BRUNSWICK ? It was the self-professed worst iron shot of Emily Bouchard's life, and the end result could have been much more disastrous than losing a golf tournament.
Her level of concentration possibly dulled by a seven-shot lead with three holes remaining Wednesday in the Maine Women's Amateur, Bouchard badly mis-hit a 4-iron to the right and through a tree about 25 yards from the tee.
It struck longtime family friend Bob Bazinet ? her father and caddy John's boss ? on the top of his left shoulder before falling into the rough.
Bazinet never fell to the ground and was joking about Emily's marksmanship and John's job security within seconds. But for the remainder of the round, it was no laughing matter to Bouchard. She triple bogeyed the hole, putting at least a smidgen of drama back into the tournament.
"I'm a little shaken up, to say the least," Bouchard said. "Until I putted out here on 18, I was still shaken up. I still feel pretty bad about it, to be honest."
That putt? It merely produced Bouchard's fourth birdie of the day and punctuated her successful defense of the state title at Brunswick Golf Club.
In addition to her victory a year ago, when the SMWGA and WMSGA consolidated their championships for the first time, Bouchard also captured the WMSGA crown in 2011.
"I'm pretty excited right now about this. It's pretty cool," Bouchard said. "It's a three-peat to me. I wanted it badly. I felt like I wanted it more than the past two."
Bouchard, 23, shot 4-over 78 for a 54-hole total of 235, six shots ahead of 17-year-old Monica Austin of Yarmouth and seven in front of Calais veteran Lori Frost.
Austin, who is a protege of Bouchard's through the state junior program, shot 79 in the final round for a total of 241. Frost had a triple bogey one hole before Bouchard notched hers and stumbled down the stretch to an 83.
First-round leader Kris Kannegieser of Minot matched her opening-day 79 and was fourth at 243.
Trailing by two shots to start the day, Frost got within one when Bouchard bogeyed the first hole. She lurked four back until a double bogey at 13 and the triple bogey on 15 ended her title hopes.
"She's a great competitor," Frost said of Bouchard. "She's got a good balance of being hard on herself versus looking kind of light at mistakes, because she's got the game to recover."
After shooting 1-over 37 on the front nine, Bouchard went into a bunker and ended up with a bogey on No. 10, then three-putted the 11th for another bogey.
Bouchard regained her footing with pars on 12 and 13 prior to what was ? until the near-disaster with Bazinet ? the signature moment of the tourney.
Frost rolled in a 25-footer for birdie on the 99-yard, par-3 14th.
Bouchard was next, her wedge shot off the tee having landed in the fringe about 12 feet from the hole. She knocked in her putt, as well, accentuating the moment with a fist pump.
"That was kind of a relief thing. Lori on the back nine was charging hard," Bouchard said. "That meant a lot to make that putt, because I hadn't made any and she had just made that one, so it was nice to follow up."
Frost encountered all kinds of trouble on 15 after hitting her drive into ground under repair to the right of the fairway. Her third shot out of the rough also fell far short of its mark, and she gutted out a seven.
That advanced Austin to second place, and all systems seemed go for another Bouchard coronation. Then came the ominous crackling sound on 16.
"I obviously didn't hit it right. I never shanked a 4-iron before in my life until today," Bouchard said. "Not in a selfish way, but I'm glad it was somebody I know. My heart would have been broken even more if it was somebody I didn't know."
Bazinet, who owns a Scarborough company called Creative Printed Solutions, assured Bouchard that he was fine, conceding only that his shoulder would "hurt later tonight." Bouchard joked that she owed him a beverage on the way home.
"I've known her since she was little, so we're going to have some laughs about this," Bazinet said. "I was looking down the fairway, so I never saw it coming. It happened so quickly that at first I didn't realize it had hit me. My first reaction was, 'Wow, that's a terrible lie she's got.'"
Bouchard hit her second shot into the fairway before her approach veered into a bunker to the left of the green. It took her two shots to escape, and the second one still left her in tall grass.
She wound up with a seven. Frost's par and Austin's bogey left them five shots back.
As the Maine State Golf Association's director of junior/senior golf, Bouchard has plenty of practice giving Austin pep talks. This time, Austin, soon to be a high school senior, returned the favor.
"Monica kind of came up to me and gave me some composure. 'Hey, you've got two holes left. You can do this,' which was nice," Bouchard said. "She leans on me, I can lean on her, and it works out well."
All three players parred 17, and with a gallery of several hundred watching from an observation deck, Bouchard birdied the picturesque, two-tiered 18th to finish in style. She double bogeyed the same hole at the end of her second round.
Austin made par and Frost bogey on 18 to settle the battle for second.
The teenager played a steady round with three bogeys and one double bogey. Frost, a past WMSGA champion, matched Bouchard with a 77 in the second round but couldn't string together more than three consecutive pars in her encore.
"This course is very challenging for me," Frost said. "I feel it's a long course. I didn't have good feel for the greens. I didn't have a good feel of anything."
Tuesday's 85 cost Kannegieser a change to challenge Bouchard.
Buoyed by the mid-round news that her son, Will, had placed sixth in an international junior tournament at Sugarloaf, Kannegieser made a strong run on the back nine. She nearly aced the 14th hole.
Kannegieser finished four shots ahead of the fifth-place tie between Laurie Hyndman, Mary Brandes and Liz Wiltshire.
"Yesterday I drove the ball well, but I chipped poorly. I chipped much better today, and I hit some good shots," Kannegieser said. "I just kind of let it go."
Letting it go was a part of the champion's repertoire long before Wednesday.
Bouchard seemingly played herself out of contention in the first round of the 2012 tournament at Augusta Country Club, shooting 85. But she crept back into it and stole the show with a 71 on championship day.
"I was hoping for a little more consistency this year, which give or take some, I achieved," Bouchard said.
That Bouchard's duties as junior instructor often prevent her from extensive summer tournament play isn't lost on her competitors.
"All I hear is that she doesn't really put a lot of effort into golf," Frost said. "If she ever does, the sky's the limit, probably."
koakes@sunjournal.com
Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/local-sports/2013/07/31/maine-womens-amateur-golf-bouchard-regains-composu/1401688
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