Golf often makes for strange foursomes in state parks. Jason Daubner smiled when he considered that scenario as he sat inside the clubhouse restaurant at Peninsula Golf Course, the centerpiece of Peninsula State Park in Ephraim, WI.
“I get everyone from campers who stay for a week in the state park to the Medinah Country Club (Chicago) members,’’ said Daubner, general manager of the 102-year-old course in Door County, WI, about an hour from Green Bay. “I have to put them together.’’
But given the outstanding layout and maintenance of Peninsula Golf Course, Daubner gets few – if any – complaints. The 6,301-yard (par 71) course, as you understand, is one of Wisconsin’s public golf gems. It was a favorite of legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi and remains a prized choice of Midwest golfers, who come to challenge its rolling fairways and take in Door County’s laid-back lifestyle that includes 53 public beaches along Lake Michigan and exploring the small towns of Ephraim, Sturgeon Bay, Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, and Sister Bay.
Door County, in short, is a terrific “relax and get away from it all,’’ destination.
“People are beginning to come from farther away, but the bulk is from a six-hour radius,’’ said Daubner, a native of Sister Bay who has spent the past 20 years at Peninsula Golf Course, which began as a six-holer, went to nine holes and eventually to its current 18-hole configuration designed by the late Lawrence Packard, best-known for his Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, FL
The rock pillar structure on the second hole is about all that remains of the original six holes, along with the 17th hole, known as “Hill 17’’ because of the 50-foot elevation drop that thrills sledders in the winter season.
Lombardi’s favorite hole? The eighth – a 69-yard par 3 that plays approximately 30 feet downhill. Hitting off a mat (the only tee box that requires one), the eighth generally doesn’t demand more than a sand wedge.
The eighth hole at Peninsula Golf Course
The only golf course located within a Wisconsin State Park, Peninsula Golf Course is a great example of state and private sector cooperation. In the 1980s, a group of local golfers – unhappy with the course conditions – struck a deal with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to create a series of 10-year leases. As a non-profit organization, Daubner said, every dollar above operating expenses that Peninsula Golf Course takes in goes back into course improvements.
“We had about $250,000 worth of improvement last year,’’ Daubner said. “This property belongs to the tax payers and to the people who love the state park.’’
Among this year’s course improvements is renovation to the green on the seventh hole, which is expected to be ready by Memorial Day of 2026. Peninsula Golf Course, which Daubner said sees between 22,000 and 25,000 rounds annually, is open from May 1 to Nov. 1.
“Families have been vacationing in the park and playing here for generations,’’ Daubner said. “It’s a course you can play three times per week and never get tired of it.’’
Feature Photo Courtesy of Peninsula Golf Course
