Mark Murphy knows a few things – make that a few million things – about investing. As president of the Green Bay Packers (2007-2025), Murphy oversaw an organization that invested more than $600 million in programs and facilities at fabled Lambeau Field and Titletown, the latter being a community development project located just west of the Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau statues outside the stadium.
Murphy’s 2023 investment in Maxwelton Braes Golf Course in Baileys Harbor, WI, is only a reported $1.04 million, but the results, like those about an hour away in Green Bay, are beginning to reap dividends.
Mark Murphy at Maxwelton Braes Golf Course
For example, walk-up tee times, particularly on weekends, are now almost nonexistent; stay and play packages at the historic Maxwelton Braes Lodge, across the parking lot from the course, are growing in popularity; and the once-burned-out fairways are returning to the dark greens of Kentucky Bluegrass.
Murphy, who won Super Bowl XLV as Packers president and Super Bowl XVII as a defensive back for the Washington Redskins, maneuvered his six-foot-four-inch frame into the passenger side of a golf car after hitting a line-drive 3-wood down a Maxwelton Braes fairway.
“I love golf because of the social nature of it. It brings people together.’’
Murphy stepped down as president of the Packers this past July after reaching the club’s mandatory retirement age of 70. Now Packers President Emeritus, Murphy first played Maxwelton Braes more than 15 years ago, shortly after he and his wife, Laurie, moved to Door County, WI.
“I loved it,’’ said Murphy, who describes himself as a 15 to 18 handicap player. “It reminded me of the courses I played on with my father growing up,’’ in Fulton, N.Y. “We wanted to make sure it remained a public golf course.’’
Maxwelton Braes has been one of Door County’s more historic public courses since it opened in 1930. It was designed by Joseph R. Roseman, who created a handful of courses in the Upper Midwest, but is best known as an inventor and early proponent of mowing equipment for golf courses..
The name, Maxwelton Braes, comes from the first line of the song, “Annie Laurie,” “Maxwelton Braes are bonnie,” that original course owner, Michael McArdleis, is said to have heard during a visit to Edgewater Gulf Hotel in Biloxi, MS.
The Los Angeles Rams, in 1947 and 1948, used the course’s 11th fairway as a practice field.
The course has seen a few ownership changes since the early 1990s. Murphy bought Maxwelton Braes from Wausau businessman Jim Bresnahan, who has remained as the property’s superintendent, overseeing irrigation and grassing projects as the course continues to improve and gain notoriety as one of Door County’s top recreational amenities.
So, having reached the pinnacle of his profession in the NFL, what has Murphy learned about his time as a golf owner?
“Coming in, I knew enough to be dangerous,’’ he chuckled. “When I was athletics director at Colgate (1992-2003), we had a really nice public course – Seven Oaks. So I knew a little bit. Jim, by staying on, has done a tremendous job here at Maxwelton Braes. The course is a great community asset.’’
The same is true of Mark Murphy.
