Prior to the 105th Maine Amateur Championship at the Purpoodock Club in his native Cape Elizabeth, Purpoodock member John Hayes IV said holes 14-18 were favorable scoring holes.
He was right.
The 34-year-old Hayes played the final four holes in four-under par to earn a share of the lead with recent Freeport High School graduate Eli Spaulding.
They both shot three-under par 68s over the 6,403-yard course.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament resumes on Wednesday and finishes on Thursday.
Hayes birdied the 327-yard par-four 14th hole and the 500-yard par-five 16th hole, and followed that with an eagle-three at the 488-yard par-five 17th hole.
Spaulding also took advantage of the final four holes by posting birdies at the 16th and 17th.
Ron Kelton Jr. of the Purpoodock Club tied for second with Gregory Kalagias of the Biddeford-Saco Country Club with one-under-par 70s.
Kelton was the runner up to Topsham’s Caleb Manuel in last year’s Maine Amateur.
Three-time Maine Amateur winner Ricky Jones from the Samoset Resort in Rockport was one of four golfers at one-over-par 72 along with Jeff Cole of the Brunswick Golf Club, Benjamin Bell from the Sanford Country Club and Kellen Adickes from the Goose River Golf Club in Rockport.
The Waterville Country Club’s Drew Glasheen was one of seven golfers tied for ninth at two-over-par 73. The others were Ryan Komp (Augusta Country Club), Todd Kim (Webhannet Golf Club in Kennebunk), Scott Dewitt (Biddeford-Saco CC), Dylan Rodrigue (Ledges Golf Club in York), Michael Arsenault (Val Halla Golf Course in Cumberland Center) and Peter Malia (Nonesuch River Golf Club in Scarborough).
Hayes, the 2015 Maine Amateur winner and the runner up to Camden’s Cole Anderson in 2020, had an erratic round that featured consecutive birdies on holes 7, 8 and 9 followed by bogeys on 10, 11 and 12.
He also had a double bogey on the par-four, fourth hole and a birdie on the par-four first hole.
Spaulding, who won three straight state Class B individual golf titles at Freeport High, was much steadier.
He played the first nine holes in two-under par with birdies at the par-four third hole and par-four seventh hole.
His only bogey came at the par-three 12th hole before he birdied 16 and 17.
Kelton also finished strong with birdies on 16, 17 and 18 after a bogey at 15.
He also birdied the ninth hole and had bogeys on 6 and 11.
Kalagias had a three-under par round going with birdies at 1, 2, 7 and 14 and just one bogey at 10 but he had a double-bogey seven at the 16th hole.
Defending three-time champ Manuel and Anderson, who had won the two Maine Amateurs prior to Manuel’s three-peat, have both recently turned pro so they couldn’t play in the tournament.
