Spector surges to sixth title Closing 74 concludes victory by 17 strokes

ORONO – A little more than a month after becoming the first Maine woman to win the New England Women’s Golf Association Championship, Waterville’s Abby Spector completed the Spector Slam by picking up her sixth straight Women’s Maine State Golf Association Championship.

Spector did so Thursday at the Penobscot Valley Country Club, blazing through some of the hottest weather of the summer and without a single challenger to push her to a final-round even-par 74 and a 54-hole total of 1-over-par 223.

Her nearest competitor, Martha White of Hermon, a 13-time WMSGA champion, was a distant 17 strokes back after a final-round 86.

“This one’s pretty special for me because I won the New England this year. It would kinda hurt not to win this and not have a clean sweep,” Spector said.

On Tuesday, Spector, who will return to the University of North Carolina later this month to get ready for the fall golf season, closed out the first round in dramatic fashion when she chipped in on 18. There must be something about the hole. Thursday, Spector drained a 40-foot birdie putt to end the tourney.

“That’s a great way to win,” she said. “It’s nice to win with a little tap-in, but it’s better with a big putt.”

It was what has become the usual Spector “Penoby 18.” There was the same front-side Spector who struggled along with a double-bogey and three bogeys and turned the corner with a 40. Then there is the back-nine Spector who recorded five birdies, three pars, and one bogey for a 4-under-par 34.

“The back side sets up for me. I love it. Every hole, I look at it like it’s a birdie hole. The front, it’s a tough nine,” she explained.

With little doubt about who would win the tournament, the day’s drama came in the battle for second place.

In last year’s tournament at Augusta Country Club in Manchester, Tiffany Shoppe of Lamoine and Alyssa Hayes of Cape Elizabeth played in the final group with Spector and fought until the final hole with Hayes edging out Shoppe by a stroke.

This year second place appeared to belong to White. She entered the day with a 10-stroke lead over Shoppe and an 11-stroke advantage over Hayes.

But Shoppe and White walked off the 12th green Thursday even.

Shoppe came out firing with birdies on three and seven and made the turn at 1-under-par 35.

Meanwhile, White was struggling. The 471-yard, par-5 third hole, in particular, was a disaster with White finding the front bunker on her third shot and then taking two shots to get out. Her second shot out of the bunker flew the green into the back sand bunker. White managed to blast back onto the putting surface and staggered off the green with a seven.

“I didn’t think [the first bunker shot] through. I was very fortunate to come out of that with a seven,” White said.

Shoppe picked up more ground on seven when White double-bogeyed the 443-yard, par-5 hole and the soon-to-be sophomore at Charleston Southern University made a tremendous shot out of the bunker to set up a two-foot birdie putt.

White knew things were tightening up, she just didn’t realize how close it had become.

“I think I recognized it probably, definitely at the end of 15 holes. I thought boy you’d better pull yourself together somehow and pull out second if you possibly can,” White said.

She did. And in the end, it wasn’t so much that White found her game on the back nine as that Shoppe lost a bit of her touch and struggled to a 5-over-par 43.

“I wasn’t making putts on the back nine, and on 14, a stupid little up and down that didn’t work,” Shoppe said.

White managed to play some solid golf down the stretch.

“Finally, on the 12th hole, I figured out what I was doing wrong and I played better,” White said. “I had two wonderful days and one struggling day and I think, you know, at my age that’s to be expected. I have no excuses. The only excuse I have is my poor swing.”

Shoppe’s slip-up allowed Hayes, who shot 35 on the back nine for a round of 77 and a three-day total of 241, to slip by Shoppe for third place. White’s sister, Pennie Cummings of Lewiston, finished fifth with a final-round 82 and a 54-hole total of 247.

As for Spector, how does she manage to become inspired during this tournament that she has come to own? Where does the shot-making come from? The putt on 18? The 270-plus-yard drive on 13? She says the answer is easy.

“At the end, I just wanted to play well for the crowd,” she said.