Teeing Off Down Memory Lane The Kebo Valley Club boasts a rich golfing tradition, including the saga of William Howard Taft's epic encounter with a sand trap on the seventeenth hole. By Michael Brosnan L ET'S face it - Maine this list. It may also sur- is not exactly golf prise visitors to learn that country. The playing Kebo, now at the start of season is short, and many its second century, is the of Maine's golf courses are eighth-oldest course in the nothing more than con- nation, with a colorful his- verted pastures better tory few clubs anywhere suited for flocks of sheep can match. than doglegs and sand traps. The professional golf tour pretty much shuns the state. The senior tour F ROM the first tee at Kebo Valley, a short distance from the and players in golf's ver- shops and restaurants of sion of the mincr leagues modern-day Bar Harbor, occasionally make an ap- you face south, as you pearance, but Maine can square off for your first never expect to play host shot, down a long, nar- to anything as important row, glacier-carved valley. as the U.S. Open. To the west, rising more With all this said, those than 1,000 feet above who play golf here will argue that - at least Frenchman's Bay, are Dorr Mountain and Cadillac during the warm, sweet days of summer - Maine Kebo at the turn of the Mountain - the latter being the highest point is, in fact, an ideal place for the game. The cost of century was a lively directly on the East Coast. Immediately before playing is reasonable, one rarely has to wait long place, with tennis you is a lush, green natural amphitheater contain- to get out on a course, and there are some surpris- courts, a horse-racing ing five holes of the course. Standing here, you'll ingly challenging, and scenic, courses open to the track, a baseball have a hard time imagining anything different, but public. Without fail, those same enthusiasts will diamond, and a when the Kebo Valley Club began in 1888, instead also tell you that one of the top courses in the state clubhouse grand of close-cropped fairways and undulating greens is the eighteen-hole course at the Kebo Valley enough for the ladies there was, in fact, a horse-racing track looping Club in Bar Harbor. Golf Digest, which fancies and gentlemen drawn around a baseball diamond and a handful of tennis itself an authority on the subject, lists Kebo Valley to Bar Harbor's courts. Golf, then still a novelty sport in this as one of the fifty best public courses in the entire burgeoning summer country, didn't come into the picture for another country. Only one other course in New England- colony. three years. Richter Park, in Danbury, Connecticut - made Bar Harbor, in those days, was a burgeoning Photographs courtesy of Kebo Valley Golf Club DOWN East JULY 1991 63-66 summer colony for wealthy Americans seeking E XACTLY who decided to establish a golf refuge from the summer heat. Like other colonies course at Kebo is not clear, yet in 1891, Kebo, of its day, Bar Harbor owes its beginnings to indeed, had six holes - "golfing grounds" artists, in this case to Hudson River School artist they were called - laid out around the track and Thomas Coles and others who were attracted by baseball diamond. In time, three more would re- the island's beauty and the brilliance of its sum- place the track and its infield, and later, as the game mertime light. Quick to follow was a bevy of attracted more devotees, a second nine holes were American millionaires who first checked into ho- carved out of the landscape. tels, and later built their own humble "cottages"- One of the notable distinctions about Kebo's like E.T. Stokesbury's eighty-room showcase with course today is that on each tee there is a plaque twenty-six handcarved marble fireplaces, twenty- honoring a past benefactor or player - some well eight bathrooms, and fifty-two telephones, or John known, others simply wealthy golfers. The first D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s 102-room immodest summer hole is named in honor of Charles Pike, president shanty guarded by a stone fence topped with tiles of the club in the 1930s. A native of Chicago and taken from the Great Wall of China, or Joseph a successful lawyer, banker, and historian, Pike is Pulitzer's Chatwold cottage and its stone tower of credited with pulling Kebo through the Depres- silence where the newspaper magnate easily sion by the skin of its teeth. In the years after his annoyed by noise death, however, the locked out the club continued to world's utterances. stagger. By 1943, Bar Harbor clearly with much of the was not a world of country's attention understatement, and manpower and its golf club turned to Europe reflected this. and Japan, the The original membership had Kebo clubhouse dwindled to thirty- was a grandiose two. Although cer- Shingle-Style tain members had building containing enough spare a dance hall, a res- change in their taurant, and a the- pockets to buy the later for musical and outright, it was dramatic events. Charles Pike's Here the summer- widow who came cators cut loose in a through with a turn-of-the-century $10,000 gift to de- sort of way. At one fray expenses. She club party in 1899, was also the first to for instance, Mrs. W.E.D. Stokes, noted for her step forward when the club began selling sponsor- mischievousness, invited seventy guests for dinner. ship of holes for $1,000 apiece in an effort to raise According to Cleveland Amory in his 1948 classic, Kebo Valley attracted more capital. The Last of the Great Resorts, Mrs. Stokes placed in illustrious players from The second hole is named in honor