Speirs, Alvarez renew Bunyan battle

Jesse Speirs and Joe Alvarez, both of Bangor, will have a chance to battle again for the 39th Whited Ford Paul Bunyan Amateur Golf Tournament title when the tournament gets under way at three golf courses today.

Speirs edged Alvarez last year with a birdie on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff at Bangor Municipal Golf Course. The two had tied at 6-over-par 218 after 54 holes of play.

This year, their Division A begins play at Bangor Muni today, moves to Rockland Golf Club on Saturday, and finishes at Bar Harbor Golf Course in Trenton on Sunday. The rotation for Division B is Rockland-Bar Harbor-Bangor, and it’s Bar Harbor-Bangor-Rockland for Division C.

Last year’s “B” champ, Rick Sinclair of Bangor, is an “A” player this time around, and the “C” winner, Joseph C. Alexander of Winterport, had not entered as of a week ago.

The 16-year-old Speirs said Thursday that he’s not feeling any different this year playing as the defending champion than he did last year when he was playing it for the first time.

“I’m going to go out with the same idea, just play against the course,” said Speirs.

Speirs has been going south during the winter and playing junior tournaments mostly in the Carolinas, but this winter he and his parents decided on a different plan.

“I played a few tournaments before Christmas and a few this spring,” said Speirs. “I took a little break and recharged the batteries.”

That gave him an opportunity to work on a problem in his swing.

“I was coming over the top,” he said. “I worked on it through the summer, but late in the fall, it came back.”

He worked on it through the winter at the Maine Sports Complex in Hampden, but he said he’ll have to keep working on it.

“You’ve got to stay on it,” he said. “There’s always a tendency to go back [to the old way].”

Speirs had a couple of decent showings in junior tournaments this spring.

He tied for 34th at the Scott Robertson Memorial Tournament in Roanoke, Va., and tied for 40th in the Future Collegians World Golf Tour national championship at Doral Golf and Resort in Miami.

“It was a good experience, a strong field,” said Speirs of the Robertson tourney, “but I wasn’t hitting my irons very good.”

He struggled to a 77 in the first round, started moving up with a 72 in the second round, but the third round was rained out.

Rain also washed out the middle round at the Future Collegians championship where Speirs shot 74-76.

“I hit the ball good, but I wasn’t putting good,” he said. Speirs has been working to correct that, too.

“You have to stay on top of everything,” said Speirs.

Speirs and Alvarez will have plenty of challengers this weekend, including 2001 Bunyan winner Ricky Jones of Rockland, 2002 Maine Amateur runner-up James Frost Jr. of Brewer, 1999 Bunyan winner Mike Norris of Newburgh, and 2001 Maine Amateur runner-up Corey Poulin of Milford.

Jones just set the course record at Naples Country Club with a 65 recently, including a 30 on the second nine.

Poulin could have a special interest in winning this year. He signed an incorrect scorecard after his second round at the Bunyan last year and was disqualified. He would have entered the final round with a six-stroke lead.

Speirs pointed to Adam Smith of Ellsworth, who goes to Texas Christian University, as another possibility.

“It’s a strong field, as it is always,” said Speirs.