.

And there’s always the unknown that the game itself brings.

“You never know what’s going to happen out on that golf course,” White said.