**Disclosure: All opinions expressed here in are own and not by the developing company, and/or it's affiliates, in any way. **
MINGO SPRINGS
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When my wife and I can get away to Maine, though it’s but a stone’s throw from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we feel like we can be anonymous travelers in a foreign land. The Carrabassett Valley offers countless points of interest and hundreds of things to do. We used to rent a campsite on an island on a quiet end of Lake Mooselookmeguntic. We paddled out in our canoes, up to four couples at a time, to relax, swim, barbeque and paddle the crisp majesty of a Maine Lake. There is of course no shortage of golf courses in the area either. And the restaurants and eateries abound. So we go to Maine, and we go often. On this quiet getaway in particular we visited Mingo Springs Golf Course.
The story goes, Mingo Springs was originally two separate golf courses. The one, according to a member who allowed me to play through after I got my first birdie of the season on Hole 11, a 530-foot downhill par five, was a nearly-lakeside nine-hole course run out of an old farmhouse. The other, the current front nine, is a hilly series of strategic drives followed by difficult putts on Donald Ross-esque greens with fast sloping backs that roll your ball into berry brambles if you overshoot your approach.
The different personalities between the front and the back made for a wonderful day of golf. On the front, battling uphill and downhill fairways, I was treated to views of the lake in the distance, and ripe blueberries everywhere I lost my ball. Just when I was growing weary of high stress pitch shots onto the green from eighty yards out, I had completed the front nine with a huge putt to par. A long path through the practice area and across the street opens out onto the tenth hole. This set of nine-holes feels like rolling pastures; light grassy fescue here replaces the bramble and thickets of the front.
The different personalities between the front and the back made for a wonderful day of golf. On the front, battling uphill and downhill fairways, I was treated to views of the lake in the distance, and ripe blueberries everywhere I lost my ball. Just when I was growing weary of high stress pitch shots onto the green from eighty yards out, I had completed the front nine with a huge putt to par. A long path through the practice area and across the street opens out onto the tenth hole. This set of nine-holes feels like rolling pastures; light grassy fescue here replaces the bramble and thickets of the front.
I held up my 6-shooter tumbler to the fellas teeing off ahead of me; each of them wore faded golf shirts fraying at the collars, cargo shorts with weathered leather belts, and caps pulled down low over bearded faces. They made me think of the Pinky Blinders on a lobstering trip, but they each popped cans of Coors and raised them right back at me before we all took a collective swig. The working class feel of locals and vacationers alike enjoying a family owned and operated course warmed my heart as the mezcal warmed my throat.
Everywhere I travel, half the golfers say you’ve got to play the resort course, the one with all the fanfare and the money to back it up. The other half of golfers suggest I play the everyman’s course, the littler course where you can get a real feel for the area. I like to listen to all advice (that’s probably why I still putt with my arms loose and my upper body stiff). Of course, if you come to the Carrabassett Valley to golf, go visit Sugarloaf. But if you want to try something different, something more local, something accessible to people like me who still brings his Firelight 750 flask, a sandwich made at home, and picks up every unbroken tee from every tee box and stores them in his golf bag for next time, hit up Mingo Springs, it’s well worth the trip and the fees.
Everywhere I travel, half the golfers say you’ve got to play the resort course, the one with all the fanfare and the money to back it up. The other half of golfers suggest I play the everyman’s course, the littler course where you can get a real feel for the area. I like to listen to all advice (that’s probably why I still putt with my arms loose and my upper body stiff). Of course, if you come to the Carrabassett Valley to golf, go visit Sugarloaf. But if you want to try something different, something more local, something accessible to people like me who still brings his Firelight 750 flask, a sandwich made at home, and picks up every unbroken tee from every tee box and stores them in his golf bag for next time, hit up Mingo Springs, it’s well worth the trip and the fees.
While Mingo Springs is beautiful and wonderfully located beside Rangely Lake, it is not a fast-paced course. Rather the seniors, the small families, and the father/son foursomes move at a pace of play akin to weekend joy riders through the lake’s region in Summer. By no means are they meandering or leaf peeping the entire time, but they’re not exactly in a hurry either. I came to a crawl when each foursome became backed up against every other foursome, then they were backed up against a six-some. That’s when I took to the shade, parked my cart where the view was exceptional, and mixed up my traditional Mezcal, seltzer, and lime.
Cheers,
Matt
Cheers,
Matt
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