Which is the most historic golf course site?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Baltusrol? Murdered farmer.
Rome, Aquasanta? How holy was the water?
Berkhamsted? Ancient earthworks crossing the course.
Prenton? A Roman road crossing the course.

I mean seriously historic, not just that golf has been played there since 1512....

[Tommy Williamsen]

I forget the hole but there was a duel at San Fransisco GC.

[Pat Burke]

Wasn't there a course at one time in Gettysburg?

[BCrosby]

There are earthworks on East Lake that (purportedly) were built by the Confederates on the eve of the Battle of Atlanta.

I recall reading that Woking was built on the site of a massive paupers' grave used by the City of London in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bob

 

[Bill_McBride]

The Beacon and Iron Age fort at Painswick.

Roman road in front of 12th green at Royal Cinque Ports.

Gettysburg and Atlanta?  Nouveau stuff.

[Dan Kelly]

Baltusrol? Murdered farmer.

Not an attempted answer to your question, but ... perhaps there's a chapter about Golf and Murder.

Minikahda was built on the site of a notorious murder.

See Rick Shefchik's book "From Fields to Fairways: The Historic Golf Clubs of Minnesota."

[Joe Bausch]

Shenley Pines (NLE here in Philly):

[Jim_Kennedy]

Haltwhistle GC:

Haltwhistle Golf Club claims to be the only golf club on both Hadrian's Wall and the Pennine Way as well as having excellent views over the Tyne Valley and of course of Haltwhistle. The course boasts a full 18 hole golf course. Haltwhistle Golf Club is roughly 20 minutes from our bed and breakfast accommodation in Gilsland.

[Pete_Pittock]

La Perouse (NSW). Captain Cook alit there in 1580 for watering.

 I've been to a couple of golf courses in Idaho Oregon Trail GC, Soda Springs) and Wyoming ITrail Rut GC) which have traces of the Oregon Trail remaining crossing their fairways.  http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,31126.0.html

The answer is probably around the Mediterranean or the Middle East

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Aren't there megalithic tombs at Painswick?

[Mark Chaplin]

Bill - in 1782 Mary Bax was walking along the ancient highway where the 12th is now when she was attacked and murdered by a Swedish sailor. A stone on the other side of the road reads;

On this spot
August the 25th, 1782
MARY BAX, Spinster,
aged 23 years
was murdered by
MARTIN LASH, a foreigner,
who was executed for the same.

To the right of the second tee on club land by the sea wall is the site of Sandown Castle built by Henry VIII in 1540. Then you have the pill box defence from the second world war on the right of the 16th. Alongside 17-15 on the right of the fairways in the rough is an 18" wide concrete footpath, this is also WW2 and was built to allow the gunners to cycle to the various defences.

I'm sure there are many courses on land with a colourful history.

[Chris Roselle]

Old Head Golf Links is very historic with its conection to the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915.

[Jim Hoak]

A duel at SF Club over slavery played a part in Lincoln being elected President by throwing the new state of California to him.  That led to the US Civil War.  It doesn't get more historical than that.  And the dueling weapons hang in the locker room.

[Tom_Doak]

Cape Kidnappers [the peninsula] got its name when the local Maoris kidnapped Captain Cook's translator [a native islander] to try and rescue him from the white man.

Moundbuilders G & CC in Newark, Ohio, is the site of ancient native American burial mounds which come into play on the course.

New South Wales was the course where I personally felt history most strongly.  But I've never been to the course near the Pyramids in Giza.

Jim Hoak:  I knew the story of the Broderick-Terry duel, but didn't realize it was quite that long ago [1859].

[Malcolm Mckinnon]

Some of the final skirmishes during the Revolutionary War Battle of Princeton in 1777 were fought on land that is now part of the 6th hole at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton.

The 10th hole at Myopia Hunt features the "Taft bunker" about 20 yards short of the green. President Taft was a portly fellow and after descending into the bunker to execute his escape found that he could not climb out. They had to get horses from the club stables and ropes in order to haul him back into play.

[Rich Goodale]

Cruden Bay was built on the site of the final battle between the Danes and the Scots in 1012.  According to the Scots (the winners) 10,000 Danes were killed in the battle.  Local legend has it that many of those 10,000 were buried on what is now the 17th hole, creating that feature mound in the middle of the fairway.  The name of the famous (and truly great) 6th hole "Buildy Burn" refers to the burn guarding the green running red with Danish blood 7 hours after the battle was over.

That's pretty historic, at least IMHO.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Caves riddle the cliffs upon which Pinnacle Point in ZA was built. Stone Age people lived in these caves around 150,000 years ago. The caves are believed to show evidence of symbolic behavior occurring far earlier than was commonly thought, going back to at least 75,000 years ago and including beads, heat-hardened tools -- so, in other words, this is where the command of fire was born -- abstract art, and systemic exploitation of shellfish. (Some speculate the nutrients in shellfish enabled these people to develop mental capacity.)

In other words, experts believe this area may be where civilization was born -- one controversial contention is the Ice Age wiped out humans everywhere but a swath of the African coast including Pinnacle Point, and that we all descend from that hardy band.

So: prehistoric -- but "historic".

[David Amarnek]

George Washington marched his Continental Army from Whitemarsh, which was felt to be too close to occupied Philadelphia and moved to Gulph Mills and camped for six days on the site of Gulph Mills GC.  On December 19, 1777 they moved to Valley Forge, where they remained until the spring.

Washington addressed his troops at Gulph Mills and thanked them for their "fortitude and patience" and promised them, if they persevered, they would achieve "the end of our Warfare, Independence, Liberty and Peace."

Pretty cool!

[Pete_Pittock]

The Battle of Short Hills was fought on the fourth hole at Plainfield.

[Nigel Islam]

Blue Rock Springs Golf Club in Vallejo was the site of one of the Zodiac killers murders & he also killed someone in very close proximity to the Presidio in 1969. One of the most infamous unsolved cases in history.

[Tom_Doak]

Caves riddle the cliffs upon which Pinnacle Point in ZA was built. Stone Age people lived in these caves around 150,000 years ago. The caves are believed to show evidence of symbolic behavior occurring far earlier than was commonly thought, going back to at least 75,000 years ago and including beads, heat-hardened tools -- so, in other words, this is where the command of fire was born -- abstract art, and systemic exploitation of shellfish. (Some speculate the nutrients in shellfish enabled these people to develop mental capacity.)

In other words, experts believe this area may be where civilization was born -- one controversial contention is the Ice Age wiped out humans everywhere but a swath of the African coast including Pinnacle Point, and that we all descend from that hardy band.

So: prehistoric -- but "historic".

I am amazed they got permits to build the course under those circumstances, even if the caves are 100 feet underneath the course.

[Brad Tufts]

I believe there was a little funky course among the ramparts at El Morro castle in San Juan a one point.  I think a couple holes required a bank shot!

[Cristian]

Omaha Beach GC, Normandy (D-day)

[Mark Hissey]

There's also the Roman Road course at Celtic manor. There is the remains of a gladiator school on the site.

Isn't there the remnants of a really old racecourse on Somerset Hills too?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Musgrove Mill is built on the site of a Revolutionary War battlefield--the Battle of Musgrove Mill.