As predicted, The Ledges was beautiful, in fantastic shape and produced my worst putting numbers of the year. And yes, it included a 4 putt. It actually could have been worse.

The greens are so pure and roll so smooth that they are very puttable...if you're below the hole. When the pins are tucked up front is when all hell breaks loose.

My brother drove up from Marblehead and we met in York on a day that was, quite honestly, too nice for golf. Bright blue skies, 70+ degrees, light winds and no bugs. I mean, there go half the excuses, right?

From the blue tees the The Ledges (www.ledgesgolf.com) measures 6357 yards (6981 from the tips) and has only 2 par 4's that exceed 400 yards (#1 and #17 - both of which play downhill) so prodigious length off the tee is not a prerequisite for scoring. That said, #15 is the only hole that takes driver out of your hands so you're not forced to hit mid-irons off the tees either. The par 3's are varied (148, 196, 179 and 131 yards) so you get to try your luck with different sticks and the par 5's go from benign to brutish. The 18th hole is downright nasty (618 yards from the back) with a couple bodies of water and a horrific back to front sloping green. I'm sure that hole sells a lot of beer in the bar.

We managed to scrape around in about three and a half hours and headed west to the Sanford CC. This seemed to make sense at the time. Play the tougher course (134 slope at The Ledges vs. 125 at Sanford) first so we could relax a bit during the second.

Sanford (www.sanfordcountryclub.com) used to be a pedestrian 9 hole course but 10 years ago it added 9 new holes and is now a very solid course and well worth the 45 minute drive from Portland. The new and old holes are well-mixed and the course is also in excellent shape. The old greens are smaller but devilish. The fairways looks spacious from the tees but are actually quite thin with playable rough encompassing much of what you see from the tee. Here again length is not the issue on most holes but keeping it out the woods is. It's not as easy as it sounds and some of the doglegs are short enough to blow through. Like Ledges, this is a course that takes some knowing but every time I play it I like it more. Last year, it was the only course I broke 80 on but last week I didn't even break 90. I'm guessing 5 three putts didn't help my cause. Again, we zoomed around in well under 4 hours (this time as a threesome) and the uncrowded mid-week conditions helped. On a gorgeous day over two well-respected courses we hardly ever had to wait and rarely even saw other golfers.

If one of the reasons you're not playing as much as you used too is because it takes too long, well, that doesn't fly mid-week in Maine.

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