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Four former champions are included in the field for the 12th annual 36-hole Downeast-Metro Amateur Golf Tournament at the Bangor Municipal Golf Course and the Kebo Valley Club in Bar Harbor on Saturday and Sunday.
The A and B flight golfers will play at the Bangor Muni on Saturday and at Kebo Valley on Sunday while the higher-handicap C and D golfers will do the opposite.
Three-time winner John Hayes IV (2017, 2023, 2024) and 2020 champion and fellow Cape Elizabeth native Reese McFarlane will tee off in a threesome with Mike O’Brien at the Bangor Muni at 7:20 a.m. Saturday.
Defending champ Max Woodman from Lincoln will tee off at 11:40 a.m. and 2022 winner Tim Black from Bangor will begin his round at the Muni at 8:30 a.m.
Black is the only golfer from the B flight to win it as all the others came from the A flight.
There will be 165 golfers including 93 in the A-B flights and 72 in the C-D flights.
Topsham’s Caleb Manuel owns the tournament record with a 129 in 2021.
MacFarlane recently captured the 36th annual Maine Mid-Amateur Championship at the Webhannet Golf Club in Kennebunk. The two-day event was trimmed to one day due to rain, and he shot a 66 including a hole-in-one at the 286-yard par-four 16th hole.
Bangor Muni golf pro Rob Jarvis said there are a number of golfers capable of winning the tournament.
“We probably have half a dozen of really, really strong players, and there is another half a dozen that I don’t even really know but their handicaps are super low,” said Jarvis. “I’m excited to see how the scoring turns out.”
Jarvis said he expects the contenders to try to take advantage of the easier Muni layout and “take it deep [post a low score] here so they won’t have to do so much work at Kebo, which we all know is more challenging, for sure.”
Peiter DeVos, the golf pro at Kebo, said despite having a difficult spring, weather-wise, the course is now in very good condition.
“We had a little bit of a tough spring, but the [grounds] crew got things in really good order. I’m excited for the weekend,” Jarvis said.
According to the Weather Channel, it will be partly cloudy on both days in each location with temperatures at 86 and 83 in Bangor, respectively, and 75 and 69 in Bar Harbor.
Sunday will be the windier of the two days, with 10 to 20 miles-per-hour breezes expected.
Jarvis said the tournament field was full “at least a month earlier than ever before.”
“I was shocked it was so quick. We had 20 on the waiting list,” said Jarvis.
DeVos said they “really appreciate the support from the golfers.”