AUBURN — Last week they were teammates. Today, they’ll be opponents.
Two 16-year-olds — Reese McFarlane and Luke Ruffing — have advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Maine Match Play Championship.
Last week, these two led their Maine teammates to a fourth-place finish in the New England Junior Championship at the Connecticut National Golf Club. While McFarlane tied for second overall with a two-under 211, Ruffing tied another teammate, Gavin Dugas of Pittsfield, for 18th to lead Maine’s finish.
The pairings for today’s quarterfinal rounds have an ironical ring.
While the high-school kids will pair off in one match, two college kids — South Freeport’s Jack Wyman and Joe Walp — will pair off in the same bracket.
In the other bracket are two veteran champions, Ricky Jones and Joe Alvarez while the second half of that bracket will feature two Sable Oaks players, former Mt. Ararat High School standout Mike Doran and Matt Greenleaf.
While Jones has three amateur championships under his belt (including one when it was match play) he has never won the match play championship, while Alvarez won the inaugural event.
Doran and Greenleaf are the 2012 and 2013 Sable Oaks Club Champions, respectively.
It’s the kids against the old guy.
After today’s morning round, the afternoon round will pare the field to the final two players who will meet to determine the champion on Thursday.
On Tuesday, in Round of 32 play,
Doran beat Jeff Cole, 3 and 2; Wyman got past Thomas Murray, 2 and 1; Jordan Jones of Wiscasset and the Bath Golf Club beat Erik Fitch, 5 and 4; and Malcom Oliver of the Bath GC lost to Alavarez, 4 and 3.
In Round of 16 action, Wyman defeated Ashley Fifield, 4 and 3; Jones lost to McFarlane, 5 and 4; and Doran got past Andrew Slattery, 3 and 2.
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