WESTBROOK – While certainly not the golfer’s paradise of a southern state like Florida, Maine has its fair share of public golf courses, with just under 160 courses from Aroostook County to the southern border.

While it seems like an impossible feat to play even a majority of Maine’s courses, Westbrook’s Dennis Walch has played them all and now he’s written a book about his quest. On April 7, Walch will discuss his new book “The Greens of Maine – I Played Them All,” at 5:30 p.m. at Westbrook’s Walker Memorial Library.

Walch, 63, recently spoke with the American Journal and talked about his quest to play all of Maine’s public courses and his new book.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your background. When did you start playing golf?

A: I coached golf at Westbrook High School from 1994-2004, and when I retired from teaching physical education at the high school, I started a painting business. I also do some work with Habitat for Humanity, right now we are building a house in Westbrook. I started playing golf 22 years ago and if I found more balls than I lost, it was a good day. I tell everyone I lost to a blind man and a one-armed guy in the same week, I struggled at first.

Q: Tell us about your book: “The Greens of Maine – I Played Them All.” How did you come up with the idea?

A: I had a goal. Many years ago, I bought a book called the Maine Golf Guide, as I read through the book, I would check the courses off as I played them. And a few years ago, I thought to myself, “I could do this.” So I took a few three-day excursions and a lot of day trips into Aroostook and Downeast Maine and played 54 holes a day. I would play as many as I could to get them all done, and that was the goal, to finish them all. I had no dream of writing a book, but my father-in-law, Paul Phelan, who has written 23 books, kept telling me “there’s a book in you,” and to get him off my back, I started writing this book in the fall of 2009. I started writing and just couldn’t stop. I had it ready for last golf season, but I wanted pictures. So I went back to every golf course and I took the pictures, I traveled 3,500 miles last year to take the pictures for the book.

Q: How many public courses are there in Maine?

A: As far as I can figure, including all the par-3s and the pitch and putt courses, there are 158.

Q: What was the final course you played?

A: It was a course called Hebron Pines RV and Golf (a 9-hole course at a campground in Hebron), and it’s one I almost missed. The book was going to publisher for final printing last November and I was going to Wilton to take a picture of another course, I plugged in my GPS and found this course, I didn’t know it existed. I went there, played it, wrote it up and put in the book.

Q: What was your favorite course to play?

A: I find there’s something I like about every course. I liked Northeast Harbor Golf Club in Northeast Harbor, it’s a private course until after Labor Day. Another one is Kebo Valley on Mount Desert Island, it was founded in 1888 and it’s the eighth-oldest course in the country. Aroostook Valley Country Club in Fort Fairfield is an unusual one, the course is all in Canada, but the pro shop and the parking lot in the United States. Some other favorite courses of mine are: Sunday River in Newry, Belgrade Lakes, Natanis in Vassalboro and the Brunswick Golf Club.

Q: Now that you’ve played every public course in Maine, what’s next? Do you plan on conquering the rest of New England?

A: No. I don’t have any aspirations to write another book.

Q: If you had the chance to play on any course in the world, which course would you choose?

A: I’d like to play St. Andrew’s in Scotland. I’d like to make enough off this book so I could play at some of the more historic courses in Ireland and Scotland.

Former Westbrook High School golf coach Dennis Walch has written a book about his quest to play all of Maine’s public golf courses. Walch will discuss his book “The Greens of Maine – I Played Them All,” at the Walker Memorial Library in Westbrook next week.
Courtesy photo

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