of Dr. front of each woman a cage containing a pair of live its inception, and today Robert Amory, grandfather to author Cleveland love birds, and, in front of each man, an Indian each of its eighteen Amory and a professor of physiology at Bowdoin basket with a protruding yellow elastic ribbon. At tees bears a plaque Medical School. He was one of the area's first the host's request, the men secured these ribbons to with the name of a past summercators and the club's first president. The the tablecloth with pins of fourteen-carat gold. Then benefactor or player. third memorializes Shirley Liscomb, who held his upon her signal, the men threw open the basket lids One devotee was position as the club's pro for forty years. The and in doing SO liberated a riot of bullfrogs. The President William fourth hole - a seemingly easy par three with a frightened frogs, attached to the other ends of the Howard Taft- large, flat pancake of a green - is named for Sir ribbons, sprung "into the soup plates, the cham- pictured here with Harry Oakes. By the time many golfers, playing pagne glasses, the laps of ladies.. or upon their bare caddie Howard Clark, Kebo for the first time, reach the Oakes hole, they necks and arms." Reports from that evening recall Major Archibald Butte have been lulled into thinking Kebo is not such a one sly guest, a German count, going about in the (Taft's military difficult course after all. But as Sir Harry Oakes hubbub "stealthily collecting the pins." advisor), J.T. would tell you if he could, life is full of surprises. Extravagant nonsense took place outdoors as Ketterlinus (longtime Sir Harry is one of the few Bar Harbor well. The old horse track - corresponding more Kebo Valley Club summercators and club members who was an or less with today's second fairway - was more president), and S.M. actual native of Maine - Sangerville, to be pre- often the site of folly than competition. In one Liscomb (Kebo golf cise. After striking gold in Canada, and becoming popular event, riders were required to carry man- pro for a half-century). one of this country's wealthiest men, he took up nequins with them, and, in others, to gallop the residency in the Bahamas and for his philan- home stretch while holding up open umbrellas, thropic deeds was dubbed a baronet by King lighting cigars, or balancing eggs on spoons. George in 1939. During the thirties he would 64 DOWN EAST spend many a summer in Bar Harbor, playing golf club's more fanatical golfers. Some of them like as often as he could. Not bad for a country boy, one William Cochran, Jr., who scored the only eagle might say. But Sir Harry's luck ran out in July of (two) on the eighth, and Ernest Kanzler, who won 1943 when he was murdered at his home in Nassau, the club championship one year on the sixteenth in the Bahamas. The prime suspect was his son-in- - were good players. Others - like John T. law, Alfred DeMarigny, whom Sir Harry accused Dorrance, who invented condensed soup and even- more than once of marrying his daughter for tually became president of the Campbell's Soup money. There was never enough evidence, how- Company - simply couldn't get enough of the ever, to charge DeMarigny, or anyone else, and the game, despite their athletic shortcomings. murder to this day remains unsolved. Approach Coming back up valley, you must deal with the this hole with care. likes of the 399-yard par-four thirteenth and the 535-yard par-five fourteenth, with its blind shot to W HEN you cross Cromwell Harbor Road to a small green guarded, once again, by water. "People the fifth hole - named for Roscoe Jack- come out here thinking they are going to eat up this son, a prime benefactor of the world-re- course, but they never do," says Earl Marshall. In nowned Jackson research laboratory in Bar Harbor the unlikely event that a player makes it unscathed and one-time president of the now defunct Hudson to the seventeenth, he might do well to recall Motor Company President William you are about to Howard Taft's mis- learn why Kebo adventures on this earned its ranking as hole in 1911. The one of the country's seventeenth is not top public courses. a long hole (358 The fifth is a 500- yards), but it is yard par five, the wily. The Kebo first of the three Brook snakes its Kebo holes consid- way along this par ered among the best four, crossing the in the state. Along fairway twice. And the right side runs if your first shot the tree-lined Kebo doesn't find water Brook, which blos- or the woods, you soms out into a face two of the larg- small pond guard- est sand traps in the ing the front of the state, both of which green. With the nar- guard the elevated row fairwaysloping green whose exact towards the stream, location is some- and a blind ap- how difficult to proach shot that must carry over a ridge and the pond guage. Although the hole is not named after Taft, to the small green, the difficulty here is not SO much it has become known as the Taft hole because here distance as in avoiding water. Amenities such the stout twenty-seventh president of the United Like the Scottish links it is based on, Kebo's as tennis courts States took nearly twenty shots to get out of one of holes are arranged SO that you don't circle back to were unobtrusively the bunkers. the club house after nine holes, the way you would set into the on most modern American courses. Instead, the carefully landscaped T HE final hole is named in honor of Ford Motor first nine holes head down the valley and bring you grounds dominated Company's Edsel B. Ford, who had sum- to the edge of Acadia National Park. As Earl by