Ed Fortier, left, shakes hands with Tobey Buteau after finishing day two of the Maine Amateur Golf Championship at Brunswick Golf Club on Wednesday.
BRUNSWICK — The game of golf often brings out a range of emotions in a player.
Normally it happens over an 18-hole round. But for Ed Fortier at the Maine Amateur Golf Championship, it happened before he even teed off on the first hole.
The Spring Meadows Golf Club member wasn’t supposed to even be playing in the tournament at Brunswick Golf Club, but he arrived before the first tee times of Tuesday’s first round as the first alternate to participate in the field, hoping to get that chance.
“I got nothing else better to do,” Fortier said. “Kind of felt like a desperate loser coming here, but I love the juice of competition. So that’s what brought me here, and I was glad I came because I got to play.”
Just getting the chance to play was a wild ride for the Gorham resident, who got to the course before 7 a.m. on Tuesday but didn’t tee off until after 12 p.m.
“They rushed me down to the tee because a guy didn’t show up, and then they found him in a bunker. So they pulled me back,” Fortier said. “And then I got a second chance. Of course you got to run down to the tee because you have to tee off in about 45 seconds. So I got down there, and I was nervous as hell, and hit it down the middle somehow, and then made birdie on the first hole somehow. And then downhill from there.”
After starting off his first round strong, Fortier made a bogey on his second hole, and finished that round with an 11-over 83.
“I just wanted to beat yesterday’s score,” Fortier said was hope for Wednesday’s second round.
He accomplished that goal, despite carding a double bogey on the first hole. He followed that up with a bogey on the second hole, then shot just four-over the rest of the way for a 5-over 77, giving him a two-day total of 160.
That wasn’t good enough to make the cut, but it was good enough to make sticking around worth it.
“Once I got into it, it was an opportunity to try and play well,” Fortier said. “Didn’t work out, but it was fun. I still enjoyed it.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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