Former Lincoln Academy of Newcastle standout Bailey Plourde, coming off an outstanding freshman season at NCAA Division III Centre College of Danville, Kentucky, fired a 3-over par 76 to share the first-round lead at the Maine Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament at the Rockland Golf Club Monday.
The 18-year-old Plourde, who plays out of the Samoset Resort in Rockport and the runner-up to Staci Creech in the tournament the last two years, shares the lead with 17-year-old Jordan Laplume of Old Orchard Beach and the Dunegrass Golf Club.
Round two of the 54-hole event will continue Tuesday.
Veteran Carolyn Langevin of the Portland Country Club is third at 6-over 79, and tied for fourth at 80 are 18-year-old Elizabeth Lacognata of Scarborough and the Falmouth Country Club and 13-year-old Ruby Haylock of the Turner Highlands Country Club in Turner.
There was a three-way tie at 8-over 81 involving Ruth Colucci from the Biddeford-Saco Country Club, Kristin Kannegieser from the Martindale Country Club in Auburn and Mara Tiger from the Brunswick Golf Club. Rounding out the top 10 in the 61-player field were Stephanie Rodrigue (82) of the Fox Ridge Golf Club in Auburn, and Woodlands Club of Falmouth members Mary Brandes (83) and Maria Cianchette (83).
Brandes was the 2014 runner-up.
Defending three-time champ Creech isn’t in the field because she has moved to Colorado with husband Karlton, the former director of athletics at the University of Maine who took a position at the University of Denver.
Plourde, the four-time Maine Amateur junior champion, got off to a rocky start with two double bogies and a bogey on her first six holes.
But she rallied by playing the rest of the round at 2-under par.
Plourde, the Southern Athletic Association’s Newcomer of the Year and an All-SAA first team selection, had birdies on the eighth, 13th, 14th and 17th holes to offset bogies at the 11th and 16th.
Plourde was Centre’s top finisher at the conference tournament with a three-day score of 239, and that was good enough to tie for fifth overall in the tourney. She had the best score among the conference’s freshmen.
Laplume, who will play golf at Division II Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, in the fall, also got off to a shaky start with a double bogey and two bogies on her first seven holes.
But she birdied the ninth hole and played the back nine in even-par 36 thanks to a birdie on the 14th hole. She bogeyed the 18th.
It was a similar story for Langevin, Haylock and Lacognata, who all had better back nines than front nines.
Follow BDN Maine Sports on Facebook for the latest in Maine high school and college sports.