the peaks of Dorr mered in nearby Seal Harbor for many years Marshall, a longtime member and now the club's and Cadillac and belonged to the club. Unlike the ill-fated Ford greenskeeper, will tell you, "It's difficult to keep mountains to the auto that was also named for him, there is nothing your mind on your game back here." Besides the west. Today, the particularly noteworthy about this hole except that it impressive scenery, you are likely to spot wildlife tennis courts are gone brings one back to the clubhouse - the fourth along these holes in the early and late hours of the and no one clubhouse in Kebo's history. Compared to the first day. Deer are particularly plentiful since they are knocks balls around two clubhouses, today's building is a rather humble, protected from hunters in the park. But, as Marshall the putting green utilitarian structure, but more in keeping with the will also tell you, it doesn't pay to let your concen- while being current membership. It's not the sort of place where tration wander. The sixth and seventh are two serenaded by the you'd expect to find men in blazers and straw more deceptive holes that appear easy enough on Boston Symphony boaters, or women in frilly white dresses swishing in the card, but punish those who falter. The eighth Orchestra, but the the shade of parasols. No one these days knocks balls and ninth holes, both of which have made the list scenery is still around the practice putting green while being ser- of Maine's best eighteen, on the other hand, don't spectacular. enaded - as they once were at the turn of the century pretend to be anything but challenging. by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. When the These and the following holes (except the Kebo Valley Club first opened in 1888 it was a eighteenth) are named in honor of some of the private club for the summer residents of Mount JULY 1991 65 The Boothbay We invite you to learn more Desert Island, who demanded exclusiv- Railway Village about us. Please send for ity. A list of club members over the years our free brochure. includes some of the wealthiest and most influential family names in the country. Visit a Re-created Mainers could caddy or work on the Early New grounds or serve in the clubhouse; tour- REPUBLIC England Village ists couldn't even get past the gate. What helped the club survive, however, was Ride a Narrow its flexibility. The same impulse that Gauge Steam sent the club searching for sponsorship SCHOOL SECURITY of Train to an for each hole as a means of raising much- Exceptional needed captial, would in the 1950s open P.O. Box 13 the door to local golfers and lower mem- Antique Auto & Damariscotta, Maine 04543 bership costs. While still remaining a Truck Display private club, the board of directors even- tually decided to invite the public, espe- cially vacationing golfers, to try their luck. 408800 Today, you can still find the likes of BACKSTREET David Rockefeller on the links, but for LANDING every BMW in the parking lot there are a FOOD & SPIRITS Open Daily half-dozen pickuptruck Longtime mem- OPEN Antique Auto Days bers, like William Fenton, miss the old July 20,21 days when caddies instead of carts as- A Non-Profit sisted the players, and when the rough Organization was deeper and put more of a premium on Seafood Write for accuracy than distance. Fenton likes to Schedule of Events recall the Kebo stories, such as the time Specialties Rt.27.Boothbay, Maine 04537 Walter Hagen, one of America's leading with a River View (207) 633-4727 golf pros of the twenties and thirties, played Kebo with an Australian trick- shot artist and set the course record (65), or the time the soon-to-be-crowned state Made in Maine amateur champion, Jim Veno, calmly hit his ball out of a discarded paper cup, watched the ball land on the green and drop solidly into the middle of the hole. There's the story of Bill Burns, too, a former course superintendent, who, go- Glass Works ing into the sixteenth hole, was bound to Glass Engraving All Occasion Gifts set a new course record. Unfortunately by Hand Dried Flowers Burns had gotten a late start and it was Glassware to Lamps Folk Art 9:00 P.M. when he teed off on the six- Business Gifts & Jewelry Trophies Pottery teenth in near- darkness. His friends rushed as many cars to the scene as they Shop Open Year Round 207-563-1474 School St., Damariscotta, Me. 04543 could to shed light on the fairway, but to Glassware Mail Order Catalog $1 no avail. Burns lost his ball and never finished. The Casco Cupboard - $178 Many of today's members - and NEW Informality at its best. most vacationing golfers - don't know Concepts in Comfort Dine much about the club's past. They know builds a complete line of Outside only the joy and challenge of playing handsome and affordable furniture. Custom building, too! one of New England's best courses. On overlooking occasion, however, they are reminded of Maine's Showroom those fomer days - as was one visiting most Concepts in Comfort player who hit an errant shot over the Beautiful 9 Foden Road So. Portland eighteenth green and watched gratefully Harbor Me. 04106 as it bounced off the granite marker Take Route One to Damariscotta, then 207-775-4312 erected in memory of Warren Bates, a Route 130 South culb benefactor and former member, and PEMAQUID 130 129 Follow the Solid wood furniture rebounded onto the green, only yards Fisherman's Co-op signs! from the pin. A reverence for the past Pemaquid Harbor, Maine clearly enhances the game at the Kebo 207-677-2801 Pemaquid fresh seafood shipped - call us Harbor Valley Club. 66 DOWN EAST