enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Despite Mark Plummer’s intimidating presence on Maine’s golf scene, he has been a mentor to younger golfers like Ryan Gay.

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Mark Plummer follows his shot Thursday in the second round of the Maine Amateur. Plummer, who has won 13 Amateurs, finished 10 shots behind leader Jesse Speirs.

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Mark Plummer has won the Maine Amateur 13 times, been runner-up five times and, at 57, he’s still playing the event ... and not just to get some exercise and keep track of Maine’s up-and-coming golfers, but because he still has the burning desire to win.

PLUMMER AT THE AM

Championships

1973 at Riverside GC

1976 at Bangor Muni GC

1982 at Portland CC

1983 at Rockland GC

1984 at Penobscot CC in a playoff

1986 at Waterville CC

1989 at Martindale CC

1994 at Augusta CC

1996: at Martindale CC

1997 at Brunswick GC

2000 at Purpoodock Club

2001 at Augusta CC

2002 at Falmouth CC in a playoff

Runner-up

1975 Fairlawn G&CC in a playoff

1979 at Waterville CC

1990 at Falmouth CC

1998 at Kebo Valley GC in a playoff

1999 at The Woodlands

AUBURN — The putt curled ever so slightly and slid past the hole. A single word broke the stillness on the 13th green. The lion in 57-year-old Mark Plummer hasn't been silenced, even as the mane has whitened and a hint of stiffness has appeared in his gait.

He won his first Maine Amateur golf tournament in 1973. In the intervening 36 years he has won 12 more and was runner-up five times. He has played the world's best golfer competitively and an American president socially.

He has intimidated a younger generation of Maine golfers while becoming their friend. He has mentored Ryan Gay, the teenager who won this tournament last year, and admits that no other young golfer has gotten as close to him emotionally.

Plummer is the face of Maine golf. Those who play with him or watch from the galleries believe there may not be another. From the intensity and success of his game to the glower and earthy laugh of his persona, Plummer has been unique.

He finished the 90th Maine Amateur on Friday with a three-round score of 220, 10 strokes behind champion Jesse Speirs. Plummer's third-round score of 71 was just two off the day's best.

He won his 13th championship in 2002. The seven-year drought is the longest of his career. You ask him if, in his mind, he's playing against the 35-year-old or even the 45-year-old Mark Plummer.

"No, I'm not. It's the length of my game that's going," he said. "I'm giving up quite a bit of yardage. Up until three or four years ago, I was holding my own."

He is judging himself by his past. That's natural for any athlete, but Plummer raised the bar so high.

"He still has a chance to win," said Joe Alvarez. "He wouldn't play if he couldn't."

Alvarez, 29, and Shawn Gepfert, 37, made up a threesome with Plummer. Years earlier, they too might have been intimidated by his ferocity on the course, when that word would echo over the course more than the one time it was heard Friday, when putters were snapped in half.

Friday, Alvarez and Gepfert were in awe of a man many years their senior who didn't play like the 45-year-old model and still shot a 71.

"I've heard the stories of him playing Tiger Woods," said Gepfert, a transplant from Georgia arriving in midcoast Maine about eight years ago. "Now I understand."

Plummer reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur in 1995. Woods, then a 19-year-old Stanford sophomore, was waiting for him. Plummer took Woods to the 18th hole in match play. A former Kennebec County deputy sheriff, Plummer quickly had become a favorite with law enforcement officers assigned to the tournament in Newport, R.I.

With his robust Maine accent, a somewhat unorthodox swing and an underdog status, he established a kinship with amateur golfers everywhere.

Gay was 8 when he first remembers meeting Plummer. Gay's parents were members at the Augusta Country Club, near Plummer's home in Manchester. At first, as he learned the game, Gay saw Plummer in the social setting of the country club.

"When I started playing with him, we were already friends," said Gay, a recent Gardiner Area High graduate. "To me, he was never intimidating. He's taught me how to relax, to step back when my game isn't going well."

That happened last summer when Gay won this tournament. He was in a threesome with Plummer and at one point pulled the wrong club from his bag. Plummer noticed and started making barnyard sounds. Gay heard, smiled and stepped back. He chose the right club.

"Mark walked Ryan through his first championship," said Nancy Storey, executive director of the Maine State Golf Association. "It was the passing of the torch."

After he finished Friday's round, Plummer signed his scorecard and disappeared into the clubhouse at Martindale Country Club. He returned later to the 18th to watch Speirs, Gay and Ricky Jones make their way to the green. When it was over, Plummer congratulated the winner....