Golf at Basin Harbor dates back to 1916 when the owner of the Basin Harbor resort, Allen Penfield Beach, laid out three or four holes. A.P., as he was commonly known as, drew on inspiration from his winter visits to Florida and building the golf course was a way to attract more guests from the cities of New York and Boston.
In 1927, A.P. hired Scottish professional golfer, Alex ‘Nipper’ Campbell to design nine holes and the first rendition of what we know now as the golf course. Campbell was most famous for his five top-10 finishes in the United States Open in the early 20th century. He also served as the Head Golf Professional at The Country Club & Baltimore Country Club.
While most the original holes designed by Campbell have changed in some fashion of the years, two of the holes no longer exist in any configuration. The green complex for the original fourth hole, a short par three, sat right next to the resort pool, and when taken out of the routing by Cornish, served as the short game practice area for a number of years. According to the Beach family, many errant tee shots from the fourth hole found their way into the resort pool.
The Beach family also hired another Scottish professional golfer by the name of Danny Wilson in 1927. Wilson served as the first Head Golf Professional and was apart of Basin Harbor for some 50 years.
In 1955, land was purchased and the resort hired golf course architect William Mitchell to design nine more holes and the golf course roughly became the 18-hole golf course you will play today. Finally, in the mid-1980’s, world renowned golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish was hired to renovate the golf course. Cornish is credited for building the existing seventh hole while, among other design features, rerouting the existing eleventh hole to accommodate the construction of the practice facility.
While the golf course has seen many iterations in the past 100 years, it still maintains it’s golden age charm with the gentle rolling fairways and fescue framed green complexes. Basin Harbor, as many golf courses from the early 20th century, is best enjoyed on foot with your golf bag on your back.
