The winner of the Whited Ford Paul Bunyan Amateur Golf Tournament will receive an extra bonus this year, automatic exemption into the Maine Amateur Golf Championship.

“I started discussing this a year or two ago with Nancy [DeFrancesco],” said Bunyan tournament director Skip Chappelle. DeFrancesco is executive director of the Maine State Golf Association, which conducts the Maine Amateur.

“She was more than helpful,” said Chappelle, who attributes the Bunyan’s prestige with helping secure the exemption.

“There aren’t many of its kind,” Chappelle said of his three-day, 54-hole tournament conducted over three different golf courses.

This year’s Bunyan is scheduled for June 6-8 with three divisions rotating between Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, Rockland Golf Club and Kebo Valley Golf Club in Bar Harbor.

There are some qualifications to the exemption, though.

“She said we have to go by her rules,” Chappelle pointed out. Those include limiting the Maine Amateur field to full-time state residents who are members of Maine golf clubs or Maine golf associations or part-time residents who reside in the state for at least five months and are members of a Maine club.

If the Bunyan winner is not eligible, another player can go in his stead.

“She said we can go down to the fourth or fifth entry if the others are already exempt [or ineligible],” said Chappelle.

In addition, Maine National Guard people who have been deployed and come back within the past year or who will be deployed later this year will have their entry fee paid by Operation Community Support.

“Pete Webb [general manager of Whited Ford in Bangor] told me it was a good way to say thank you for the sacrifices they’re making,” said Chappelle.

On the international side, Pierre Arsenault, organizer of the Barrett East Coast Amateur held in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, each August, will be picking four of New Brunswick’s top amateurs to play in next month’s Bunyan.

About 150 entries have been received, said Chappelle, who expects the field will be about the same as last year’s 240 players.

The entry fee is $110, and interested golfers can get more information and print out a registration form at www.bunyangolf.com.

Spector branches out at Balsams

Abby Spector has been named director of golf instruction at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch, N.H.

Spector, who was most recently an assistant pro at Val Halla Golf Course in Cumberland Center, was a seven-time winner of the Women’s Maine State Golf Association Championship and also won the New England Women’s Golf Association Championship once.

She was the Maine schoolgirl golf champion all four years at Waterville High School.

A potential career as a touring pro was derailed by emergency open-heart surgery in October 2003 that led to a long recuperation process. As a result, she became an assistant club pro specializing in instruction.

Among her duties, Spector will be setting up new golf programs as well as redesigning and implementing a new golf school, said Balsams Director of Golf Douglas Ruttle in a press release.

Maine Junior Golf Day is June 8

A number of Maine golf clubs will offer free clinics to children and teens ages 9-18 on June 8 during Maine Junior Golf Day.

The effort has drawn the notice of Gov. John Baldacci, a golfer himself who applauds the clubs for what they’re doing.

The clinics will teach proper stance, swing techniques and etiquette.

Each clinic will have two sessions: noon-2 p.m. for ages 14-18, and 2-4 p.m. for ages 9-13.

Among the 19 clubs already signed up are Bangor Municipal Golf Course (941-0232), Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley (237-6812), Midcoast Junior Golf Association (Rockland, Samoset in Rockport, Boothbay, Northport, Goose River in Camden, Megunticook in Camden and Wawenock in Bristol) 594-9322, Castine Golf Club (326-8844) and J.W. Parks in Pittsfield (487-9280).

Advance registration is required and slots are limited.

dbarber@bangordailynews.net

990-8170

Paul Bunyan Amateur

TOURNEY HIGHLIGHTS

Primary sponsor: Whited Ford

Year: 44th annual

Dates: June 6-8

Sites: Kebo Valley Golf Club, Bar Harbor; Penobscot Valley Country Club, Orono; Rockland Golf Club

Entry fee: $110

Handicap divisions: 3

Course rotation, Division A: Kebo, Rockland, PVCC; Div. B: PVCC, Kebo, Rockland; Div. C: Rockland, PVCC, Kebo

Other highlights: The Sports Arena Club Championship, The Wells Fargo Reverse Mortgage Senior Flight, The Irving International Flight

2007 champion: Ricky Jones