SOUTH PORTLAND — Ricky Jones bagged his partridge in a pear tree Thursday morning.

The 42-year-old from Thomaston won his first Maine State Golf Association match play championship to go with six Mid-Amateurs, five Paul Bunyan Amateurs, three Maine Amateurs, two Tri-State team titles and a Maine Open.

Jones sank four birdies, including all three par-5 holes at saturated Sable Oaks Golf Club, to win 6 and 4 over Jeff Cole of York.

He won five matches in a span of just over 48 hours to win the fifth-annual event. Jones’ best previous performance was a semifinal loss to eventual winner Ryan Gay in 2011.

“I played really good the last two rounds. I actually played good the first two. I struggled a bit in the third match after I got 4 up,” Jones said. “After that match in the morning (Wednesday) I started hitting the ball really well.”

Jones hit the pin with his chip to win the second hole, and he never let up.

He added 5 and 6 to his coffers before the lone bogey at 9 briefly let Cole back into it. But after a stout drive to the 393-yard 10th, Cole left his 8-iron approach short and right, then three-putted uphill to give back what he had gained.

“That second shot on 10 took the wind out of the sails. I’d got it back to two, dead middle of the fairway and just stone-cold blocked it,” Cole said. “You can’t do that, and then the three-putt. You couldn’t have left it in a worse spot on the green. Uphill, over a ridge. The first nine-tenths of it was uphill, then it was downhill at the end.”

The 10th green was no picnic for Jones, who also left his second shot far beneath the pin.

Prior experience in the three-day grind helped him roll it relatively close, however, before he knocked down a winding, sloping 6-footer to win the hole.

“I had a putt yesterday going up that hill, and I left that short like he did. Even though I knew how slow it was going to be, I still left it short, and I thought I hit it pretty hard,” Jones said. “Every putt other than the one on 10 was within the tap-in range. It didn’t seem like I had to struggle for any of the pars.”

One of those came at 11 after Jones’ birdie bid from 15 feet stayed on the lip. Cole missed his par from half that distance after dropping his drive into the murky, left-side bunker.

Jones made it three consecutive wins and fattened the lead to five at 12, burying a screaming 25-footer. He had a chance to close it out at 13 but pushed a 4-foot birdie offering left.

Cole scrambled to save par from the rough and prolong the proceedings, but his drive to 14 landed in woods just in front of a foot bridge, hastening the finish.

Neither drives nor putts were his issue on the front nine.

“Irons were off today. I missed seven greens on the front. You just can’t. I haven’t missed seven greens in a round all week,” Cole said. “The first six holes I made every 10-footer I looked at. It could have been five down after five real quick. I felt OK after that.”

After a conservative start, his preferred approach to Sable Oaks’ challenging first five holes, Jones felt he wasted birdie opportunities at 7 and 8.

“I thought I made one that snuck around on 7. It broke really hard. When it was this far from the hole,” Jones said, holding his fingers an inch apart, “I just figured there was no way it wasn’t going in. Then on the par-3 I thought that was going in too. Once I hit them I thought they were going in.”

Cole jumped out to substantial leads Wednesday over Eric Crouse in the quarterfinals and Scott Sirois in the semis before his opponents rallied to keep it close.

A club member, he knew Sable Oaks served up enough danger to give him a puncher’s chance.

“Tenth fairway. That was it. That was big after I got one back on nine,” Cole said. “Anything can happen on the back nine here. I hit a good drive, hit it right in the middle. I just didn’t have it today. You can’t miss greens in match play, and you definitely can’t miss them against Ricky.”

More than six inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period prior to the 7 a.m. tee time, leaving both players uncertain of what they would encounter when they arrived.

Jones, who set his alarm for 4 o’clock and made the commute from the Rockland area all three days, said he only exercised the option to move his ball from the “casual” or temporary water hazards twice.

“I don’t think even if we played it out that I would’ve had any trouble with the wetness,” Jones said.

The key to his championship run, Jones joked, was avoiding Joe Alvarez of Berwick. He eliminated Jones in three previous match play tourneys.

Jones needed 21 holes to defeat John Hayes IV after walking 15 in a victory over Curtis Jordan on Tuesday. Jones felt sluggish in a third-round match against Brian Angis. He advanced despite shooting 10-over.

“I had a stretch where I went double, double, double. Other than that I hit the ball really well, stayed around par (for the week),” Jones said.

Cole took out senior Thomas Bean and 2013 runner-up Joe Walp in the early rounds.

The first-ever pairing with Jones and runner-up finish were career highlights for Cole, who turns 26 Saturday.

“It was an awesome week. It really was,” said Cole, who shot 4-over for his 14 holes. “I’ve been looking forward to coming here. I played really well the first four matches. I learned so much just today about how to control your emotions. I was a little jacked up to start, for sure. It was a great learning experience to play someone like Ricky.”

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