BOURQUE'S BACK IN TOWN, AND AN AMATEUR CONTENDER IS HOME NOW - COMFORTABLE AND PLAYING WELL.

Portland Press Herald (Maine) 07-14-1998

Three years ago, Casey Bourque walked off the sixth green at the Portland
Country Club in Falmouth. He was leading the Maine Amateur, but had just made
an 8. A hideous, potentially disastrous 8.
And he's been trying to recapture that feeling ever since.
Not the score, of course. Rather the feeling that golfers all over the
state and the country and the world try to capture summer after summer. The
feeling that even when things go wrong, they'll soon go right.
``I still think about that, about that whole week,'' Bourque said. ``You
know golf, how so much of it is about fear. There's water over there or
trees down that side.
``That week I never once thought that way. I was so positive, so sure of
myself.''
Today would be a good day to start thinking like that again. Bourque, who
went on to overcome that 8 and win that title back in 1995, will be one of the
favorites in a field of 126 golfers who will vie for the 80th Maine Amateur
title at the Kebo Valley Club.
The first round begins at 7 a.m., when the 10-time winner and two-time
defending champion, Mark Plummer, tees off with the state mid-amateur
champion, Alan Bouchard, and the junior champ, Greg Hanna. The second round is
Wednesday, after which the field will be cut to the top 40 players plus ties
for Thursday's final 18 holes.
And in the second group this morning will be Bourque, the kid from
Biddeford who led the Tigers to a state team championship in the fall of 1994,
when he also won the individual high school championship. He burst onto the
next level the following year, holding it together - thinking clearly - over
the final round to win the Amateur.
But the Bourque that comes to Kebo Valley this week is different than the
one that pulled off the upset three years ago. Instead of being an 18-year-old
kid fresh out of high school, he's 21, a thin but sturdy young man with three
years of college golf behind him at Florida Southern University.
And he won't sneak up on anyone this time. Plummer of Manchester. Ed
Flowerdew of Falmouth. Casey Bourque's name has to be right there among the
favorites.
``No doubt,'' said Matt Berthiaume, who played with Bourque on that state
title team and warmed up with him at Kebo on a beautiful Monday afternoon.
``He's just so solid,'' Berthiaume said. ``Plus, he's Casey Bourque. He's
somebody that's always there.''
In Maine that reputation has evolved since he won the Amateur, and it's
rock-solid. But in the South, golf can be a year-round sport, and the
competition is frequently brutal.
Take Bourque's most recent season, his junior year. He felt he was playing
well when things got under way. But he slipped a bit.
By the end of the year he wasn't in the team's regular rotation.
``I can't really pinpoint it,'' Bourque said. ``When you start playing
(badly), it's tough to get out of it.''
Still, the NCAA Division II team tournament was in Orlando, all of 40
minutes from the school's Lakeland campus. And Florida Southern won the
national title.
Bourque said he was happy to ``be a part of'' something like that. But he
wasn't at the course, hitting the shots that mattered.
Instead he was at home in Biddeford. School had ended three weeks before
the tournament. Knowing he wasn't going to play, there wasn't much point in
sticking around.
Plus, golf in Maine in the summer isn't quite the same for Bourque. It's
better.
``It's kind of weird,'' Bourque said. ``At school golf is a lot different.
I don't really hang out with the kids on my team, so it's kind of just me.
It's a lot more serious.''
He walked down the first fairway at Kebo, where he had hit a healthy drive
down the right side. His swing looked easy. With him were Berthiaume, who
plays at St. Anselm, and Jeremy Goulet, another former Biddeford teammate who
is the first alternate for the Amateur.
Everything about the scene - the blue sky, the backdrop of Cadillac
Mountain, the threesome - was relaxing.
``Up here I can play with these guys,'' Bourque said. ``The summer's more
fun.''
And it would be even more fun if he could recapture that pleasant,
nothing-can-go-wrong attitude. Back in 1995, he rebounded from the 8 with a
20-foot birdie putt two holes later - ``the biggest birdie of my life,'' he
said.
Berthiaume wouldn't be surprised if Bourque made some bigger birdies in the
coming days.
``Going down South has helped him, not just mentally but overall,
competitively,'' Berthiaume said. ``Just play with him in practice. There's no
fooling around.''
Bourque's happy with his game now. He's scored well this summer. He's
looking forward to contending.
``It would be a lot of fun to be in the hunt on the last day,'' Bourque
said. ``I think it would be a lot more fun than my first time winning. I won
before I realized what was going on.''
Now he knows exactly what was going on in that tournament. He was thinking
correctly.
And this week he'll gladly take another 8 if he can put it behind him,
follow it up with a birdie or two, and just maybe win again.

Copyright 1998 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.