Bridgton Highlands Country Club History

In 1925-26 Robert Braun, his lawyer, Eugene Bodge, and Dr. Angus Hebb, all of whom lived or had summer homes in Bridgton, contacted the noted golf course designer, A.W. Tilinghast, to design a course on Highland Ridge. He designed a fine, par 37, nine-hole course with a length of 3212 yards. It was the only course in Maine that Tillinghast designed. He was noted for many famous courses, including Baltusrol, Winged Foot and Bethpage, to name a few. The actual "hands on" work at Bridgton was done by Ralph Martin Barton, who also did the work at Tillinghast's Mid-Ocean and Yale University golf courses.

In the 1980s, the prior owners hired Cornish and Silva to design and build two new holes (current holes 5 and 14) to replace the original 7th and 8th holes due to construction of 16 condominiums.

In 1992, twenty community-minded citizens purchased the nine-hole golf course at auction and immediately set about planning its expansion to an 18-hole layout. Fred Ryan, one of the owners, designed the new holes. These holes were very smartly intertwined with those designed by Tillinghast and Cornish & Silva. Fred has received many accolades for his outstanding work.

Bridgton Highlands now has three sets of tees, making it very playable for golfers of all abilities.