It doesn’t get much tougher than the first group set to tee off Tuesday in the Women’s Maine State Golf Association Championship. It’s not only the level of competition compared to the rest of the field, but also the competition within the group.

If this year’s WMSGA tournament is anything like last year’s, it’ll be defending champion Alyssa Hayes vs. six-time champ Abby Spector, the two young standouts who will be grouped with another former WMSGA winner, Pennie Cummings.

Organizers are expecting 96 golfers for the three-day, three-round tournament, which starts Tuesday and finishes Thursday.

The WMSGA Championship is a 54-hole, stroke-play tournament. A state champion, junior state champion, and senior state champion will be crowned. There are five gross prizes awarded in each of the four flights.

There will be a lobster bake for participants Tuesday night and an awards ceremony Thursday.

This is the first time the tournament will be held at Boothbay Country Club. The club is scheduled to host next year’s New England women’s championship.

Hayes, Spector, and Cummings will tee off at 7:30 a.m. Cummings’ sister Martha White, who is also a past WMSGA champion, will tee off at 7:40 with Kristin Kannegieser and Laura Gagnon.

Cape Elizabeth’s Hayes won the tourney last year at Sugarloaf, but had to fight on the final day to do it.

Waterville’s Spector shot a 76 to Hayes’ 78 on the opening day. After Spector and Hayes fired an 88 and an 86, respectively, the two were tied. Hayes put up a 72 on the third and final day, while Spector shot a 78. The 72 set a women’s club record.

Hayes’ win last year broke Spector’s streak of six straight WMSGA championship titles.

Spector, who recently graduated from the University of North Carolina after a four-year career playing for the Tar Heels, already is one up on Hayes this year. She finished eighth in the New England Women’s Golf Association Championship earlier this month, while Hayes was 14th.

Spector also competed in June’s Greater Portland Open, where she posted the second-best amateur score. She recently broke the women’s course record at J.W. Parks Golf Course in Pittsfield.