[Michael Huber]

This thread is partially inspired by Anthony Gray's thread on old barns and such on golf courses.

I'd venture to say that most golf courses were either a.) Farmland or b.) just  general, vacant land before the course was built there.

But there are some sites (i.e. Liberty National) that have a bit more unique history behind them.  A good example would be Iron Valley in Central Pennsylvania.  I believe it used to either be a quarry or a coal mine or something like that.  I'm willing to bet there are some really interesting stories to be had about some courses. 

[Garland Bayley]

Chambers Bay - sand and gravel mine
Old Works - copper smelting
The Home Course - dynamite manufacturing
Bandon Resort - noxious weed farm

[Joe Bausch]

Victoria National (T Fazio) in Newburgh, IN.  A former strip mine site.

[Bill_McBride]

The Hideout Golf Club in Monticello, Utah, designed by Forrest Richardson, was previously a landfill.

[PCCraig]

Grand Geneva in the Lake Geneva, WI area was the Playboy Resort. When Playboy sold it and the bunnies left for greener pastures everyone noticed there were two golf courses for the first time... 

[Matt_Davenport]

Michael,
I'll expand on Iron Valley by saying that yes it used to be owned and operated by Bethlehem Steel as a mining operation of iron ore. What is now the front nine (originally, the back nine) used to be the settling basin where water from the mining operation was pumped to that resulted in an extremely sterile gray moonscape requiring a bit of work to grow grass on. When Hurricane Agnes befell PA in 1972, the pumps were unable to keep up with the water filling the mine and following this event it was determined not to be feasible to pump the mines out as they were nearing the end of their projected production anyway. Fast forward thirty years, when a group of developers jumped on the chance to buy the property and build a golf course!

Now my interesting site is what is now Island Green Country Club, Philadelphia, PA. This site was a former railcar manufacturing facility that was also converted to producing munitiions during wartime. On-site was a 1,000,000 SF bomb proof structure that was demolished and the concrete slab cracked for drainage purposes, and covered with carpet to make a 400 yard double-ended driving range. Needless the say there was a bit of environmental clean-up to make this site viable. Check out an article at http://asgca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=358:environmental-case-study-island-green-country-club-reuse-of-a-brownfields-site&catid=46:news-environmental-case-studies&Itemid=123

[Zack Molnar]

The Phoenix golf course near Columbus, OH, recently discussed here, used to be a landfill. I think many courses in the future will be build on these reclaimed land spaces, since it is one of the few uses for them that is safe. And it greatly reduces the costs to the developer since they receive a large subsidy from the gov't for cleaning up the land.

[Matt Day]

Joondalup in Perth was a limestone quarry which the course has been built around and Kennedy Bay was a target range for the army in WWII

[Matthew Petersen]

I've played on a number of courses that were previously landfills, including Cave Creek Golf Course, a Phoenix muni very near where I live.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Other land fill or "brownfield" courses are Harborside International in Chicago,Wildcat in Houston,Emerald Links in Egg Harbor, NJ and Park Ridge in Lake Worth, FL

Bayonne GC in NJ was industrial wasteland and a pier on the Hudson River.

[John Moore II]

Tobacco Road and The Pit- Sand Mines
Moose Run (River)- US Army mine of some kind
Eaglewood (Raptor) Langley AFB, VA- US Air Force ordnance range
The Hamptons in Hampton, VA- former landfill
Lambert's Point in Norfolk, VA- former landfill
Pinehurst #8-former site of Pinehurst Resort Gun Club

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Scotland Run and Twisted Dune in NJ were sand mines.

Pine Hill in NJ was a ski slope.

[Mike Lacey]

Excuse me Steve.....that is Trump National Philadelphia.

I have actually logged many runs on Ski Mountain.....the highest point in South Jersey.

[Tom_Doak]

Coeur d'Alene Resort golf course is on the site of a huge lumber mill.
Whistling Straits was some sort of test firing range for the military.

The only one of mine that had any sort of interesting story is Lost Dunes, which was an old sand mine.  The sand was actually used to make glass.  When we were building the course, occasionally we would find some old glass ball bearings laying around the site, but they always had a crack in them, and it never made any sense to me.  Eventually I heard that those glass balls were formed by lightning strikes onto the sand.

[Steve Okula]

Brickyard Crossing Resort co-exists with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which predates it, so was a prior use.

The golf course has holes 7-10 inside the racetrack loop, the rest outside.

I've never been there. Has anyone ever played it?

[Jon Spaulding]

Industry Hills GC; once a dump.......then sort of a golf course, now back to a dump.

Torrey Pines; military base with nice views.

Oak Quarry; self explanatory. The longevity and volume of blasting are substantial, not aware of any other converted mines with such a glory hole.

[Tim Gavrich]

Tons of coastal South Carolina courses sit on the sites of former plantations--rice, cotton, indigo, etc...

[jonathan_becker]

To go in the opposite direction, there was a course outside of my hometown in Ohio that closed in the late 70s before I was born.  Fast forward 20 years and up goes a strip club.    The club has since closed and I think it's now a restaurant.

[Matthew Sander]

Brickyard Crossing Resort co-exists with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which predates it, so was a prior use.

The golf course has holes 7-10 inside the racetrack loop, the rest outside.

I've never been there. Has anyone ever played it?

I grew up in Indiana, but unfortunately I haven't played Brickyard yet. I've walked several of the holes while attending the Indy 500 or Allstate 400 and it definitely has the Pete Dye hallmarks. It would be very cool to play in the spring while the track is open for practice and qualifying.

[Matthew Petersen]

To go in the opposite direction, there was a course outside of my hometown in Ohio that closed in the late 70s before I was born.  Fast forward 20 years and up goes a strip club.    The club has since closed and I think it's now a restaurant.

The first golf course I played was a 9 hole track in Denver that had lights so night play was possible. That was likely its only claim to fame. The course is long since gone. There's a Safeway and a strip mall there now.

[Tim Nugent]

A double-bubble - Centennial Park in Munster, Indians began as a brick yard, the holes dug for clay where then filled in it's next life as a landfill and site for Munster Steel.  Finally, a master planned park with golf course.

The Dunes Club in New Buffalo used as a borrow site for Red Arrow Highway

Heritage Bluffs in Channahon, IL was mined for gravel and over burden was used for I-55 bridge approach over the Desplaines River

High Meadow Ranch, TX was an iron ore scrape where pellets of iron ore where in the surface sand.  Also a couple old oil well pads (one used for a green).

Blackhawk CC, Madison WI - old Indian burial mounds (same I believe with Blue Mounds outside Milwaukee

Ko'Olau Oahu - old dairy farm used by Uncle Sam during WWII as a huge tent city for soldiers

Many of these are good examples of how golf courses were able to turn otherwised unproductive property into something beneficial to soceity.

[Nick Campanelli]

Widow's Walk Golf Course - Dr. Michael Hurdzan (Scituate, MA)
Quail Ridge Country Club - Mark Mungeam (Acton, MA)
Red Tail Golf Club - Brian Silva (Danvers, MA)

All former mine sites, and all incredible courses.

[archie_struthers]

 

Actually Twisted Dune was flat scrub Pine with about 40 acres cleared for horses . The property was called Wind Row Farm. When we built the golf course we pretty much turned the property into a sand mine .  Scotland Run expanded the existing mine next door .

[Mike Demetriou]

Tom D, if I remember correctly, you told me once that the Sheep Ranch used to be a wind farm for Oregon Power & Light? Is that correct?

[Chuck Brown]

In one of the grandest and most appropriate reclamation projects imaginable, they turned the Berckmans nursery, "Fruitland" into a golf course:

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