Having been asked so many times where my favorite ski area is, I have fallen back on Warren Miller’s answer, “Wherever the sun is shining and the snow feels good under my skis.” I feel the same way about golf courses. My favorite course is where I’m teeing off today. While there are a handful I won’t be in a hurry to try a second time, most courses leave me thinking about a return trip in an attempt to better my score. It may be a highly rated layout or a local nine-hole track. Either way, I want to give it another try.

That’s the background from which I approach lists. And when the list comes from a publication where my name is on the masthead (Maine editor), I have truly mixed feelings. Although I certainly passed on my opinions on the survey circulated among those us who write for the New England Journal of Golf, I didn’t have any say in the final outcome.

That being said I do have some observations on NEJG’s top 100 list. Sugarloaf at No. 1 and Belgrade at No. 4 didn’t surprise anyone. Those two courses have had acclaim in national publications and are highly rated everywhere. They led 18 Maine layouts onto the list that included Kebo Valley, Samoset, Waterville CC, Penobscot Valley, Cape Arundel, The Ledges, Dunegrass, Point Sebago, Fox Ridge, Brunswick, Aroostook Valley, Links at Outlook, Boothbay CC, Sable Oaks, Lake Kezar, and Nonesuch.

Readers were asked to rate their favorites on the magazine’s Web site and the results were somewhat different. Sugarloaf was still rated tops overall and No. 1 in Maine. The top five in Maine according to the readers were Sugarloaf, Belgrade, Cape Arundel, The Ledges and Spring Meadows. Note that Spring Meadows was No. 5 in Maine with the readers, but didn’t make the top 100 in New England.

These disparities are always a problem with any list. I can’t address the entire list because I haven’t played all the courses. I have played 13 of the 18 in Maine and 26 of the total in New England. I suspect some courses made the list on reputation. Cape Arundel, for example is well known because the first President Bush plays there. How many of those who voted have actually played there?

Kebo Valley is famous not only as a Donald Ross design, but for President Taft getting stuck in a bunker and taking 18 shots to get out. It’s still on my need to play list, along with Waterville CC and Aroostook, something I hope to correct this summer. And that’s the good thing about such a list. Of those of I have played there are certainly no bad courses listed, and I hope to whittle away at the entire list. After all, with this list of 100 out of 800 courses in New England, I can keep busy for a lot of summers.

I also want to mention a course that wasn’t on the list. Province Lake sits on the New Hampshire/Maine border in Parsonfield. After five or six years of heavy investment and construction this layout is a solid 18 and, if not in the top 100, certainly close. Maybe it’s the location. Maybe the raters don’t know which state to put it in. That being said, the club house is in Maine and Province Lake was one of the original courses in Golf Maine.

There are probably another 100 courses, including several in Maine that could be on the list. Surely, the new course at Sunday River will be a candidate a year from now. If you want to see the list, find a copy of the magazine or check the Web site www.nejg.com and have some input.

New guys on the block

Maine’s Golf Hall of Fame will have two new members this fall when Gary Rees and Lisa Jensen are inducted at the annual banquet.

Rees is the first to be honored primarily for a high school coaching career although his contribution to junior golf was also significant. Coaching at Foxcroft Academy, Greeley and Dexter he compiled a winning percentage of 86 percent over 27 years. His 23-year record at Greeley was 205-9-1 where he won nine state titles and produced four individual champions including Holly Anderson who was inducted into the Hall in 2002.

Although she didn’t take up golf until after college in 1988, Jensen quickly moved to the top of Maine golf, winning club titles at Gorham and Falmouth, the Southern Maine Women’s crowns in 89, 90, and 91 and the Maine title in 1991. She turned pro playing the Women’s European Tour 1992-98, mixing in instruction at the Danish/English Golf School in 1994. On the Futures Tour in 1998 she finished 79th on the money list, and following year won a pair of events, the JWEA Anheuser Busch Classic and the Central Florida Challenge. She is currently an instructor in recreation at Rutgers University and coaches the Monmouth University Women’s Golf Team.

Rees and Jensen will be inducted Sept. 10. The Annual Tournament and Banquet is currently slated for Sable Oaks. For information contact Blaine Davis at 207-799-0983 or e-mail at [email protected].

Food for golf

Here’s a way to play the top rated course at a great price. Sugarloaf is once again offering their Tin Mountain Roundup. This started as a ski event and has been carried over to golf. June 6-8 bring three cans of food which will go to the local food bank and get a round of golf for $30, including cart.

You will need to call and reserve a tee time, but this is a great opportunity to play a top course at less then half the mid season rate. And our reports are that the course came through the winter in fine shape.

As always, I will be looking for the first opportunity to get back to Sugarloaf, along with a lot of other Maine courses, on and off the list.

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.