Late last summer, Golf Digest released its annual course rankings, including lists of the top courses in each state. Bigger states had more courses ranked. Maine’s top list consisted of 10 courses, with the top two here in central Maine.

Belgrade Lakes Golf Club earned the top spot, while Sugarloaf Golf Club, last year’s top-ranked course in Maine, was No. 2.

Both Belgrade Lakes and Sugarloaf are no stranger to national accolades. When it opened, Belgrade Lakes was named by Golf Digest as one of the top five new courses in the country. The course is routinely listed by many golf publications among the top public courses in the country. Belgrade Lakes opened for the season earlier this month.

Sugarloaf will open for members on Friday, with tee times available for the public beginning on May 27. Golf Digest had ranked Sugarloaf as the state’s top course 29 times since 1985. Sugarloaf also has consistently ranked among the top public courses in the country by numerous golf magazines.

Rounding out the Golf Digest ranking of the top 10 courses in Maine were: Sunday River Golf Club (Newry), Samoset Golf Club (Rockport), Portland Country Club, Kebo Valley Golf Club (Bar Harbor), Fox Ridge Golf Club (Auburn), The Woodlands Club (Falmouth), Falmouth Country Club, and The Ledges Golf Club (York).

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Clinton Golf Course is opening Saturday. While many courses in the area have been open for more than a month, Clinton’s Mike Brown said mid-May is around the average opening time for the course each year.

“It’s just the way we choose to do it. We don’t have that push to get open early,” Brown said. “We don’t have a lot of members pushing for us to get open.”

The mild winter left the nine hole course in good shape, according to Brown, and the course has been playable for a few weeks.

“It was an easy winter, and everything’s good,” Brown said. “We get calls all the time. We’ve had a few of these nice days where we’ve had a lot of calls, asking ‘When are you opening?'”

Clinton scheduled tee times every half hour, allowing players to proceed at their own pace.

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Maine State Golf Association club team championships will be played Sunday at Belgrade Lakes. This is the 10th consecutive year Belgrade Lakes has hosted the tournament.

The Sable Oaks Golf Club team of Jeff Cole, Mike Doran, Ashley Fifield and Matt Greenleaf is back to defend its title. Five area clubs will be represented: Belgrade Lakes (Alexie McCarthy, Alfie Michaud, Mike Roddy and Nate Veilleux), Augusta Country Club (Thomas Bean, Jason Gall, Mark Plummer and Jim Quinn), Waterville Country Club (Kevin Byrne, Andrew Glasheen, Jonathan Lee, and Paul Wiggin), Lakewood Golf Club (Kevin Browne, Peter Freyer, Ethan Masterman and Tim Poulin) and Sugarloaf (Jay Lashar, Erik McClure, Bob Peruffo, and Seth Wescott).

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

<URL destination=””>tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

</URL>Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM


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