NEWRY, Maine -- Harris Golf, the course development, construction and management company, has promoted from within to fill the director of golf position at award-winning Sunday River Golf Club, here in the western Maine mountains.
Greg Perry, who served as pro shop manager for the past four years, has been at Sunday River in various capacities for 27 years. e He He also serves as director of the resort's ski school. Perry replaces Jeff Bickford, who has moved to Orono, Maine to serve as Director of Golf at Penobscot Valley Country Club, the 1923 Donald Ross design purchased by Harris Golf last fall and now undergoing a meticulous restoration by architect Brian Silva.
"I am looking forward to leading the No. 1 golf course in the state and making this the best year ever for Harris Golf," Perry said of Sunday River GC. "The course is spectacular in its own right. Even with the abundant snowfall this past winter, superintendent Dave D'Andrea and his crew have the course in great shape."
Course owner Jeff Harris noted that Perry's more-than-quarter-century experience with Sunday River's clientele will be an ongoing asset. "Greg Perry is very familiar with the customers attracted to the state's top golf facility. His skills and knowledge make him the perfect fit for this position," Harris said.
Bath, Maine-based Harris Golf owns and operates Sunday River Golf Club, located adjacent to the ski resort. Boyne USA Resorts purchased the ski facility in August 2007, but not the golf course. The two companies run their operations separately, working together when it makes sense. Perry's position with the two firms is a prime example.
"Harris Golf and Boyne USA are separate entities, and we've retained ownership and management of the golf club," Harris noted. "But golf course and their ski facility continue to cooperate on many levels."
Since opening for play in 2004, Sunday River has received a steady stream of accolades:
• Travel + Leisure Golf ranked it among the top new courses to open worldwide for 2005.
• Golf Digest rated it among the top 10 new courses to open in the United States in 2006.
• Golfweek has named it the top course, public or private, in all of Maine.
• GOLF Magazine tabbed SRGC "one to watch" in 2006, when it last issued its prestigious "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" listing. The new list is due out in September 2008.
Robert Trent Jones II designed the 7,130-yard, par-72 Sunday River track. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based course architecture firm and its principal Bobby Jones, are among the most lustrous in golf. They've been in the news even more of late, as the architects of Chambers Bay Golf Course in Tacoma, Wash., a brand new layout the United States Golf Association has already selected to host both the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open.
"This is the sort of pedigree we welcomed in the design of Sunday River," Jeff Harris said.
Sunday River GC is part of a 350-acre site with sweeping views across Sunday River Valley to the Mahoosuc mountain range. The facility includes a driving range and 10,000-square-foot, log-and-stone clubhouse with 57 housing lots bordering the course. Greens fees are $120 Friday-Sunday, including cart, $95 the remainder of the week. The season runs from early May through late October.
For more information contact the club at 207-824-4653 or visit www.harrisgolfonline.com
About Harris Golf
Harris Golf Group is one of New England's premier course management and construction companies. In addition to Sunday River, the company operates Boothbay Country Club along Maine's Midcoast, Freeport Country Club adjacent to world famous L.L. Bean, Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, and Old Marsh Country Club, set to open this July in Wells.
Contact: Hal Phillips
Phillips Golf Media
207-926-3700
onintwo@maine.rr.com
