MANCHESTER — Visualize your tee shot, strike it perfectly, drive the ball straight down the middle of the fairway. Standing on the 18th tee at the Augusta Country Club on Wednesday afternoon, that’s what Jack Quinn did. The Gardiner Area High senior was on the last hole of his last round in the Charlie’s Maine Open, and a pair of titles were in his sights.

Quinn, 17, promptly ripped his shot out of bounds. So much for home-course advantage. It was like telling someone to not think of the color red. Red will be all they’ll see for days. Envision driving your tee shot perfectly down the middle, and watch it end up in the trees.

“I was just kind of in my head. I was just trying to get down the middle, take it nice and slow,” Quinn said with a shrug and a chuckle. “I got a little too slow.”

It was the only serious mistake Quinn made in his round Wednesday, maybe in the entire three-day tournament, in which he played against professional golfers from around the country. That’s why he could shake it off so easily. Even with the bogey he took on 18, the round was Quinn’s best of the tournament, a 3-under-par 67 to put him at 4-under overall.

With that score, Quinn easily was the top junior player, taking that crown by 26 strokes. He was also the top amateur finisher in the field, with a four-stroke victory over Daniel Suter of Maryland. Quinn’s score also put him in a four-way tie for 10th place overall. In a field full of pros, this local kid who still has another year of high school ahead of him attacked the course like a pro in waiting.

“It’s fun. It’s definitely cool going out and beating a couple pros. Just knowing that my game’s there. It shows I can compete with the guys out here,” Quinn said. “If anything, it takes the pressure off me. It puts it on (the pros) to play a good round. On the other side, I’m at my home course. I’ve got a lot of members here expecting me to play well, so I’ve got to come out and play well.”

This was the second year of the Maine Open after a four-year hiatus. For Wednesday’s final round, approximately 41% of the field, 26 of 64 players, were amateurs. The tournament had 123 entrants, although 11 players withdrew before play began, another withdrew after round one, and another did not finish Tuesday’s second round.

Brian Bickford, executive director of Maine Golf, the sport’s governing body in the state, said the field size was good, despite the four years the tournament was on hold, due first to COVID restrictions, and then the popularity of the Maine Event, the tournament for Maine players that filled the void.

The plan is to align the tournament so it takes place right before or after open tournaments in New Hampshire and Vermont. The chance to win prize money in three consecutive tournaments is more likely to lure pros from around the country to convince their peers to join them on a northern New England excursion. This year, the New Hampshire and Vermont Opens were in June.

Keeping a strong amateur field in the tournament is also key to sustaining it, Bickford said, as is having awards for the top junior and senior players in the field. Those players enjoy taking their shot against pros, whether they come from Maine, like Falmouth’s Shawn Warren, who placed fourth; or from Pennsylvania, like Jacob Sollon, who shot minus-14 to win the tournament by three strokes.

“The pace of play was really good, and it’s always fun seeing guys who hit the ball really well work their way around the course,” said Luke Ruffing, an amateur from Sidney. “Pros are supposed to win. It’s always fun competing and beating a few of them.”

Ruffing began Wednesday with a one-shot lead over Quinn in the amateur race. Playing one group ahead of Ruffing, Quinn birdied the ninth hole to drop his overall score to minus-2 and jump start his strong back nine, where he didn’t hiccup until that tee shot on 18, collecting birdies on 10 and 16. Ruffing, on the other hand, struggled down the stretch, shooting 41 on the back nine to drop to plus-2 for the tournament and fourth among the amateurs.

Quinn, meanwhile, used the experience to gain some tips about his future in golf. Last fall, Quinn committed to playing in college at the University of Rhode Island. One of his playing partners, JT Barker of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, played collegiately at Florida Gulf Coast University before embarking on his pro career.

“(Barker) was saying in college you’re not going to have as much time as you’d like to practice, so just try to get everything you can out of the couple hours you have to practice and get a good solid routine going,” Quinn said.

On the third hole, Quinn told Barker and William Thornton, the other pro in his group, that they were playing his home course. That did not lead to the teenager offering his playing partners any advice around the course.

“They kind of were like, ‘How far’s this? how far’s that?’ and I’d tell them, but other than that, I think they were doing just fine,” Quinn said.

They may have done just fine, but not as fine as Quinn, who counted both among the many pros he bested in the tournament. It’s only a home-course advantage if you have the talent to use it, and Quinn certainly does.