WELLS, Maine -- As the peak foliage line moves south, it's scheduled to descend upon Maine's Old Marsh Country Club the second full week in October. These final few weeks of vibrant fall colors will provide a fitting, festive punctuation to the club's inaugural season of operation.

Conceived, constructed and now operated by Bath, Maine-based Harris Golf, the semi-private Old Marsh Country Club is located just over the Maine border in Wells, less than an hour's drive from much of Greater Boston. In a time when far more facilities across the Northeast either closed their doors, were dragged into receivership or were simply sold for alternate, more profitable use, Old Marsh is the only new course to open in New England during 2008.

"The golf market is soft, but quality golf at the core of the right sort of development can be successful. Old Marsh is proof of that," said Jeff Harris, president of Harris Golf, owner and operator of Old Marsh, Sunday River Golf Club in Newry, Boothbay Country Club and Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono. "We also spared no expense in building Old Marsh, and that shines through in things like course conditioning — especially during a month like October. While other courses are wet and sloppy, Old Marsh is dry and firm and emerald green. Playing surfaces like these are most appreciated, it seems, with all the fall colors providing the contrast."

Harris spent more than $5.5 million on course construction at Old Marsh. Dover, N.H.-based architect Brian Silva designed the course and Harris Golf built it, with collaboration from Ellington, Conn.-based AgriScape. Course builders in Maine typically wait until spring before rolling in the heavy equipment. Harris Golf called its crew to work at Old Marsh on Jan. 2, 2007; the last hole was seeded Oct. 9, just 9 months later — surely a record for course construction in the unforgiving Maine environment.

The course officially opened to member play on July 4, 2008. The public joined the fun on Aug. 1. For tee times, call 207-251-GOLF or visit harrisgolfonline.com

At 6,800 yards, Old Marsh has no pretensions of hosting major championships. This is a resort track from the old school, a Florida-style course 1,500 miles north of anything quite like it. Thanks to primo construction methods and copious August rains, New England golfers haven't seen a new golf course boasting such mint playing conditions either.

"A great many New England courses feature golf holes that are set down upon terrain, and the natural terrain imparts their character. Both for good and not so good," said Silva, who has worked the length and breadth of New England — designing new courses like Redtail in Devens, Mass., and Cape Cod National — but also in Florida, renovating courses like Seminole, The Breakers, Gulfstream and Mountain Lake. "At Old Marsh, the terrain was basically flat, and the site didn't drain well. The only way to craft the course was to excavate ponds and use that material to raise and drain the land, which is the way you build courses in Florida."

Of course, Silva's formula depends on the amount of excavation the developer is willing to undertake, and that's a function of spending.

"Yes, and I really give Jeff Harris credit for making the necessary investment here, because just clearing a few trees and pulling the stumps would not have done the job on this particular piece of ground. We had to raise every square inch of the property to make sure the course was playable all season long. To do that, we needed to conduct an extraordinary amount of excavation — and that costs money. Jeff and his people gave me all the dirt I needed."

The architect put it to good use. The greens are what stand out at Old Marsh; the very first one, punctuating a 380-yard par-4, is sprawling and raised up, pitched ever so slightly left to right and incorporating four distinct lobes that fade into each other without seams. At some tracks, this would be a show-stopper, but Silva was just getting started.

The second at Old Marsh, for example, combines two classic design standards — an Alps feature and a Punchbowl green — in a single par-4. The subtle but authentic Redan green at 5 sits at the terminus of a lovely dogleg par-4, not the traditional par-3. The Cape, another specialty of Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald standard, is reprised several times at Old Marsh, but never better than at 16 where a long par-4 bends around a colorful marshland — daring players to bite off what they dare.

The par-5 13th is a seemingly horseshoe-shaped double Cape that is quite reachable for the bold. The driveable par-4 14th finishes at a triangular shaped green flanked left by a sprawling, cavernous bunker and right by a giant kick-slope designed to help long drives onto the dance floor.

The 210-yard, par-3 17th features another giant kick-slope, but reaching the lakeside green is only half the battle; two putts on the largest putting surface in Northern New England, with its stunning combination of swales and sheer girth ("We figure 17 green could command its own area code," Harris said) is a real achievement.

"When you're obliged to create so much of the playing contour, Florida-style, you can create any and all the angles and strategy you want," Silva explained. "I have always wondered why courses built like this in the Southeast are not more interesting strategically. No one will ever level that charge at Old Marsh."

Golf had first been proposed for this property in the late 1980s, but a succession of developers had failed to get past the permitting process; Harris Golf, the fifth owner, succeeded where others could not. The firm has made a habit of setting new precedents. Sunday River Golf Club was another project that had sat dormant (for more than 10 years) and was presumed dead before Harris Golf swooped in. It opened all 18 holes in 2006. In September 2008, GOLF Magazine named Sunday River to the nation's Top 100 Courses You Can Play (it debuted at #88).

"Fall golf at Sunday River is an explosion of color, but it's sort of what you expect in that sort of New England mountain setting," Harris said. "Old Marsh in October is something completely unexpected: a Florida course, in Maine, with leaves and wetlands turning 15 different shades of red, yellow and orange. It's a quite a sight."

About Harris Golf:
Harris Golf Group is New England's premier course development, management and construction company. In addition to Old Marsh Country Club in Wells, 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 Sunday River Golf Club in Newry. For more information, contact the firm at 207-442-8725 or visit www.harrisgolfonline.com