Sugarloaf Golf Club & Resort

Overview: Sugarloaf Golf Club is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. mountain course in Carrabassett Valley, beside one of Maine’s highest peaks. The routing works through dense woods, open mountain slopes and river-side ground, using elevation changes and long views as active parts of the design. The course is substantial from the back tees, but its strongest character comes from the way the holes move through the terrain rather than from length alone. A player must account for sidehill lies, changing elevations and the relationship between landing areas and elevated greens. The result is a mountain course that belongs naturally to a ski-resort landscape while remaining a complete golf design in its own right.

History: Sugarloaf’s developers invited Robert Trent Jones Jr. to create a course that would complement the resort’s winter activities. The course opened in 1985, and the architect’s use of the existing mountains and woods became a defining part of its identity. Sugarloaf’s history records a long period of high state rankings, but the more durable fact is the original design brief: create a golf course that uses the same topography and broad outdoor setting that make the valley suitable for a mountain resort.

Did You Know? The first six holes of the back nine follow the Carrabassett River and were named the “String of Pearls” by Jones Jr. The name describes a connected sequence of river-framed holes rather than a single signature feature.