A Century of Golfing in Nature

by Craig Sterrett

Beloved by golfers who have played all over the world, as well as by summer visitors who enjoy the woods and lake views and golf there year after year, Peninsula State Park Golf Course is celebrating 100 years of evolution this summer.

The course has a rich history, spanning from an era with oil-and-sand greens; to the 20th-century unveiling of the clifftop tee box above a one-of-a-kind, 60-yard par-3; to the creation of a separate sixhole, par-3 short course for sharpening skills in the 21st century. Remarkable peculiarities include its 99 consecutive years of hosting the Resorters matchplay tournament and the monument to Chief Simon Kahquados that’s tucked into the pines – in bounds, yet in a peaceful corner.

Golf tournaments such as the Cherryland Open and Resorters event received a lot more attention from spectators in Door County during the middle of the 20th century than during the 21st century, as evidenced by a crowd watching a player putt at Peninsula State Park Golf Course. Submitted.

But the course history also has two ongoing themes: One is change, and the other – especially during the past 40 years – is a tradition of reinvestment back into the facility.

Those improvements accelerated and maintained momentum after 1981, when the Ephraim Men’s Club and an ad hoc committee created a nonprofit organization to take over the course. In 1982, Peninsula Golf Associates (PGA) formed because of concerns about the way the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the state park, was caring for the course.

“They [the PGA] took over, so money went back into the course rather than the state just getting their income,” said Chris Bungener, who served on the local "PGA" board for 25 years.

The first board invested in the course’s first fairway-irrigation system during the early 1980s. Bungener remembered times before that installation when the fairways became rock hard with dormant grass, although occasionally a drive would roll a ridiculously long way in his favor.

Restroom upgrades and other facility improvements followed, such as installing another, better-controlled irrigation system; constructing the sixhole short course; and rebuilding the first green last year.

As for the course routing, golfers no longer have to cross busy Highway 42 during their round to play a hole. The current course layout dates to the early 1960s, when prolific course architect Lawrence Packard (of Innisbrook and Palm Harbor fame) redesigned the course.

The late short-course attendant Doug Van Vorous, a former caddie, remembers having to forecaddie: walk up the fairway as clients teed off to watch for their drives from the second tee on the circa-1930 18-hole layout. Old #2 ran along the right of today’s second fairway and required a blind tee shot from a bluff-edge tee box that was built on a pedestal of stone.

General manager Jason Daubner and Van Vorous said the 1960s redesign was born out of a need for safety, such as avoiding the increasing tourist traffic on the highway and eliminating the #10 and #12 tee boxes, where golfers dodged incoming approach shots to the 18th and 17th greens. However, the new design resulted in the one-of-a-kind, roller-coaster par-4 12th hole and many new, spectacular views of Eagle Harbor and more fairways carved through the woods.

Years after the 1960s redesign, course leaders frequently made more subtle improvements, such as slightly leveling severe back-to-front slopes on greens #12 and #17, recalled Sylvia Ferdon, a former LPGA Tour player, retired Baylor University coach and longtime Peninsula golf instructor.

Only one hole – #1 – remains mostly in its original alignment since Peninsula State Park opened its first nine-hole course in 1923. Also still in play from the pre-1960 era is the course’s difficult, two-tiered green for the par-4 ninth hole, which once served as a putting surface for a par-3. Daubner said that while he’s been doing research for the centennial, he has come across new information about when certain holes first became available for play.

Some of the original nine holes used the ground that now serves as the driving range, as did part of the front nine after Midwest golf pro “Bim” Lovekin designed the park’s first 18-hole layout in 1930. In actuality, six golf holes were laid out at the park in 1917.

“There’s going to be a poster that has all of those layouts all combined onto one,” Daubner said.

He said course leaders chose this year for the centennial because 1923 marked the first year when Peninsula had a regulation nine holes that were suitable for competition rounds.

The clubhouse will display many historical photos from the course’s collection, donors and park archives all season, and many will be available for viewing during a centennial celebration the weekend of July 28-30.

That celebratory weekend will kick off Friday with a nostalgic, ninehole tournament during which each foursome will play with hickory-shaftedclub enthusiasts and reenactors using and wearing pre-1940s gear.

Current Peninsula Golf Associates president Lance Lucibello, a May-toNovember Fish Creek resident, said the Associates’ dedication to thoughtfully pouring donations and revenue back into the course transformed Peninsula into a “destination course.”

“I enjoy playing it because, certainly, there’s the scenery,” he began. “It’s a very challenging golf course because you have to play all kinds of different shots. It goes left . It goes right. It goes up. It goes down. And at the same time, you’re taking in the beauty of Door County.”

In addition, “I like the quaintness of the clubhouse,” Lucibello said of the pro shop and restaurant that replaced a previous clubhouse that stood just across the park-entrance road, tucked into the bluff. And Lucibello gives Daubner credit for helping to cultivate a great culture among the staff while building the brand for the course as well.

“The people in the clubhouse are very personable,” Lucibello said. “Even though it’s run like a business, you don’t get the feeling that it’s so businesslike that you’re not enjoying the Door County experience as well.”