As Breezy Point Resort celebrates its centennial this year, it also recognizes a significant golf history.
In 1921, Captain Wilford H. “Billy” Fawcett took a piece of earth next to Big Pelican Lake and created what today is Breezy Point Resort. The resort began as a playground for Fawcett’s family and friends who spent summer days playing tennis, fishing, horseback riding and trapshooting.
In April 1923, Captain Billy wrote: “Mrs. Fawcett and I took our first lessons in golf at Pinehurst, North Carolina, last winter, so that germ has been planted.”
Construction began that summer on a nine-hole golf course at the resort. The architect is unknown, but the small, crowned greens drained well and gave a Donald Ross touch to the new course.
Ross was the architect of note in the Pinehurst area and designed many of the country’s best courses, including Interlachen Country Club in Edina, where Fawcett’s brother, Roscoe, was a member. Between the trip to Pinehurst and the Interlachen connection, it is easy to see how Ross could have had some influence on the golf course design.
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The course was named Chippewa Links and played to a par 36. The par and distance, with the Ojibwe name for each hole spelled phonetically were:
1: Bay-Shig, 328 yards, par 4.
2: Neesh, 445 yards, par 4.
3. Niss-Wi, 530 yards, par 5.
4. Nee-Win, 134 yards, par 3.
5. Nah-Nan, 485 yards, par 5.
6. Goo-Dwa-Sa, 364 yards, par 4.
7. Nee-Swa-Wah, 310 yards, par 4.
8. Swa-Wa, 140 yards, par 3.
9. Shan-Guss-Wa, 365 yards, par 4.
Breezy Point’s first golf professional was Lincoln F. “Link” Howatt, who learned the game as an assistant pro to Jack Burke Sr. at the Town and Country Club. Howatt supervised the final construction work on the golf course and taught lessons during his year there.
Howatt was an accomplished teacher. He once gave 1,448 lessons during four months of work in Arizona one winter. He went on to design and build a golf course in Montana after leaving Breezy Point and later became the head pro at Forest Dale Golf Course in Utah.
The Breezy Point golf course officially opened on July 4, 1924, in conjunction with the 10,000 Lakes Golf Tournament. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Louis Collins hit the ceremonial opening tee shot and played 18 holes. He did not return a score for his round.
Roscoe Fawcett was the tournament’s medalist with a 76. Richard Lilly defeated Fawcett 3-2 in the finals to win the men’s championship, and Mrs. Ralph Little won the first of her six championships by defeating Mrs. Roscoe Fawcett 5-4 in the women’s finals.
In 1925, Walter Hagen came to Breezy Point for an exhibition match on the new golf course. Hagen played against Breezy Point’s new golf professional, Fred Barber, and defeated him 2-1 in their 18-hole match.
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Minneapolis businessman Ralph Little and Father Walter Remmis, of Brainerd, also competed in a team match with the two professionals. The team of Hagen and Father Remmis defeated Barber and Little 5-3, with Father Remmis getting the group’s first birdie of the day on hole No. 11.
After the match Hagen commented in the July 17, 1925, Brainerd Dispatch: “You have a wonderful course at Breezy Point, and the summer resort is as attractive as French Lick in the variety of amusement and recreation offered. I was certainly most agreeably surprised to find such a beautiful resort and appreciate the remarkable hospitality shown by Captain and Mrs. W. H. Fawcett. I am also pleased to see the hold golfing has here and at Brainerd as exemplified by the large gallery at the play.”
Final scores for the foursome were Hagen 77, Father Remmis 82, Fred Barber 82 and Ralph Little 84. In a trapshooting contest after playing golf, Captain Billy Fawcett broke 23 out of 25 targets while Hagen broke 18 out of 25.
That same year the 10,000 Lakes Tournament saw Roscoe Fawcett claim the runner-up prize for a second time when he was defeated in the finals by 17-year-old Lester Bolstad 4-3. Bolstad was also the State Public Links champion in 1925 and went on to win the U.S. Public Links title the following year.
Mrs. Ralph Little repeated as the women’s champion, defeating her sister, Mrs. Edward Anderson, in the title match.
Captain Roscoe Fawcett scored a hole-in-one on the 134-yard fourth hole at Chippewa Links on Monday, Aug. 18, 1925. The shot was witnessed by Gene Nelson and professional golfer Barber. It is believed to be the first hole-in-one ever recorded in the Brainerd lakes area.
As part of the resort’s 100th year celebration, The Traditional Golf Course will feature tributes to professional golfers Hagen and Patty Berg, a founding member and first president of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
On Labor Day weekend, the resort plans to revive the 10,000 Lakes Golf Tournament on the Traditional Course using the front eight holes, just like the beginning.
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Information in this story is excerpted from “100 Years of Golf at Breezy Point: from Walter Hagen to Arnold Palmer,” by Rich Aulie.
