Aggressive play helps Jones beat Livingston Pion, Dewitt eliminated in semifinal matches

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ORONO – Ricky Jones and Jay Livingston played college golf together at the University of Maine about 10 years ago and became good friends.

“I love to watch him play,” said Livingston. “He’s a bulldog. He doesn’t give in one iota.”

Jones’ bulldog attitude came back to bite Livingston, though, on a drizzly Friday afternoon at Penobscot Valley Country Club in the 84th Maine Amateur Golf Championship.

Jones of Thomaston closed out Livingston 2 and 1 (two holes ahead with one to play) on the 17th hole to emerge with the title.

The end came when Livingston’s tee shot on the short par 4 landed in the high grass short and left of the green. A large pine tree blocked his route to the hole.

Jones, who had hit safely to the middle of the fairway on his drive, knocked his approach shot on the green.

Livingston, now of Hermon but soon of Kennebunkport, took a mighty cut at his ball, but couldn’t get it out of the grass. After taking one more shot to get out of the grass, he put his fourth on the green.

Jones rolled his first putt close to the hole, and Livingston conceded the next putt, the hole, and the match.

“You want to win on your own, do something heroic, rather than have someone falter like that,” said Jones.

“It killed me,” said Livingston about seeing his ball in the tall grass. “I knew the match was over.”

Livingston built a three-hole lead after the first six, but Jones suddenly turned his afternoon around.

“The one that turned it around was the putt on [No.] 7,” said Jones of his first birdie putt. “All of a sudden I made another one on 8.”

Jones pointed out, “If you’re struggling with the putter, it hurts, it brings all of your game down. [Making] those putts on 7 and 8 got my confidence back.”

Jones, who had pulled out a one-stroke victory over Livingston in the 2001 Paul Bunyan Amateur Golf Tournament, evened Friday’s match by winning the 10th hole, but Livingston regained the lead with a win on 12.

Livingston held the lead for two more holes before Jones dropped an 18-foot eagle putt on 15 to square the match again.

Both players hit into the right bunker on the 200-yard, par-3 16th. Livingston’s ball was sitting up, but it was on a downslope on the back edge of the bunker. Jones’ ball plugged in the center of the bunker.

Livingston blasted out, but the ball skimmed across the green well past the pin.

“I never expected it to go that far,” said Livingston, the PVCC club champion last year and in 1999.

Jones stuck his close to the cup and made par, while Livingston missed his par putt. It was Jones’ first lead in the match.

“Jay made mine easier when he hit his across the green,” said Jones.

Jones had also nearly holed out a bunker shot in Friday morning’s semifinal victory over Corey Pion of Bangor, and he was surprised by how well he handled adversity on the hole.

“Ask anybody any other time and they’ll tell you I’m the worst bunker player in the world,” said Jones, chuckling.

That set up the finish on 17.

“It hurts to lose,” said Livingston, “but when somebody outplays you, there’s no shame in that.”

In Friday morning’s semifinal matches, Jones advanced by defeating Pion 1 up on the 19th hole and Livingston stopped Scott Dewitt of Biddeford 3 and 2.

Jones never led against Pion until winning on the first hole of the sudden-death playoff.

“Match play is a grind,” said Jones. “You just keep going and going and going.”

For Jones, he kept going until he won.

“It’s finally a big relief to come out on top,” said Jones, who had lost to 13-time champion Mark Plummer of Manchester each of the last two years.

“Someday,” said Jones, “people will look back [at the list of Amateur winners] and see Plummer, Plummer, Plummer, and then me.”