Jesse Speirs of Bangor, the young amateur golfer who nearly won the Greater Bangor Open two years ago as a 15-year-old, will be back this week to give it another try.

The 38th GBO, co-sponsored by Town and Country Realty and Golf Country, offers a $50,000 purse and $11,000 first-prize check. It kicks off with today’s pro-am, then the 54-hole tournament begins in earnest Thursday morning. After Friday’s round, the field of 144 players will be cut for Saturday’s 18-hole finale.

A new feature this year is the Chrysler Q-School Shootout, in which the top nine players will vie for a separate $4,000 to cover the entry fee into the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School in the fall.

Competitors will hit approach shots from 150 yards, then 100 yards, then from a sand bunker. The three players farthest from the cup are eliminated at each of the first two stages, and the closest to the pin in the last stage wins the entry fee.

“The GBO is a strong field, so why not play in it?” said Speirs, who finished second by a stroke to Paul Dickinson of Apopka, Fla. Speirs didn’t play last year because he was competing in a junior tournament. The only amateur to win the GBO was Mark Plummer in 1979.

Speirs is coming off a tie for 15th in last week’s Western Junior Golf Championship as he plays in a number of prestigious junior tournaments through the American Junior Golf Association, which showcases players who aspire to compete for top-level college programs.

“It went all right,” said Speirs, whose score, a 6-over-par 290 over four days, suffered in the late going.

“I was 6-over the last eight holes,” said Speirs.

He put the blame on his short game.

“My putting hurt me all week,” he said. “I had three three-putts on the back nine.”

He also had a double bogey and a bogey that weren’t caused by three-putts.

“I’ve been hitting a lot of greens lately, but the ones I’m not hitting, I get up-and-down [for par] some, but not as often as I should,” said Speirs.

He doesn’t plan on dwelling on it.

“I blew up a bit and I’m not happy about that, but we learn from our experiences,” Speirs said.

One reason his short game is suffering, he said, is because he’s concentrating on making some swing changes his coach, Paul Piveronas of The Woodlands Club in Falmouth, has pinpointed.

“Things are starting to turn around,” said Speirs, who detailed the changes. “I’ve changed my grip a little bit, my posture, my takeaway, and the club is squarer at the top.

“They weren’t big changes, they just needed to be tuned up a little bit.”

One thing he’s not thinking about is how the GBO finished two years ago when he three-putted the last hole.

“I can’t really think about that because it was two years ago,” said Speirs, who alternates signs of maturity with reminders that he’s still a teen.

“I’ve never played in the pro-am before,” he said, which he is doing today. “I heard they have really good food.”

Dickinson did not defend his title, but he has also returned this time around and has to be considered among the favorites.

Link, from Acton, Mass., is defending his crown, and runners-up Billy Downes of Enfield, Conn., and Sean O’Hair of Aston, Pa., could be challenging again. Downes has already won the GBO once, in 2000.

Mike Baker of Stratton, GBO co-champ in 1986, will be one of the local favorites. The Hermon native and teaching pro at Sugarloaf Golf Club qualified last month for the PGA Championship in August, and Monday he won a playoff to make the field for the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass., in September.

John Hickson, a Hampden native now working at Sunday River Golf Club in Newry, is another past winner (1997) who can make a run.

Other contenders should include 1995 winner Eric Egloff of Rock Spring, Md., who recently picked up a victory in a Cleveland (formerly New England) Pro Tour event; 2003 Maine Open champion Kirk Hanefeld of Bolton, Mass.; 1988 victor Rich Parker of Lebanon, N.H.; and the Franco brothers – Angel (third in ’98), Ramon (third in ’01), and Sebastian – of Asuncion, Paraguay.

Another notable in the field is former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, who now resides in Kennebunkport.

Among the top amateurs, in addition to Speirs, are Mike Norris of Newburgh, Corey Poulin of Milford, Corey Pion of Bangor, Joe Finemore of Newport, and Ross McGee of Fairfield.

The popular driving contest will be held tonight starting at 5:30, and Thursday there will be a junior clinic starting at 6 p.m. for area youth ages 8-16.