One thing people savor about Maine is the sense that time stands still. People who vacation here year after year are struck by the fact they can share their childhood experiences with their own children. And while that may be true about the mom and pop general store where they bought their first nightcrawler or the drive-in movie theater they snuck into, it doesn’t really apply to Maine’s golf scene.

I started playing golf in my hometown of Auburn after I graduated from college in the early 1980s. I played a lot at Prospect Hills and Fairlawn and snuck into to Lisbon Drive-In. When I relocated to the Portland area I was all over Riverside, Gorham, Willowdale and Val Halla. Then, in the late 80s everything changed. Sugarloaf opened and was followed shortly after by Sable Oaks. For the first time, the average joe could experience the joy of manicured fairways and greens and, by paying a premium, get a whiff of the private course aroma. Sales of collared shorts skyrocketed. I was hooked as were many others and our timing couldn’t have been better.

During the 90s and the early part of this decade Maine saw an explosion of high-end golf courses being built and existing courses doing extensive renovations. Irrigated fairways became the norm and crabgrass was on the run. For those of us who learned to hit our irons off hard-packed sun-baked clay, we were in heaven. Check out this partial list of course openings and overhauls:

Biddeford-Saco (new 9)
Ledges
Links At Outlook
Sanford (new 9)
Province Lake – major improvements
Dunegrass
Nonesuch River
Spring Meadows
Boothbay (new 9)
Fox Ridge
Point Sebago
Bridgton Highlands (new 9)
Lake Kezar (new 9)
Samoset (new holes)
Naples (new 9)
Belgrade Lakes
Cape Neddick (new 9)
Natanis (new 9) and (new 9)
Sunday River
Sunset Ridge

I became a golf snob. There – I said it. I can’t even bring myself to golf in a tee shirt anymore and I can’t remember the last time I teed it up in sneakers. That doesn’t mean that all of the courses listed above require such trappings. I saw guys at Spring Meadows yesterday in jeans and tee shirts and I believe you’ll see the same thing at Fox Ridge in Auburn when the Maine Open isn’t being played yet Prospect Hills now has a strict dress code. Whatever.

One of the things I love about golf is how the playing fields are so different and how there is no consensus on what the “best” course is. It is different for each golfer. Courses are separated by difficulty, conditions, price and atmosphere and one man’s steak is another’s sloppy joe. When’s the last time you heard two guys debating which was the better soccer field or racquetball court?

Last week I visited Willowdale after not playing there for about 15 years. The course was pretty much as I remembered it but even prettier. The views of the Scarborough Marsh and the tidal river are nothing short of spectacular. Was there some crabgrass? Sure. Was the course packed? Yes. The afternoon rate of $18 is obviously a factor but it’s a fun course and, based on the shouts and yells I heard from all corners of the course, people were definitely having fun. We finished as the sun was going down. You know the joke about how you know you’re in Boston when you shoot through yellow light just as it’s turning red and then you look behind you and see that 6 more cars made it too? Well, we could barely see the green and I assumed we were that last group to make it to the 18th. As we were loading up our cars, we could hear another couple groups coming down the stretch. I couldn’t see them – it was too dark.

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