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Kebo Valley Has a Storied Golfing Past
Where Bar Harbor’s
fancy people lived in the 1890s, the height of the town’s elegant
era, is well-documented. But where they played their golf is also a
reminder of the town’s grand heyday. The Kebo Valley Golf Club has
its own local history, which also blends with American golf history.
President
Taft played a round at the Kebo Valley Golf Club in August 1910,
and now he has a hole named after him. No. 17 is the Taft Hole,
after his memorable, 26-stroke performance there.
Image Courtesy of Bygone Bar Harbor by Earl Brechlin |
Out on Eagle Lake
Road, Kebo Valley is the eighth-oldest golf course in the country.
From 1888, the club’s grounds had a social and recreational
orientation with a horse racing track, a baseball diamond and tennis
courts.
Golf, which later
became the club’s foundation, first developed as a nine-hold course
finished in 1896. Designed in the Scottish tradition, the terrain
was hilly and the greens small.
The club became the
playground for both millionaires and heads of state, according to
the club’s centennial history, published in 1988. In August 1910,
President William Taft played there, taking as many as 26 strokes on
the par-4, 349-yard 17th hole. Today, that hole is called the Taft
Hole.
A better-known (and
better) golfer was Walter Hagan, who played there in 1922. The
golfing great later called the course among the toughest he had ever
played.
That same year,
according to club lore, Bar Harbor youngster Shirley Povich was a
caddy at Kebo Valley for the man who was then publisher of the
Washington Post. He asked Povich to come to Washington for $20 a
week to caddy and $15 more to work as a copyboy at the Post. That
was the start of Povich’s 75-year association with the newspaper’s
sports department, where his byline first appeared in 1924.
The course had had
numerous known players through the decades. But it has always also
the tradition of accessibility. The course remains available for
play by community and summer residents, members and visitors,
golfers young and old all. |
