CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Maine’s top professional and amateur golfers are arriving at the Sugarloaf Golf Club today as they prepare to compete for cash, prizes, and ultimate bragging rights as the state’s top golfer in the 2016 State of Maine Championship, Aug. 9-10.
The State of Maine Championship is an annual 36-hole medal play tournament, which matches Maine’s top professional and amateur golfers in junior, senior, and 18-50 year-old categories. To compete in the tournament, professionals must be a member of the Maine Chapter of the New England PGA, while all Maine residents are eligible to compete in the amateur category.
The Sugarloaf Golf Club has hosted this event, consecutively, for the last 13 years, and more than 20 times since the course was constructed in 1985. The course has proven to be a challenge for even the best players, rewarding good shots while punishing poor ones.
Among this year’s competitors will be defending champion Bob Darling of Fox Ridge Golf Club, and three-time runner-up, Jeff Seavey, of the Samoset Resort in Rockland, as well as other past champions such as Shawn Warren from the Falmouth Country Club and John Hickson of Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Competitors got a first look at the course in this afternoon’s Pro-Am, before the Championship begins tomorrow morning. The tournament will conclude following the second round on Wednesday.
Now in its 31st season, the Sugarloaf Golf Club has been recognized by Golf Digest as Maine’s #1 Golf Course 29 times since its 1985 debut. Sculpted into the mountainous terrain that lies in the Carrabassett River valley, this Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed course is also one of the most challenging in the state. The most memorable holes on the course, the String of Pearls, feature a six-hole sequence that runs alongside the Carrabassett River.
To follow live tournament scoring throughout the 2015 State of Maine Championship, visit http://www.nepga.com/mechapter/.
High resolution photos will be available to download following each round of this week’s tournament at www.sugarloaf.com/media.
For more information on the Sugarloaf Golf Club, please visit www.sugarloaf.com, or call 1-800-THE-LOAF.
