Shawn Warren, a Windham native who now spends nine months a year in Tampa, Fla., showed Monday that he may be the favorite to pick up his second pro golf title in three weeks.

Warren won the Maine Open Golf Championship pro-am with a 7-under-par 65 at Fox Ridge Golf Club in Auburn. That was four strokes better than runners-up Bob Darling Jr. of Auburn and James Gilleon of Franklin, N.H.

The 90th Maine Open gets under way today at 7 a.m. with Darling, Gilleon and 2008 Maine Amateur champ Ryan Gay of Pittston in the first group.

Warren, who won the $50,000 Hollywood Slots Greater Bangor Open on July 26 for his first pro victory, starts his bid for his second Maine Open title – the first came in 2004 at Riverside Municipal Golf Course in Portland when he was an amateur – at 8:03 in a threesome that includes ’07 Maine Amateur champ Eric Higgins of Kennebunk.

Another formidable challenge to Warren’s bid could come from the man who came closest to taking away his GBO crown, Eric Egloff of Sandy Spring, Md. Egloff, the ’95 GBO winner, finished a stroke behind Warren in this year’s GBO, and he has finished as Maine Open runner-up twice.

Gilleon is also a past Open champ, in 2001, and Darling, the head pro at Fox Ridge, finished in the top five last year en route to also claiming the Maine pro and senior division titles.

Rich Parker of Lebanon, N.H., and Jerry Diphilippo of Gorham were open-tournament victors a number of years ago (Parker in the ’88 GBO and Diphilippo in the ’95 Maine Open), but they also showed they are still contenders as they tied for second last year.

Amateur Ricky Jones of Thomaston won at Fox Ridge two years ago, and he has been hot again this year, including qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Public Links championship last month and qualifying for his second straight U.S. Amateur championship later this month. He showed his sharpness by winning his club championship this weekend with rounds of 7-under-par 63 and 5-under 65 at Rockland Golf Club for a 128 total.

One Maine amateur who has bested Jones this year is Joe Alvarez of Hampden, who held off Jones in the Whited Ford Paul Bunyan Amateur in June.

Others to watch include Jeff Seavey of Homosassa, Fla, a teaching pro at Samoset Resort in Rockport; Mo Guttman of Sarasota, Fla., and 13-time Maine Amateur champ Mark Plummer of Manchester.

Seavey was in contention in the GBO, Guttman played in the U.S. Senior Open and Plummer posted the low amateur round in the pro-am Monday with a 70.

Play continues Wednesday, followed by a cut for Thursday’s 18-hole finale.

dbarber@bangordailynews.net

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