New England’s Best Ski Resort Golf Courses For This Summer

Sugarloaf Golf Club, Carrabassett Valley, Maine

One of New England’s few layouts to have made Golf Digest’s prestigious list of the nation’s 100 Greatest Public Courses and long ranked Top 5 in the state by the magazine, this Robert Trent Jones II mountain design is currently Maine’s highest rated course not on the Atlantic Ocean. Sugarloaf Golf Club is a test of golf and not for the faint hearted, with narrow and often bending fairways that must be hit to avoid the thick forests flanking them, but the payoff for this comes from drop dead views on nearly every hole, along with dramatic elevation changes—one short par three drops more than a ten-story building from tee to green. And while many ski resort golf courses cant wildly across hillsides for unpredictable and annoying bounces, these holes run true.

As Golf Digest puts it, “Sugarloaf's signature holes—the 10th and 11th—offer stunning panoramic views of the Maine wilderness and feature dramatic dropoffs from tee to green. At the par-3 11th—aptly nicknamed "Precipice"—the small, two-tiered green is set 120 feet below the tee box. In the winter months, Sugarloaf is a renowned ski resort and the trails can be seen from many holes.”

To say Sugarloaf is renowned is understating things, it is easily one of the very best ski resorts east of the Mississippi, and in 2026 was ranked Number Two in the East by Ski Magazine, which wrote “Lauded for its excellent terrain—both in its variety and its challenge—Sugarloaf has the skiable acres, topography, and infrastructure to keep high-level skiers busy for the better part of a week-long stay. It also boasts great snow and grooming, and nabbed Top 5 rankings for its friendly service and lively après and nightlife scenes.” Sugarloaf just unveiled the biggest terrain expansion in New England, adding West Mountain, with 12 new beginner and intermediate runs and 120 more acres served by a new high-speed quad. Owner Boyne Resorts is famed in the ski industry for its technology and for operating the most advanced lift systems in the United States.

The good news for golfers is that they still get the lively scene and amenities, including the newest lift-assisted downhill mountain bike park in New England and 80 more miles of cross country mountain bike trails. There are scenic chair lift rides, lots of excellent hiking, summer fun such as axe throwing, and an extensive sports and fitness and pool center. The large Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel is a great place to stay very close to the golf course, and houses Sugarloaf’s signature restaurant, 45 North, with a focus on New England specialties and locally sourced ingredients. If you go to Maine to play golf you should feel like you are in Maine, and at Sugarloaf you will. The golf course also has a full bar and restaurant, again with New England specialties—including one of the best lobster rolls in golf. It is Maine after all.

The hotel also offers discounted stay and play packages, and these can be combined with sister resort Sunday River, also in my top three…

Sunday River Golf Club, Newry, Maine

Another ski area owned by Boyne Resorts, the largest family-owned ski company in the U.S. and known for its excellent operations, and another Robert Trent Jones II design that has been ranked as high as Number One in Maine by Golf Digest. Sunday River Golf Club has similarities to Sugarloaf (above) but is a bit kinder and gentler, coupling the same amazing views with wider landing areas and more forgiving fairways. Like its tougher sibling it has pronounced elevation changes and standout par-3s. In fall the foliage backdrop is almost too gorgeous to believe.

Sunday River is a smaller ski mountain, but still very big for the East, sprawling across eight peaks. But it is bigger as a resort with, two hotels, including the more luxurious Jordan, the large full-service Grand Summit, plus a smaller Inn, the dog friendly Snow Cap Inn. It also has more dining options, including Ember, its higher-end New England specialty restaurant.

Summer activities beyond golf include scenic gondola rides and a lot of hiking, including 15-miles of trails right at the resort with hundreds more nearby. Summer brings a lot of festivals and events, a full upscale spa, and Sunday River Outfitters, an outdoor adventure center with kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, axe throwing and archery.

