Sunday River

A top 100 mountain course, spectacular views and intelligent design. Great condition early season, after two days of very heavy rain. Rolled ball in fairway 3 or 4 times, plugged on drive, greens very true and in great shape (altho only medium speed.) Pluses - no one there on a gorgeous June day (played alone, off two tees on back). Lots of up and down, not too many totally blind shots. Excellent GPS on carts. Minuses - unwalkable, and scary cart paths. Steeper than White Heat in spots. Also need a hybrid tee - blues at 6500 yards, whites under 6000 are fair but not challenging.

It took me a few years but I finally made it to Sunday River. This is an amazing location in the mountains of Maine. I played Sugarloaf several years ago and this is on the same level and perhaps just a hair better layout. The course had suffered severe winter damage like many Maine courses, but was starting to come out of it nicely. The greens were back to 100%, but the fairways were still not fully back. Nevertheless, it was a great day of golf. Most holes seem to be downhill, with a few short par 5's and par 4's going uphill. You must account for the hills and run off on all shots. Going over any hill will result in a lost ball and lost shots. The first hole is an immediate example, as balls can disappear on the left side very easily and over the green as well. The 15th has a major ravine bunker running through the center of it and is reachable from the white tees. Lay up and then safely reach this hole in 3 shots. The 18th is a great downhill hole that you can see your tee shot soar and then fall back to earth. It plays well short of its yardage. We loved this remote course and plan to return someday. The 19th hole is well above average and the sandwiches are very good. There are plenty of small motels in the Bethel/Newry area to stay at and the restaurants, especially the Suds Pub are fun and feature good food. Sunday River is a top golf destination and well worth the trip. Make plans to combine it with another course in the area and you will have a top notch getaway to remember.

Beautiful course, greens fast. Most Pins in forgiving locations. Cold in Mid October, Snow flurries were cool at first but got old quick.

I played it twice during the week, the first time in the afternoon and later in the week with a morning start time. The pace of play in the afternoon round was very slow, over five hours, but the morning round was right at 4 hours which is great for such a difficult course. The setting is awesome as it is in the western mountains of Maine and the course makes good use of the elevation changes. The fairways have large landing areas and the greens are not overly difficult but there is plenty of sand and trouble off the fairway. I think pace of play would improve if there were more obvious yardage makers on the course. Each hole has a 150 marker but none at 100 or 200 and the marked sprinkler heads are hard to find. Yes the cart paths have yardages but that does not help when you can ride on the fairways. Overall though this is an excellent course.

Our group walked into the pro shop and was greeted with, "Oh, you're the GolfNow group", said in a derogatory manner. The day went downhill from there. We endured a 6 hour round of golf, waiting on every shot on the course. At the turn, there were 3 groups still waiting to tee off. This is a beautiful mountain course, but with limited yardage markers. You can only take your cart on 11 of the eighteen holes. The holes have a 150 yard marker in the fairway and 100 yard marker painted on the cart path. Because it is a hilly course, you can't always see your ball from the cart path and end up carrying a bouquet of clubs up and down the hills. At the end of the round, we complained about the slowness of play and basically were told that we had paid the GolfNow price and that the people who had paid full price felt they had the right to take as long as they wanted to play the round. It's a beautiful course, but I could never recommend it to my friends based on the experience that we had. It would be a great value if speed of play was improved.