MANCHESTER – Tim Gay watched his son Ryan’s golf match Wednesday against Mark Plummer, and remembered when all Ryan wanted to do was play a round with Plummer, who owns a record 13 Maine Amateur titles.
“Now they play together all the time,” Tim Gay said.
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Now, Ryan regularly beats his mentor. On Wednesday, Ryan Gay earned another win over Plummer, 2 and 1 in the quarterfinals of the Maine State Golf Association’s Match Play Invitational.
The winner of the last two Maine Amateurs, Gay is the top seed in the 32-player field and will face Ricky Jones in the semifinals at 8 a.m. today.
The other semifinal will feature Matt Greenleaf against Brian Bilodeau. The final will pit the winners this afternoon.
Playing in what was sometimes a light mist and sometimes a steady drizzle, Gay took the lead for good on the third hole and was 3 up after nine.
“I got off to a hot start. I made five birdies on the front. On the back I started hitting the driver a little wild,” Gay said.
Gay’s tee shot on 10 went into the trees to the left of the fairway, and his tee shot on 12 went out of bounds. Still, his lead never fell below 2 up, and on the 324-yard 16th hole, Gay went with a 3-iron off the tee.
“There’s no sense trying to pop it on, so I figured I’d just lay up and give myself a wedge,” Gay said.
After struggling with his putter in a 1-up win over Chris Hamel in the second round Wednesday morning, Gay switched putters for the quarterfinals.
“This morning I wasn’t making anything. I put a new putter in the bag (Tuesday),” Gay said. “I didn’t putt well (Tuesday) and putted terribly this morning.”
For Greenleaf, putting was the difference in his win over defending champion Joe Alvarez. Greenleaf sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the 19th hole to take the win, and credited his caddie, Tommy Stirling, for his help in setting up the shot.
“It was uphill, a little right to left. It was all about the speed,” Greenleaf said. “(Stirling) gave me a good line and I needed to make it when it counted My putter is the key thing now. It’s all putting.”
Greenleaf’s win spoiled a strong comeback by Alvarez, who won a 19-hole match over David Gushee in the morning. Greenleaf led the quarterfinal 4 up through seven holes before Alvarez rallied on the back nine, and had a chance for the win on No. 18 but missed a 3-foot putt.
“Joey battled strong on the back. I think we both let a couple of holes get away from us,” Greenleaf said.
Jones and Eric Crouse went back and forth in their quarterfinal before Jones clinched it on the 18th hole.
“I think neither of us played our best game,” said Jones, the Maine Amateur winner in 2003 and ’04. “One up, one down was the biggest margin.”
Bilodeau put together a pair of strong rounds, beating Jason Gall in the morning 5 and 4 before earning a 3 and 2 win over Mike Doran to advance to today’s play. Bilodeau was 2 up over Doran after nine holes, then birdied the 13th to take complete control.
“You have to keep the pressure on. This course is short enough where if you’re not making birdies, you’re not going to win,” said Bilodeau. “If you give yourself a chance, you’re going to make a few.”
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