Lenox, Massachusetts

[Willie_Dow]

Was this the first Golf Course in USA ?

[Ian Mackenzie]

Google may know.


9 or 18 holes?


Some debate but I believe it to be the original CBM Chicago Golf Club, now Downers Grove muni.
Or, is it St. Andrews in NY?

[Ken Fry]

Willie,
Are you talking about the Lenox Club?  There's not a lot of history about the course itself that I've found over the years.  The area where the course once sat is heavily tree covered.  I've always wondered if any remnants of the course can be found.
The argument to first course in the USA has been between Oakhurst Links in West Virginia and St. Andrews in New York.  I've never heard The Lenox Club in that discussion.
Ken

[Willie_Dow]

Ken - I'm following up on a conversation about Lenox.  Don't know how many holes were involved in the original layout.


Need a little help here !   

[Ken Fry]

Willie,

There was a 9 hole layout on the property.  When it was exactly created is something I've yet found.  It was expanded to 18 holes in 1924 but I'm not sure if an architect was involved.

Here is the club's website:  http://lenoxclub.com/

The property stands as is and the course took up the land north of the existing buildings.

Ken

[Ken Fry]

Willie,

The original club was located in downtown Lenox beginning in 1864.  When they made the move to play golf at the current location, I'm not sure.  I found a photo of golfers on the original nine hole course dated 1891.  The course was on the estate of a Dr. John Greenleaf and later purchased by the Club.  In Harper's 1901 Listing of US courses, they list the establishment of the golf club as 1892.


On the south side of Lenox, Wyndhurst opened a nine hole course in 1886 that was converted to 18 holes in 1926 by Stiles and Van Kleek.  Ironically, only the Lenox Club is listed in Harper's course listing for Lenox, MA.


Whether anything in the area matches Oakhurst's claim of 1884 or St. Andrews' claim of being the first organized club in 1888 continues.  I believe many of these clubs were forgotten because of their seasonal nature and they weren't part of the founding group of the USGA.

Ken

[Willie_Dow]

Ken -


My fill in here involves Dr John Greenleaf, who I believe might have been involved with the Wyndhurst Hotel, later to become Cranwell School, now a hotel, I think - or a resort, with nine  - holes .


Am I on course ?


Willie




 

[Ken Fry]

Ken -


My fill in here involves Dr John Greenleaf, who I believe might have been involved with the Wyndhurst Hotel, later to become Cranwell School, now a hotel, I think - or a resort, with nine  - holes .


Am I on course ?


Willie

Willie,

Same town, different places.  John W. Sloan built the original "cottage" at Wyndhurst in 1894.  That property is what became Cranwell and, beginning this year, is apparently returning to the Wyndhurst name.  This is the course I referenced above that had  nine holes that was then converted to 18 by Stiles and Van Kleek in 1926.  This property alone is worthy of a research paper as its had a number of owners and uses.

Dr. John Greenleaf was a seasonal resident that owned the property that would eventually become part of The Lenox Club.  The course was created on his property and he would host the members of The Lenox Club until the club bought the property outright in 1914 after Dr. Greenleaf's death.  The present clubhouse was the Greenleaf home.  Hotel Aspinwall and the Curtis Hotel, both famous hotels at the time,  had an arrangement for guests to play the course.  Aspinwall was on the northeast side of the golf course but burned down in 1931.  It was located in what is now Kennedy Park.  The Curtis Hotel is located downtown. 

As I mentioned earlier, The Lenox Club began as nine holes but expanded to 18 holes in 1924.  I'm not aware of any architect credit.  With the loss of the Aspinwall Hotel and the Great Depression, the course was abandoned sometime around 1932 and the area returned to forest.  The Lenox Club has lived on for all these years.

Ken

[Willie_Dow]

Ken -


You mention that the registration of the course by the USGA might have been overlooked because of the location being a seasonal operation.


This would put Lenox in competition with Florida, and other locations, at that time in golf history.

[Ken Fry]

Willie,

You are correct.  So much was happening with golf around New England in the late 1800's.  As you know the earlier courses were similar to the course at Dr. Greenleaf's place, rudimentary.

It didn't take long for golf clubs to spring up around Berkshire County:

• Donald Ross at CC of Pittsfield in 1917 after the club created a nine hole course in a different location in 1897.
• Donald Ross at Greencok CC in 1927 after the first club was built in 1895
• Tillinghast at Berkshire Hills CC in 1925
• Stockbridge GC began playing golf in 1894, incorporated in 1895
• Wyantenuck CC founded in 1896
• Forest Park GC founded in 1900
• North Adams GC founded in 1899
• Mount Everett GC founded in 1895
• Taconic GC organized in 1897

Since so many began on private property with such basic layouts and have since moved (many more than three times in a club's history) arguing which one came first will never have an exact answer.  I believe it's safe to say St. Andrews in New York was not the definitive first course in the US's golfing history.

Ken

[John Emerson]

Here is a picture from 1891 from Lenox Golf Club for some reference.  Anyone seen this before?


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WjpbJVrBf-kW4Qh0x1XMheP6WAazu-Z1/view?usp=sharing

[Troy Miller]

I know this is a hotly debated topic among those with claim to the title and I'm admittedly a big time homer for this angle, but golf was first played in North America in Charleston, SC in 1739 on Harleston Green on the downtown peninsula.  While this predates the formalization of the rules of golf by the R&A and the acceptance of both the 12 and 18 hole standards as well as the work of Old Tom Morris, I do wish someone would come across some record or account of a routing that was followed by the Harleston Green Golf Club. The club itself lasted until the early 1800s, losing out on its playing grounds to a military installation in the War of 1812 and subsequent logging ponds that were later filled to become some of our most architecturally significant neighborhoods.


I'd be curious to know what the oldest account of, or actual routing plan exists for any course - I assume there was some writing by early players eluding to their preferred directions of play towards the Eden estuary that may give some hint to how much evolution has occurred at the Old Course, but it seems that golf, pre OTM is largely prehistoric in nature.