The board of directors of The Edgewood Club of Tivoli have authorized me to pursue notification of the club's status as the oldest existing U.S. club with continuous golf at the same location. I have sent related material to the USGA and am awaiting a response. I have also prepared an article about the club which is reproduced below. It is currently written from a local perspective but I believe it provides information about the club that will be of interest.
Is the Oldest Golf Club in the U.S. in Dutchess County?
Dutchess County is home to some historic golf courses and clubs. The Dutcher Golf Course in Pawling (1890) is the oldest municipal course in the U.S. The Dinsmore Golf Course in Staatsburg was originally the private Staatsburg Golf Club, which was formed in 1893; the golf course opened in 1894 and is among the oldest courses in the country. But, is it possible that the oldest golf club in America is also here?
Well, that depends on the criteria used to define “oldest” and there’s much debate about those criteria. For example, some clubs were founded earlier than any club in Dutchess County but did not have golf until several years later – do they qualify? Other clubs, including two in South Carolina which were founded in the late 1700’s, are now at different locations and one of them has a different name – do they qualify? Still other early clubs, including the Oakhurst Links in West Virginia which some claim is the oldest, have not had golf continuously – do they qualify? Finally, if a club no longer exists, does it qualify?
If the answer to all of these questions is “No” then the oldest existing golf club in the U.S. with continuous golf at its original location is, in fact, in Dutchess County. It is The Edgewood Club of Tivoli.
The Edgewood Club was founded in 1884, primarily for the purposes of tennis and social activity. The founders were wealthy and aristocratic river families, notably the Livingston’s, Hall’s and Hunt’s. A rudimentary golf course was started in 1884 with two holes. With incremental additions there were seven holes by 1909. In 1916 when two members gave use of adjoining land to the club, the course was expanded to nine holes. The course and the original tiny clubhouse have remained in continuous use to the present day.
The Edgewood golf course reflects the rudimentary construction of early courses. It is a mere 3010 yards in length with a Par of 34. Little has changed over the years, except for a relocation of the ninth green because the original green was dangerously close to the clubhouse, the reconfiguration and lengthening of some holes, and the addition of some back tees.
The Edgewood Club is private, very private. It is nestled in dense woods just south of the Livingston’s Clermont estate, with no sign at its dirt road entrance. In addition to the golf course and clubhouse, four of the five original tennis courts remain at their original locations below the clubhouse porch, albeit with new surfaces and the addition of fencing. So too remain remnants of the original entrance road from which carriage horses entered the club grounds, as well as porch furniture from 1884 and many of the club’s traditions – notably the Saturday Afternoon Teas that began 130 years ago. A visit to The Edgewood Club of Tivoli is a visit to a bygone era, and to a club that can claim to be the oldest continuously existing golf club in America.
You might ask why the club has gone unnoticed in the discussion of the oldest U.S. golf clubs. The reason is the club’s private nature. It began as a family club with a membership that consisted exclusively of Livingston family members and their friends, a membership that had neither need nor desire for notoriety. From its aristocratic beginnings, the club’s membership has evolved into a broad base of local and summer residents. However, the atmosphere and decorum of the club remain much as they were 130 years ago.
Some Interesting Sidelights• The club’s founding meeting was held at the Oakhurst home of Mrs. Valentine Hall in
Tivoli. She was a grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt.
• Colonel Johnston L. de Peyster was a major factor in the club’s early development. He
acquired the club’s original property, built the first tennis court with cement, was one
of the builders of the clubhouse, and served as the club’s second president. During the
Civil War as Lieutenant de Peyster he raised the Union flag at the capitol building at
the battle of Richmond. Later he was the mayor of Tivoli for several years.
• The club’s first president, General H.L. Burnette, was the judge advocate who compiled
the evidence against the conspirators after President Lincoln’s assassination.
• In its early years the club had tennis players of national prominence. Valentine Hall won the
U.S. Open Doubles Championship in 1888 and 1890. He was runner-up three other times, one
of them with his brother Edward. Valentine also published the 1889 book Lawn Tennis in
America.
• The present-day club has no employees. Maintenance of the tennis courts and golf course is
outsourced. All social events are arranged and managed by club members.
• Curiously, the St. Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson NY has been widely acclaimed
as the oldest U.S. golf club. This club was formed by the romantic “Apple Tree Gang” in 1888
with a 3-hole course in a Yonkers NY pasture. However, in addition to The Edgewood Club of
Tivoli, three other existing clubs had golf courses which predate St. Andrew’s: Dorset Field
Club in Vermont (1886), Foxburg Country Club in Pennsylvania (1887) and Quoque Field
Club in New York (1887).
Tom Buggy, December 2014