From a knoll in the backyard of his Chestnut Hill Road home, Tim Thompson surveys his private golf course and mulls over his expansion plans for it.
Currently a nine-hole course, Tim says he has begun work turning it into an 18-hole course. The 3.5-acre golf course became a long-term project for him, Tim says, after a friend invited him to play at his public course, Portland Golf West, about 25 years ago. From that point on, he says, he was smitten and would play every chance he got.
A landscaper by trade, he got the idea of creating a golf course in his backyard after he cleared away a tree at a spot-on top of a small hill near the house.
He started hitting balls from the spot and with a little work, turned it into a green. So he kept going, clearing trees and creating holes and several more greens. As a landscaper, he had the equipment and know-how to clear his wooded backyard.
He can get about 8-12 people on the course at one time and says the longest hole is 140 yards. The shortest is 42 yards. The size of the course and his frequent play on it, he says, means he’s developed a very good short game.
He recently retired from his job in his family's landscape business and he’s now gearing up to create the back 9 holes for the golf course.
He’s mapped out 8 additional holes already and says he just needs to figure out where the 18th hole will be. His friend, Ed Hughes, and his coworker, Justin Parent, help him maintain the course.
He named the course the Celtic Green Golf Club and had score cards printed for it. He's hoping to host league nights some day.
“It has really become a labor of love.”
At Portland West, he plays in a men's club and every October he organizes a tournament, the Daukas Remembrance Reunion Tournament.
Each year the club selects a different charity for which to raise money; Kidney and cancer research, Alzheimer’s disease, and suicide prevention are among some of the causes that the tournament has funded.
