Putting woes on the tournament’s final day dropped Windham native Shawn Warren into a tie for third place in the Charlie’s Maine Open last Friday after he began the day tied for the lead.

Warren, 23, shot a five-over final-round 77 to finish 2-under for the three-day tournament held at Fox Ridge Golf Club in Auburn. He ended up four strokes back of champion John Hickson, 44, of Topsham. The two entered the day tied at the top, but Hickson took the lead on the first hole and never looked back as Warren three-putted the first three holes.

Hickson finished with a 1-over 73. Rich Parker of Lebanon shot a 69 on the final day to take second place, two strokes behind Hickson. Jeff Seavey of Florida, the third member of the final group, began Friday a stroke behind the leaders. He shot a final-round 76 to tie Warren. Eric Egloff of Maryland also finished tied for third, shooting a 68 on the last day.

Warren, who recently won the Greater Bangor Open, got off to a fast start at Fox Ridge. He shot a 65 at last Monday’s pro-am, then shot a 66 in the first round, played on Wednesday after Tuesday’s play was rained out, and led by two strokes at 6-under after the first day. But Hickson got hot on day two, shooting a 68 to Warren’s 71 to tie things up going into the final round, where Warren struggled on the greens from the get-go.

“You can’t have six three-putts and expect to win a golf tournament,” Warren said after turning in his scorecard.

Those early three-putts messed with Warren’s confidence.

“I got kind of scared of the greens and tentative,” Warren said. “When you get tentative on fast greens, you’re not going to make any putts.”

Still, he was within striking distance until the par-5 13th hole. He was hoping to make up a stroke with a birdie, but hooked his second shot.

“My tournament pretty much ended when I hooked my ball into the fescue on the par-5,” Warren said. “Bogeying that where I should have had a pretty simple birdie, it kind of made me have to birdie three or four of the last five holes.”

On the next hole, a par-3, he hit his tee shot into the water.

“It was a pretty aggressive shot on the par-3,” Warren said. “I pulled it a little bit and it went into the drink. Anytime that happens, you look back and say, ‘yeah, I should have gone for the middle of the green.’ But I was playing to win. The aggressive shots where I lost strokes don’t bother me. What made me do all that stuff was the three-putts early. When you get that many over par, you’ve got to try and make aggressive moves. I did and it ended up costing me a few strokes. But I wasn’t playing for second place. If you’re not going to win, there’s not much else.”

Hickson wasn’t splendid on his final round, but he was steady.

“He did what he had to do, basically,” Warren said. “He didn’t have to shoot a 68 today to win. He was letting everyone else make the mistakes and he was limiting his. I thought he played a solid round today on a golf course that’s playing a lot tougher today than it was the previous two.”

Hickson, a first-time Maine Open champ who is 21 years Warren’s senior, said Warren’s talent was very evident after the pro-am and first round, but he thought the early miscues on the final round caused Warren to lose patience – a common mistake in young golfers.

“The first couple days he played great,” Hickson said. “Today, he had a tough start. Some kids have a lot of patience. He’s got a lot of talent. I think the patience will develop. You fall behind and you want to force it. And he can, but it didn’t happen today.”

Warren said the course conditions on Friday, when the sun finally came out for a full round, were the toughest they’d been during the rain-drenched week.

“They were more difficult today than the previous two days, for sure,” he said. “I thought the pin placements were difficult; I thought the greens were running faster. As far as the conditions on the fairway, they were pretty similar. It was pretty wet. The ball wasn’t traveling when it hit the greens. But the greens definitely quickened up over the three days.”

David Grygiel of North Windham finished the tournament tied for 30th at nine-over par.