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Kyle Harris

Thread title says it all. Got curious after considering Tom Paul's comments regarding old green construction methods in the other thread and how most recorded knowledge goes to the early 20's with the advent of the USGA Green Section Record.

What's the oldest golf course?
Oldest golf course feature?

Mine is Lulu Country Club - Donald Ross designed and built the course in 1918. This just edges out Llanerch Country Club (Findlay and later McGovern) by a year.

Joe Hancock

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2006, 09:58:15 PM »
As with many things historic, the dates may be debatable, but both Kent CC (Michigan) and Cape Fear CC (NC) were "established" in 1896. If I've played anything older, I don't recall.

Joe
" What the hell is the point of architecture and excellence in design if a "clever" set up trumps it all?" Peter Pallotta, June 21, 2016

"People aren't picking a side of the fairway off a tee because of a randomly internally contoured green ."  jeffwarne, February 24, 2017

Pete Lavallee

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2006, 09:58:51 PM »
The 9 hole Highland Links GC on Cape Cod was built in 1892, however it didn't get grass greens until 1916; does it count?
"...one inoculated with the virus must swing a golf-club or perish."  Robert Hunter

Kyle Harris

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2006, 10:00:41 PM »
Pete,

Naturally.

Were some of the features from the first iteration still there?

Michael Moore

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2006, 10:03:20 PM »
Grindstone Neck

Established 1891, Alex Findlay laid out the current holes circa 1900.

The Maine Island Golf Tour is just months away!



Metaphor is social and shares the table with the objects it intertwines and the attitudes it reconciles. Opinion, like the Michelin inspector, dines alone. - Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First

Evan Fleisher

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2006, 10:03:52 PM »
I guess it's gotta be Chicago Golf Club for me, although my home course (Dubuque Golf & Country Club) was founded in 1898, but the course (originally a 9-holer) was not built until sometime after that 1900's or 1910's...
Born Rochester, MN. Grew up Miami, FL. Live Cleveland, OH. Handicap 13.2. Have 26 & 23 year old girls and wife of 29 years. I'm a Senior Supply Chain Business Analyst for Vitamix. Diehard walker, but tolerate cart riders! Love to travel, always have my sticks with me. Mollydooker for life!

Kyle Harris

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2006, 10:04:15 PM »
Michael,

Good to see you online. This is my first time on GCA for awhile, but I received the Castine History yesterday.

Thank you again. Hope to meet up with you this summer and give you the owed round.  ;)

Carlyle Rood

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2006, 10:10:33 PM »
I played Savannah Golf Club about a dozen years ago.  It was founded in 1794; but, I'm not sure when they built the course.  I see they hosted the 2nd Georgia State Amateur in 1917.  (I found these dates on the GSGA site obviously.)

Ironically, I moved to Savannah in January.  I haven't seen it since moving here, however.

Carlyle

peter_p

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2006, 10:12:02 PM »
Oakhurst, WV original 1884, restored 1990s. Hickory clubs and gutta percha balls supplied. http://www.oakhurstlinks.com/

Gearhart Golf Links, OR, original 1892. Pure links golf, the main course was updated in the 1930s by H Chandler Egan. The owners only irrigated the first hole which parallels the road. Everything else was firm and fast. It is the same type of topography as Astoria GC, (8 mile north) but the dunes are smaller. I have not played it since new work by William Robinson. http://gearhartgolflinks.com/
« Last Edit: April 05, 2006, 10:35:12 PM by Peter Pittock »

David Ober

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2006, 10:17:40 PM »
Redlands Country Club in Redlands, California, and The Victoria Club in Riverside California (my home town), established in 1899(?) and 1903, respectively, making them two of the oldest golf clubs in the U.S. west of the Mississippi.

Lester George

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2006, 10:19:57 PM »
Oakhurst in WV, 1886?

LG

Pete Lavallee

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2006, 10:25:25 PM »
Kyle,


The most famous feature of Highland Links is the 115 yard 9th hole, the green is two tiered from high right to low left. The rest of the greens have evolved to nothing more than disks; the course could be catagorized as both rugged and primative. The 2cnd is good, 480 yd down through a valley, with a well bunkered green. The soil is sandy, firm and dry, probably more from neglect than intent. It's had many revisions over the years and probably has very few original features really. I can't think of any features that evoke the period it claims to be from.

Strangely enough 30 miles back towards the armpit of the Cape is Little Marion GC; George Thomas's first design in 1906. It has many unique features which are quite original. There are stone walls that surround greens, and berms, rocks covered with earth, both perpendicular and parallel to play. It certainly fits the Steeple Chase School of architecture; everything is very rectangular, we used to call it the "Indian Burial Grounds". There is a blind aproach to the par 4 1st and a right angle dog leg 2cnd. The 9th has the best feature a 100 yard par 3 with a 10 foot high bunker built up against a rock wall to protect the green.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2006, 10:27:36 PM by Pete Lavallee »
"...one inoculated with the virus must swing a golf-club or perish."  Robert Hunter

Wayne Freeman

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2006, 10:26:51 PM »
I played the 9 hole Oakhurst Links in White Sulphur Springs near the Greenbrier a few years ago.  It is reputed to be the oldest golf course in the U.S., built in 1884.  It was restored in 1992 by Bob Cupp.  You still play it as it was-  hickory clubs, gutta percha balls, sand tees-  and the sheep there still mow the fairways.  