Maine is one of the best places in the country to see moose in the wild, another possible highlight of either Sugarloaf or Sunday River or the very scenic 2-hour drive between the resorts.

I’ve previously written here at Forbes about Boyne Golf and the 10 eighteen hole courses in its home state of Michigan, another great summer destination and the largest golf resort in the nation many have never heard of. It was just ranked the Third Best golf resort in the country by readers of USA Today.

Jay Peak, Jay, VT

Jay Peak occupies its own micro-c

limate in very northern Vermont, and famously gets the most snow in the East, and this winter, more than most North American. resorts anywhere. Because of this, the golf gets even more overlooked, but it’s my favorite public in the Green Mountain State, and it runs around the towering peak, so it is more of a wilderness course with ski mountain views than a ski mountain course, which is a good thing. Many other Vermont ski resort golf courses are almost unplayable because of the crazy slopes, buy Jay is a stunning exception. There are only two holes on which you can see any building, and because every hole is isolated by forest, you get a private course feel as you play it, splendid isolation. Vermont has arguably the best fall foliage viewing on earth, and this is a spectacular time to play the Jay Peak course, which was laid out by acclaimed Canadian architect Graham Cooke (it is very close to the border).

Jay also has the only aerial tram in Vermont, and this runs in summer as a scenic activity. But one of the really big appeals, especially for families, is the resort’s huge year round indoor waterpark, so it’s one place you can ditch the kids to tee it up and not feel guilty. Jay has three hotels and several restaurants, is kept lively in the summer thanks to the waterpark, and has some of the most reasonable greens fees you will find anywhere in the country for a course of this stature. Even in peak season it is a bargain. I wrote more about the golf course and summer at Jay in this story on golf in Vermont here at Forbes.

Bonus Golf: Lodge at Spruce Peak, Stowe, VT

Stowe is my favorite town in Vermont, and the only thing we have that is comparable to a Western ski town, with tons of great dining, shops, activities, an acclaimed cheesemaking dairy, cidery and several craft breweries including one of the highest rated in the world, The Alchemist (famous for their Heady Topper IPA). It is also one of the rare ski towns that is busier in summer than winter thanks to all the outdoor activities and nonstop slate of big festivals and music.

The Lodge at Spruce Peak is the only ski-in/ski-out hotel here and the most luxurious option, right at the base of the slopes and anchoring a pedestrianized village that includes shops, a performing arts venue, skating rink and one especially unique feature, a tasting pavilion for Whistle Pig whisky, the nation’s most acclaimed rye producer and by far Vermont’s most famous distillery. In summer the pavilion serves whiskey cocktails and tastings of the brand’s many products, including very hard to find ones, along with smoked BBQ (in winter its goes for alpine fondue and raclette).

For all these reasons I’d recommend golf at the hotel except that I have not actually played the courses so I can’t, but I have stayed here and dined here in ski season and it is a great luxury choice, considerably more expensive than the trio above. But the big hook is that overnight guests of the Lodge get access to two otherwise private 18-hole courses, and there are very few resorts of any kind in New England with 36 holes, let alone this type of private experience. Both are reserved exclusively for Club members and guests staying at The Lodge at Spruce Peak. While the three above are all owned and operated by the ski resorts they are affiliated with, the Lodge is independent of the Stowe ski resort, which is owned by industry giant Vail Resorts.

The hilly and rolling Mountain Course at Spruce Peak was designed by well-known architect Bob Cupp, while the older, flatter (but hardly flat) Stowe Country Club is reopening this spring after a major two year renovation by renowned Beau Welling Design. Welling is Tiger Woods’ design partner and did the stunning Payne’s Valley Course at Big Cedar Lodge in MO, another of America’s best golf resorts (Number Two in the nation from USA Today) as well as Fields Ranch West at the new PGA Frisco Resort, home of the PGA of America. Read more about Payne’s Valley in my Forbes story here. I have good reason to believe that this belongs among New England’s best ski resort golf courses.