Golf course owners are hoping a new campaign to bring out-of-state golfers to Maine will soar.
By Carol Coultas
Business Writer

AUBURN -Someone is finally capitalizing on the Maine-Massachusetts rivalry and inviting Bay Staters to take a swing in Maine.

Golf Maine, an association representing Maine’s 41 golf courses, is launching a campaign to lure out-of-state golfers to play in Maine. The group just mailed 4,000 brochures touting the advantages of golfing in Maine to duffers from away.

“We have reasonable prices, available tee times and friendly people,” said Edmund Michaud, superintendent and part owner of Fox Ridge Golf Club in Auburn and a member of Golf Maine.

The association is specifically targetting golfers in Massachusetts, where greens fees typically run in the $100 to $150 range. Here in Maine the range is more like $30 to $50.

“For $85 you can play a round with cart,” he said. “It’d be $135 down there. You save $50 – there’s dinner and lunch.”

“And we’re not overcrowded,” said Michaud. “Every place else you struggle to find a tee time.”

In fact, easy availability is part of the reason the group is looking beyond Maine’s borders for golfers. In the last five years, 23 new courses have been built in the state, creating an excess of golfing facilities and not enough Maine golfers to keep them busy.

“The golfing public in the state hasn’t grown with the number of courses,” said Michaud.

The campaign is applauded by the Maine Tourism Association, which promotes Maine as a vacation destination.

“It’s a great idea,” said Carolyn Manson, public affairs manager. “We should do what we can to capture that niche market.”

The state Office of Tourism helped Golf Maine pay for its brochures. Michaud said the group is hoping the state will start to market golf vacations as it does skiing, beach-going and leaf-peeping vacations.

Many people don’t realize what good golf courses there are in Maine, Michaud said. Golf Digest rated two courses in Maine – Sugarloaf and Belgrade Lakes – among its top 100 public golf courses.

Nationally, golfers spend $26.1 billion a year on golf travel, according to the National Golf Foundation. Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, California and Arizona rank as the most popular golf destinations.

The foundation also reports that in 2002 golfers spent $24.3 billion on equipment and fees and $19.7 billion on public and private greens fees and dues. Some of that cash has already started to migrate to Maine golf courses.

At the Ledges golf club in South Berwick about 65 percent of the daily players are from Massachusetts; during the summer about 80 percent of the daily players are from out of state, said course superintendent Joseph Grady.

Some owners are concerned Maine’s prohibition on alcoholic beverages on the links will impede their marketing efforts. Last year a bill to eliminate the ban failed.

Steve Lyons, a tourism development specialist with the Office of Tourism, said he doesn’t think the ban is a big disadvantage to marketing golf to out-of-staters, especially given the other amenities Maine course have, such as mountain and oceanfront locations.

But the owners aren’t so sure. Michaud said Golf Maine is in the process of raising money to hire a lobbyist to advocate for the owners and act as watchdog for the industry in Augusta. Proceeds from last weekend’s first Annual Golf Maine Tournament at Fox Ridge are to go toward the lobbyist fund.

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