Craig_Rokke

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2006, 11:06:32 PM »
1892-Old Course @ The Homestead (oldest first tee in    continuous use)Ross is credited, but then who did the 1892 work?
1899-Ives Hill-Watertown NY-Maurice McCarthy
1909-Leatherstocking, NY-Emmet
1909-West Chester, PA CC
1910-Galen Hall-(9) Wernersville, PA--Findlay

Bedford Springs & Torresdale Frankford, both revised by Ross
in the 'teens. Not sure when built.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2006, 11:12:38 PM by Craig_Rokke »

Tim Gavrich

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2006, 11:34:45 PM »
I'm pretty sure palmetto GC was founded in the 19th century; I wanna say 1892, but I could well be wrong.

Sharon (CT) CC was, I believe, founded in 1895.  It has some of the very smallest greens I've ever seen, and it's a cool little (c.3000 yards, nine holes) course in the NW corner of CT. I'd be interested in any history anyone here may know.
Senior Writer, GolfPass

Craig Sweet

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2006, 11:45:06 PM »
The Dorset Field Club (VT) founded in 1868 or some such, and the next oldest I've played is probably Taconic GC....

Bill_Yates

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #16 on: April 06, 2006, 12:59:10 AM »
Del Monte Golf Course, Monterey, California is know as the "oldest course west of the Mississippi."  Del Monte was built in 1897 with the design credit going to Charles Maud.

Owned and managed by Pebble Beach Company, it's a great bargain and a wonderful experience.
Bill Yates
www.pacemanager.com 
"When you manage the pace of play, you manage the quality of golf."

Eric Franzen

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #17 on: April 06, 2006, 02:47:15 AM »
Kebo Valley, Maine.

First six holes completed in 1892.

Mike_Sweeney

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #18 on: April 06, 2006, 09:15:04 AM »
In America, probably Newport in 1894 instead of Shinnecock in 1891 as that course was located across "the highway". Not sure how much of Newport was there in 1894, so the true winner would probably be County Sligo. From the club's website:

 
The club owes it's existence to Lieutenant Colonel James Campbell who chaired the first meeting of the club on the 18th of October 1894 and became it's first captain. Harper Campbell Perry became the first Hon Secretary and with the assistance of Author Jackson, these three are regarded as the founding fathers of the club. The proposed location of the links was Henry Middleton's land at Rosses Point, which had been immortalised in verse by Middleton's nephew W.B Yeats:


" My name is Henry Middleton,
I have a small demesne,
A small forgotten house that's set,
On a storm bitten green.
I scrub its floors and make my bed
I cook and change my plate,
The post and garden-boy alone
Have keys to my old gate."

« Last Edit: April 06, 2006, 09:16:06 AM by Mike Sweeney »

wsmorrison

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #19 on: April 06, 2006, 09:54:19 AM »
The Old Course at the Homestead (1892).  I know the first tee is supposed to be original but I don't think anything else is (and I'm not so sure about the tee).  The 1892 course was 6 holes that was extended to 9 in 1896 and to 18 holes in 1901.  Ross did a major redesign of the course with plans completed in 1913 and the work finally finished after WWI in 1918.  Flynn redesigned most of the golf course in 1925 after the success of his Cascades design.  The course today is a mixture of Ross (2,12,13 and 16) Flynn (3-8,10,11,14,15 and 17) and RTJ, Jr. (1,9 and 18).
« Last Edit: April 06, 2006, 02:09:08 PM by Wayne Morrison »

Brad Tufts

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #20 on: April 06, 2006, 10:00:30 AM »
Highland Links on the cape, 1892, although they were hitting balls around the polo grounds at Myopia in the 1880's.....I think Dorset didn't claim to play any golf until at least 1884 or 5 if I'm right.  I've driven by that course many times, it looks like some quirky old fun kind of like Rutland CC.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2006, 10:03:33 AM by Brad Tufts »
So I jump ship in Hong Kong....

mike_malone

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #21 on: April 06, 2006, 10:13:35 AM »
 When I lived in Vt. we played a course near Plattsburgh N.Y. that I believe claimed to be a very early course. Maybe someone knows more about that.
AKA Mayday

tlavin

Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #22 on: April 06, 2006, 10:20:54 AM »
Chicago Golf Club, 1895.  Midlothian CC and Flossmoor CC, 1898.

Andrew Cunningham

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #23 on: April 06, 2006, 11:24:08 AM »
Does America mean "North America?"  If so the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course is the oldest golf course in North America, circa 1875.  http://notlgolf.com/index.html  Here's what the website says, "When John Geale Dickenson first laid out a few golf holes in 1875 on the Fort George common, which was just across the road from the family home on John Street, little did he know that it was just the beginning of part of North America's golf history.

Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course had the distinction of being host to the first ever-international tournament held in North America. That event - the Niagara International - was held September 5-7, 1895.

At the first Niagara International, the first hole served as the host of the longest drive championship. The eventual winner of both the tournament and the longest drive was an individual named Charles B. Macdonald of the Chicago Golf Club. He later would lay claim to the first official U.S. Amateur championship at Newport Golf Club. On the first hole he blasted a drive 179 yards, one foot and 6 inches."

That's the oldest I know of and have played.

Andrew

Jason Topp

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Re:What is the oldest golf course you've played (in America)?
« Reply #24 on: April 06, 2006, 11:30:33 AM »
Waveland, Des Moines - dubbed as the oldest course West of the Mississippi.  I have seen a variety of dates, most of which are in the 1890's.