The Oldest Golf Courses In America

[David Graves]

The Chattanooga Golf Club was built in 1895. I think CBM had something to do with it but I am not sure. There was an article in the Tennessee USGA magazine about a year ago about the course. Has anyone played it or does anyone know whether CBM did it?

[Craig Rokke]

By the year 1889, NY had 4 courses, Maine 3, PA 3, and CT,
VT, and NJ, had 1 each.

[Greg Ramsay]

The earliest known golf in America was actually in New York in the days when it was a small Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam.  there are records showing that 'kolven', a game played on ice or cross country by the dutch (which is widely recognised as the forerunner to golf, having been transported across to Scotland's east coast by Dutch merchants.  The scots then adapted the game for their linkslands) was played in New Amsterdam in the 1600's.

Then as mentioned by John Stiles, there were at least 2 clubs in the south in Charleston and Savannah towards the end of the 1700's, there are documented meetings of these clubs in the newspapers of the time, but the clubs were disbanded soon after.  BCrosby, where on earth did you see a painting of golf in South Carolina at that time?  I would love to hear more about it, as I don't think it is widely known among golf historian circles.

A lone scotsman is known to have played golf in Canada around the 1830's, but not until Alexander Dennistoun-Wood commenced Royal Montreal in the 1870's did organised golf clubs re-appear in North America.

My family owns the oldest golf course here in the Southern Hemisphere, here in Tasmania (dating back to 1822), it actually has connections with Royal Montreal through Dennistoun-Wood.  I was lucky to be a guest at the Oakhurst Links in West Virginia a few years back.  It is the oldest known golf course in the US with its original routing still in use, having been a club in the 1880's & 90's and then a private course through til the 1920's or 30's when it was disbanded.  When Lewis Keller purchased the farm, they were shown the exact routing of the course by a descendant of the founder, even finding some of the original cups still in the ground.  The shapes of the bunkers and teeing grounds were still very evident, so it was gently restored and is a thrill to play with the hickories and the imitation gutty ball.  It is a 9-hole course.  I have read about a lone golfer/golf club in Nebraska or Iowa around the same time.

So the St.Andrews Golf Club in New York, whilst not being the oldest club, or the oldest course, its founder John Reid can still lay claim as the father of American golf because he established the USGA.

Greg Ramsay
www.barnbougledunes.com

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

The golf club/course in Charleston, SC was called Charleston Green at I believe it did dissolve after about 20 years of existance.  The course was over grown by part of downtown Charleston.  Although I have heard that golf historians have a pretty good idea where it was.

[Ward Peyronnin]

Gentlemen

I have heard of a course in east central kentucky founded in the mid 19 century be expatriot Scots. I believe it is nine hole but predates many of the courses mentioned here. Any body know the place?

[Dan Kelly]

All I know about this is:

Town and Country is NOT, as has been alleged above, the oldest club or course (continuously operated and/or intermittently out of business) west of the Mississippi.

How do I know this, for certain?

Because I know, for certain, that Town and Country is EAST of the Mississippi. Only a couple of hundred yards east, I suppose -- but definitely east.

[Derek_L]

I will concur with Dan that Town and Country is east of the Mississippi and not west as stated above.  As for the club started in the late 1700's, I was on Golf Digest's webpage lastnight and noticed that they had a blurp regarding, I beleive the Charleston club, or something like that, whish was founded around 1788 or so, but I am unsure and doubt if it is in existence today.

[Tyler Kearns]

Dan,
       pardon by cartographic error. i simply took the information given to me without checking a map. thanks for the correction.

"The First 100 Clubs in America"
                   -Golf Magazine January 1995
(for the sake of brevity, i'll list until Town & CC founding)

1786-South Carolina GC (NKA CC of Charleston)
1794-Savannah GC
1854-Philadelphia Cricket
1856-Germania T & CC (Saginaw, Michigan)
1875-Vesper CC (Tyngsboro, Mass.)
1878-Rockaway Hunting (Cedarhurst, NY)
1879-Olympic Club
1880-Edgewood Club of Tivoli (Tivoli, NY)
1881-Meadow Brook Club (Jericho, NY)
1882-Pittsburgh Field Club
        The Country Club
1885-Tuxedo GC (Tuxedo Park, NY)
1886-Dorset Field Club (Dorset, Vermont)
1887-Dakota Dunes CC
        Essex CC (West Orange, NJ)
        Foxburg Club (Foxburg, Penn.)
        Onteora Club (Tannersville, NY)
        Quoque Field Club (Quoque, NY)
1888-Ausable Club (St.Huberts, NY)
        Richmond CC (Staten Is., NY)
        St.Andrew's GC (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY)
        Town & CC (St.Paul, MN)

[A_Clay_Man]

I believe the distinction of eighteen holes was the criterior for both chicago and del monte

[Robert_Walker]

The Oldest Golf Course in North America is located in Middlesboro, Kentucky, not far from the Cumberland Gap. I am not sure of the year it opened.

[Robert_Walker]

http://www.middlesborocountryclub.net/history.htm

[higkgins]

RW,
You're absolutley correct, sir !
http://www.middlesborocountryclub.net/history.htm

[Gib_Papazian]

There is an invitation on the wall at GCGC for a "Golfer's Ball" in Savannah, Georgia. The exact date escapes me, but I recall it being in the 1700's.

I'll bet Professor Mucci can shed some light.