Northeast Harbor Golf Club

Overview: Northeast Harbor Golf Club is a historic Mount Desert Island course where forest, open field and the water around Somes Sound shape the setting. The present 18-hole layout is a layered design rather than the work of one architect at one moment. Arthur Lockwood created the first nine of the permanent course, while Herbert Strong designed the additional nine that completed the full routing in 1925. The course’s parkland character comes from the movement between wooded corridors and open coastal land, with the island setting adding wind and changing light to the strategic picture. Its scale is traditional, and the best lines depend on controlling position rather than simply adding distance.

History: Golf began on Mount Desert Island in 1895 with a small group of handmade holes. The club corporation was formed in 1916, and the first nine of the permanent course dates from 1919. Herbert Strong added the second nine in 1925, creating the 18-hole course represented here. The outer nine was later left to nature during the difficult years around 1939, and the club played a reduced routing for decades. Restoration work gradually brought the missing holes back, and by the 2000s the course had returned to a full 18-hole configuration.

Did You Know? Early accounts say cows wandered across the first rough holes on the island. That small detail captures how different the original setting was from a modern golf development and helps explain the course’s long connection with the surrounding farm and field landscape.