91 dates, from General Shafter’s permission of 1900 to the hospital on the old fairways. Each links to its source and to the chapter of the history that tells the story.
Three different courses, so three different records. On the rough 1900 links a visitor from Boston set the mark at 57 for nine holes, until the Oakland professional Harry Rawlins went round in 46 and the club fixed its bogey at 44. On Captain Gibson’s nine, played twice round for 18 holes, Eddy Redell’s 73 at the first invitational in July 1925 was the course record.
The 1900 tournament scores (67 to 99) were nine-hole scores, as the club’s rules make clear, although the Call sometimes labelled them as eighteen. The 1902 Official Golf Guide card gives the bogey of 44 over 2,329 yards. Par for Gibson’s nine was 34 (2,740 or 2,746 yards) in 1926; a 1930 annual gives par 33 over 2,569 yards, so the course was probably altered. No score has been found for the rebuilt course of 1939 (nine holes, eighteen tees, 6,137 yards, par 71).
| Course | When | Golfer | Score | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sausalito Golf Club links | by Nov. 24, 1900 | a visitor from Boston | 57 (nine holes) | Called a record | source ↗ |
| The Sausalito Golf Club links | Dec. 9, 1900 | Harry Rawlins | 46 (nine holes) | Called a record | source ↗ |
| The Fort Baker Golf Club | July 12, 1925 | Eddy Redell | 73 (18 holes) | Called a record | source ↗ |
| The Fort Baker Golf Club | Sept. 1926 | Frank Willey | 79 (18 holes) | Lowest reported | source ↗ |
The Fort Baker commander endorses T. W. M. Draper's letter asking leave for Sausalito ladies and gentlemen to play golf on the reservation.
The Department of California replies for General Shafter that golf may be played on the reservation, but the permission confers no rights of occupancy.
Work on David Stephenson's nine holes in the valley behind the barracks begins under Colonel Draper's supervision.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports a club organized at Sausalito, with Stephenson to lay out nine holes behind the Fort Baker barracks that could later become eighteen.
The club is organized at an evening meeting; it has no lease and may put up no buildings, so tents will serve.
The council elects A. D. Shepard president, Draper vice president, A. Starr Keeler secretary and H. Clay Miller treasurer.
The links are formally opened with a luncheon in tents, though the nine holes are not yet ready for play.
The Army's new barracks and officers' quarters mean the first two holes and the last must be laid out afresh; a clubhouse will be allowed.
The Argonaut reports that General Shafter has allowed the club to build a temporary clubhouse, a privilege the Call says no Western military reservation had granted before.
Set for 10 November, the club's first formal tournament actually begins the next day on a course the Call calls very rough.
The Chronicle reports that every match in the first tournament will be over nine holes, "as the course is a hard one with sixty strokes the record so far."
Leonard Chenery wins the nine-hole men's final, begun 2 December, from F. B. Findley, whose 67 was the tournament's low round and won the challenge cup.
The Call describes the relaid course, with greens of rolled clay and sand because no water could be brought for turf.
Winifred Mason beats her sister Mabel and is called the strongest lady golfer on the Fort Baker links.
Oakland professionals Harry (46, 46) and Horace Rawlins (52, 48) play an exhibition, and a bogey of 44 is fixed for the nine holes.
Grace Martin and W. P. Horn tie Mabel Mason and J. M. Kilgarif in what the Chronicle called perhaps the closest contest of its kind near San Francisco.
W. P. Horn and Grace Martin beat J. M. Kilgarif and Mabel Mason to close the five-week tournament.
The Call reports that Gen. Shafter, at Colonel Draper's request, has allowed a clubhouse on the reservation, funded by member loans and $10 lockers, and that barracks construction has moved three or four greens.
Officers of the Fish Commission steamer Albatross and their wives give tableaux vivants at the San Francisco Yacht Club house for the clubhouse fund.
The Fort Baker course is too overgrown to play, so Sausalito loses its return match at San Rafael.
The club reports a course, a clubhouse with locker rooms and no debt; on 28 May Draper is elected president.
In its first match outside Marin County, Sausalito can field only four men and loses to Oakland's class B team.
A fire burns over 1,000 acres of the reservation; soldiers say Sausalito golfers set it trying to burn off the links.
The Chronicle reports that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th and 9th holes will be changed for the Government's buildings, making a flatter course.
Play is nearly at a standstill as artillery barracks go up and the golfers lose several holes.
A club meeting hears that four holes displaced by the Army's building have been laid out afresh with new greens.
The hillside clubhouse with a glassed-in piazza opens with driving and putting contests; Ruth Miller, Leonard Chenery and A. Starr Keeler win.
The 68th Company of Coast Artillery becomes the post's garrison, with two more companies to follow.
The club's council decides to pasture fifty sheep on the links; by late December the Call counts 800, with a herder camped in a tent.
With only six holes playable, Davis wins the Foster Cup with 57 on a makeshift nine.
The Chronicle reports that the fifty sheep put on the course six weeks earlier did so well that there is now a flock of 200.
The 1902 Official Golf Guide lists the nine holes at 2,329 yards with a bogey of 44.
The Call reports no play on the Sausalito links for some months while government building continues.
The Call says buildings make a course impossible and Sausalito golfers will try to form a lawn-tennis club.
The Army fills the Horseshoe Cove marsh with 80,000 cubic yards and sows the graded parade ground with Australian rye grass.
A 1909 site map shows Fort Baker's buildings complete around the parade ground, which also served as the post's ball field.
Sausalito's young men practice basketball at Fort Baker through the kindness of Capt. Manly B. Gibson.
