AUBURN – Golf is jammed with important decisions.

For instance, is the purple polo with the white, vertical stripes or the baby food-green shirt with the $50 logo a better match for the pink, polyester slacks?

Also, should I subject myself to the humiliation and guaranteed failure of the black tees? Or ride out the momentary snickers of my macho friends, swing from the blues and stand a snowball’s chance of a single digit on this 600-yard, dogleg right?

When it comes to the future of the Charlie’s Maine Open, however, there is but one suitable reply.

Fox Ridge Golf Club. Period. No, exclamation point! End of paragraph.

Friday’s final round of the 54-hole tournament that dates back to World War I marks the end of three-year agreement between the host facility and the Maine State Golf Association.

The state’s premier golf tournament has a history of migrating to greener pastures, making whistle stops along the southern corridor.

Riverside of Portland has been the de facto home base for two, four, even eight years at a time.

Customarily, once per decade, a course has risen up, attempting to give the showcase new scenery and a new spark. Marriages with Springbrook (1980s) and Point Sebago (1990s) barely persisted past the honeymoon.

Worse yet have been the shared endeavors, such as a Fairlawn-Martindale combination in 1973 and the Pick Three among Portland, Purpoodock, Falmouth and Woodlands from 1998 to 2001.

This isn’t the Bob Hope Desert Classic. It’s a little Vacationland tournament that is a more powerful magnet for players, spectators and media when it is nestled comfortably at one site.

And over the last three Augusts, Fox Ridge absolutely has established itself as that place.

That’s an Andro-centric conclusion certain to grate the ears of the masses who believe Exit 64 of the Turnpike is Maine’s northern terminus. God forbid any of them should have to drive up here three consecutive days. Four, in case of rain.

Sorry, folks. There’s just something in the air around here, and it’s not merely the wafting smell of barbecued burgers, onions, peppers and well whatever that is emanating from the adjacent farmland.

Fox Ridge feels like home. It has earned the right to be that home, at least semi-permanently.

You want easy access? Doesn’t get any easier than the hop, skip and jump off the ‘Pike, happily devoid of traffic lights.

You want challenging? Go ahead. Camp out beside the fifth tee and listen to the daylong parade of obscenity as wayward shots skip off the near-island green into the pond. Watch the long hitters attack any of the four majestic par-5s.

You want a great place to watch golf? Plunk down in a picnic table with your favorite beverage, enjoy the shade and see the field tackle No. 18 (or No. 9, on Wednesday’s reversed nines). Grab a seat around the corner along the rock wall and watch the few and the brave whip their approach shots over the drink and within six feet of the ninth cup. The Maine Open doesn’t need the aura of stadium golf, but it doesn’t hurt. And this is as close as you’ll find in our isolated corner of the fruited plain.

You want stability? No better solution than to reunite this layout and this tournament for at least another Olympiad or presidential election cycle.

You want hospitality and a management that goes the extra mile to accomplish the impossible and satisfy everyone? Get to know the gang that has done the legwork to make this tournament happen in 2006, ’07, and now ’08.

So many barely watch-able, non-descript PGA tournaments develop a personality simply because of the atmosphere in which they’re played. Imagine how much more the Maine Open, melting pot of teenage amateurs and aging, snowbird, cigar-chomping professionals, would benefit from a dedicated, unchanging venue.

This tournament doesn’t need the big city. It needs a little tender loving care.

Fox Ridge has provided that in abundance. It’s time to return that love and give the club its reward of a contract extension.

No questions asked. No agonizing decision necessary.

Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His e-mail is [email protected].