FALMOUTH — Mike Arsenault Jr. wasn’t satisfied with his performance in the Maine Amateur Championship.
It would be hard for him to find a problem with how he started his time on the regional stage, however.
Arsenault, of Scarborough, shot a 4-under 68 Tuesday afternoon, giving him a one-shot lead after the first round of the New England Amateur Championship at The Woodlands Club.
Thomas Harrison sits one-shot back at 3-under, while three-time Maine Am champion Caleb Manuel sits in a tie for third at 2-under with Joseph Lenane, and Nick McLaughlin is fifth at 1-under.
“I got off to a great start,” said Arsenault, who birdied five of the first seven holes. “That makes it a little easier. I putted really well, and that’s how golf goes. You putt well, you play well.”
After finishing runner-up at the Maine Am in 2022, Arsenault, who plays out of Val Halla Golf Course, finished tied for 10th this year. It was no small feat, but the 29-year-old knew he could have done better.
“I left a ton of shots out there,” he said. “I was pretty disappointed after.”
It was a different story Tuesday. Starting on the 10th hole, Arsenault birdied the first three holes, followed by the 14th – his fifth – and 16th. He kept his head through his fast start, and even after bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes threatened to spoil his round, he played the final nine at 1-under to stay atop the board.
“In that moment, I was trying to keep my foot down. I’ve been there, it’s not uncharted territory,” Arsenault said. “(After the bogeys) it was ‘Fairways and greens.’ Get it off the tee, one shot at a time. … I was like ‘Get it on the green, see what happens.’ I was rolling it well.”
Harrison, out of Old Sandwich Golf Course in Massachusetts, fired a steady 69 to end the round one stroke down, making four birdies against one bogey. Also lurking is Manuel, who won his third straight Maine Am title last week by a whopping 11 shots. The Topsham resident and rising University of Georgia senior said he hit the ball well enough to post another low number, but had trouble getting putts to fall. His last one, a 15-footer with left-to-right break on the ninth hole that rode the left edge of the cup, summed up the afternoon.
“That was exactly kind of my day, right there,” Manuel said. “A lot of 15-footers, 20-footers that looked good for a while and just didn’t fall in.”
Manuel, however, was upbeat after his three-birdie round, knowing he was still in contention to make a run at the title over the next two rounds.
“I was just trying to get under par today,” he said. “I don’t really have a number (as a) goal tomorrow, but I think with my experience with being in contention, I’ll try to play the same way I did today, same game plan. … Hopefully see a few more putts drop and stay patient.”
The leader through the early rounds was Lenane, who took advantage of the softer morning conditions by recording birdies on four of his first 11 holes.
“I played well. I feel like I kept it in play off the tee pretty well, kept it in the fairways which was really important, especially today with it being lift, clean and place,” the rising sophomore at North Carolina State said. “I feel like I hit a lot of good iron shots, kept giving myself looks, and the putter got hot.”
Massachusetts’s Lenane, who started on the 10th hole, made a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-5 sixth, but pointed to a birdie on the 11th hole as the one that sparked his round. He made sure to reign himself in on the tight holes of The Woodlands, but hit driver to go for the green on his second hole of the day. A 7-iron put him close, and he made up-and-down with his first birdie.
“There are not many driver (holes), it’s pretty tight. … A lot of position-style golf,” he said. “I took the aggressive route and hit driver, which is one of the rare times to get aggressive on this course. It paid off.”
Eight players are tied for sixth at even par, including Mick Madden, a rising sophomore at Cheverus and a Woodlands member who kept himself in the running with five birdies to negate five bogeys.
“(I just) aimed for the big part of the fairway. Here, a lot of people try to get aggressive with driver on certain holes when there’s no need to, and then they make an 8,” Madden said. “You know you’re going to lose some golf balls, you know you’re going to have some bogeys. Just make sure you don’t have any of those really big numbers that ruin your entire round.”
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