Col. Percy P. Bishop opens the new nine-hole Army course; officers from five posts play, Mrs. Gibson is hostess.
At the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, Gibson invites all golf enthusiasts to play the Fort Baker course.
Because the War Department wants civilians treated as individuals, Sausalito golfers register at the Chamber for $3 monthly invitations.
The civilian advisory committee adopts rules: no dues or initiation, monthly renewable invitations, a $5 green fee and up to 200 visitors.
Scottish professional T. J. Muirhead is in charge and about $3,500 has been spent on the nearly finished grounds.
Gibson approves free play by Marin junior foursomes, with free Saturday lessons from pro Thomas F. McHugh.
An Army Air Service photograph records the post and parade ground less than a year after the course opened.
Tom Muirhead goes to Santa Rosa and Healdsburg 'after completing the building of the links at Fort Baker.'
The Ninth Corps Area requests the club's by-laws and plans as a model for other Pacific Coast golf projects.
The club repairs the post's old springs-and-tanks water system for about $200 to water its greens.
In the club's first tournament, Eddy Redell wins with a record 73 for 18 holes, twice round the nine.
The club adds a Dodge sedan taxi, dispatched by the post telephone operator.
Gibson tells the Chamber that workmen are beginning nine more holes.
The Dipsea Highway Association adopts the course for Marin publicity, offering guest play for $5 a month.
The Sausalito News prints the card of nine holes named for AEF battles, par 34, and plans a $30,000 barge as 18th tee.
The San Francisco Examiner's Sunday motoring section features Gibson's Fort Baker and its officers' golf course, open to Marin through guest cards.
The Associated Press story of Fort Baker's $30,000 floating tee and A.E.F. hole names runs in the New York Times.
An Associated Press story about the $30,000 floating tee and the named holes runs in papers across the country.
After a golf club dinner-dance, the News reports that the season is opening on the course.
The Harbor Defenses commander let the club invite 50 more civilians, who paid only a $5 monthly green fee under pro Harold Johnstone.
Johnstone announced 18-hole medal-play handicap sweepstakes every Sunday; Frank Willey shot a low gross 79.
A trial Saturday boat from Pier 4 in San Francisco carried the club's civilian members free, arranged by Capt. Manly B. Gibson.
After C. E. Persons and Congressman Lea intervened, the Treasury ruled that Fort Baker green fees were not taxable.
The Army ordered Gibson from Fort Baker to the Coast Artillery School, ending his first tour as the club's founder.
William Hackney, one of eight professional brothers, took over the course and built new greens for the 2nd and 9th holes.
The Coast Artillery garrison left Fort Baker, which was kept by a caretaker detachment until 1937.
The club's Ladies' Day of golf, luncheon and bridge drew 45 members and guests.
Hackney proposed four new holes on the bayside bluffs to the southeast and five to the northeast near the rifle range; they were never built.
The Quartermaster Department built a concrete seawall and a bulkhead at Horseshoe Cove and resurfaced the post roads.
The Golfer's Year-book listed the Fort Baker Officers Club at 2,569 yards and par 33, with James Thrapp as pro.
Glenna Brown was struck in the face by a playing partner's club at the start of a round and badly hurt.
Reporting a team win over Mill Valley, the Sausalito News said the town had no golf club organization.
Fort Baker Officers Club members announced that the course would be reconditioned and reorganized.
SERA relief labor worked on the Fort Baker links to restore them to their condition under General Bishop.
The Sausalito News said the bridge approach tunnel would come out above the post buildings and golf links.
The Army and Navy Journal lists Maj. Manly B. Gibson's transfer from Fort Worden to the 6th Coast Artillery at Fort Winfield Scott; he soon commands Forts Baker and Barry.
Major Gibson announces the Fort Baker Golf Club's reorganization, with the course being rebuilt under Presidio pro Larry Brazil, and a visitors' day on 31 October.
WPA landscaping at the post includes grading tees and greens for a golf course and grading the golf course and baseball field.
Men and machinery are building the course under Warman, with several practice holes already in play.
Warman, formerly of Yosemite, offers free lessons to young people, and green fees are set at $2 a month.
Gibson announces a WPA rehabilitation of Forts Baker and Barry employing 908 men for a year.
Sausalito residents are invited to play as guests for $2 a month with no dues; 71 of 100 guest cards are already issued.
The officers invite Sausalito to play free on April weekends with Chamber of Commerce guest cards; six holes are finished.
The Tamalpais High golf club plays a tournament at Fort Baker and wins free play and lessons from the pro.
The new course is announced at 6,137 yards and par 71 from 18 tees on 9 holes, with green fees of 25 cents for nine holes.
Forts Baker and Barry hold an open house with an exhibition match, putting and pitch-and-putt contests, a band concert and a reception to dedicate the course.
Major Gibson sails on the transport Republic for Missouri, and Maj. Evans R. Crowell, the club's president, succeeds him.
The War Department approves a station hospital, built within three months on the filled marsh between Horseshoe Cove and the parade ground.
An Army aerial photograph shows the new hospital buildings on the flat above Horseshoe Cove.
A Sausalito News photo caption says the course was sacrificed during the war when the hospital buildings were built.
The Army takes the wartime station hospital at Fort Baker off active duty.
The Mill Valley Record, listing Marin's courses, says the Fort Baker course has been abandoned.
A syndicated item lists the Fort Baker Golf Club among Marin courses lost to the Depression and later construction.
The Army transfers its last land in east Fort Baker, including the core around the parade ground, to the National Park Service.