This time of year it’s easy to look back while we wait for that one more day when the sun is out and conditions are right for another round on the links. It’s also easy to look ahead to skiing and just maybe a southern trip for some golf during the next month or in late winter. The trips currently being scheduled are for skiing, and that will be our focus one week from today. But, this week there are some golf thoughts as the season winds down.

The most recent competition was the annual high school championships at Natanis, a course that comes to our attention in several ways. Earlier this fall the course was filled with golfers for a grand opening of the new Tomahawk course, an event turned into a memorial dedication following the untimely death of owner Bob Browne days before. It was a perfect sunny day and the celebratory tournament went on as scheduled after a morning service.

Abby Spector helped with the clinics that day, showing golfers how to get out of bunkers. Last week her younger brother, Toby, won the state class A schoolboy title with his sister in intensive care at Maine Medical Center. Most golfers know by now that Abby Spector under went surgery to repair a congenital hole in her heart and suffered complications that necessitated emergency surgery.

The result was damage to vision and some short term memory loss. She now faces what could be a long rehabilitation.

Natanis is a family operation and that close family considers every employee a part of that family. It comes as no surprise that a fund has been established for Abby Spector and donations have been coming in from all over.

Anyone wishing to contribute can send donations to: Natanis Golf Course, 735 Webber Pond Road, Vassalboro, Maine 04989.

Abby told her brother to go out and win and he did. Our thoughts are with the Spectors, Abby, Toby, their father Gary and Abby’s boyfriend Josh Kirschner, who carries her bag at tournaments and also works at Natanis. They will be pulling together and it will help if we let them know we’re pulling for them too. We can only hope that this fine young woman, a seven-time Maine Amateur champion can return soon to the game she has done so much for here in Maine. And that her dreams of a golf career will only be delayed, not taken away.

The most recent news is that Abby is responding well and reading all of her cards and letters. Another way to contri-bute is to enter a tournament for her benefit next Sunday, Nov. 2 at J.W. Parks.

Looking back includes memories of Abby and her performance at the Greater Portland Open, and the rest of her season.

Our summer was one of visiting new courses, some here at home and more away.

Played for the first time in Maine were Portland Country Club and Maple Lane, two very different experiences. The nine holes at Maple Lane were played with ambitious new owner Kevin Cullen and he is wasting no time improving his layout. A new second fairway will allow the old one to become an irrigation pond and eventually the entire course will have irrigation.

Over in New Hampshire I got to play several courses and one brand new one a few years old and an old course renovated. The first we played was Owl’s Nest near Waterville Valley. Now in its sixth year, this course climbs a mountain side and is rated among the state’s best.

This championship layout can play 6,818 from the back tees (73.3/136) down to 5,174 from the front with three sets in between.

Not far away is Laconia Country Club, built in 1922. This semi-private club was renovated over the past five years and is a fine old style layout with modern turf, ranging in length from 6,789 down to 4,875 and four sets of tees.

Our third course on this trip was the brand new Canterbury Woods, only 15 minutes North of Concord. Owner George Glines had 260 acres that were too hilly for use on the family farm, so he built a golf course. Elevation changes are the signature of this challenging layout with a clubhouse overlooking spectacular vistas. It was designed by Ross Forbes of the nearby Forbes Design Group, so any tweaking that needs to be done can be readily accommodated. But it’s well worth a play right now.

These three are a sample of how close destination golf is, whether here in Maine or our neighboring states. We don’t have to travel very far for a golfing vacation. This brief look back gives us something to look forward to.

Dave Irons is freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.

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