Golf & Race Tracks

[Jason Thurman]

I can't remember where I heard this, but Eagle's Nest in Madison, IN (formerly the Madison Country Club) apparently was the site of a racetrack prior to the golf course's construction in 1914, and may have operated concurrently with the course for a while - very little information is available on that front.


A 1950 aerial can be seen on HistoricAerials.com and while the track may not have still been intact at that point, its "shadow" is pretty clearly visible on the course.

[Will Thrasher]

Brickyard Crossing?


It's cars, not horses, not sure if it counts.

My first thought as well. A bit gimmicky imo, but there's still something neat about a Pete Dye golf course with three holes inside one of the world's most iconic racing venues.

[Colin Sheehan]

I had Brickyard Crossing among the original images in slideshow; I just hadn't mentioned it by text in my first post.


I added my best guess of the original track in Rose City which was mostly visible in the old aerial on google earth.


And I just added my best guess on the Torrey Pines track. That must have been among the more scenic and thrilling tracks ever.

[Mike_Young]

Idlehour Golf Club in Macon Georgia once had a horse track and a few remnants remain on several holes.

[Michael Moore]

Great topic. I stayed across the street from Musselburgh and could not stop looking out the window.
 
I believe the track shown at The Country Club is a bicycle course. There is one at Vesper as well.

[Simon Barrington]

Been "googling" at lunch some UK Racecourses & GC's:


Royal Ascot GC used to play inside the racecourse at Royal Ascot, but have now moved to a new course right next to it.

The Aintree Racecourse (home of the famous Grand National) has a golf centre inside it called Aintree Golf Course (with Driving Range)

St. Georges Hill GC is right next to the former famous banked Motor Racing Oval at Brooklands in Surrey (the owner of which set up New Zealand GC as many will know already)

Great Yarmouth & Caister GC is inside the track at Great Yarmouth, as is Wincanton GC inside Wincanton, and there is a Course in the centre of Hereford Racecourse too.

Doncaster Town Moor GC is inside Doncaster Racecourse.

There is a course calld The Links GC next to Newmarket Racecourse, it is also surrounded by training gallops for local racing stables.

Fakenham GC has some holes in the middle of the track at Fakenham, as does Southwell GC at Southwell (pronounced "Suth-all")

The Northumberland GC has most of its holes in the centre of the track at Newcastle

There is a short course (9-holes?) and driving range known as The Warwick Golf Centre in the centre of the track at Warwick, as is the Sandown Park Golf Centre at Sandown (which I think has been mentioned already)

Leicester Golf Centres course is right next to Leicester's Racecourse, as is Pontefract & District GC next to Pontefract, and Market Rasen GC next to Market Rasen.

The RAC Club (2 Courses), Epsom GC & Woodcote Park alomost surround Epsom Racecourse (Home of the oldest horse race in the World, The Derby)

Newbury & Crookham GC looks down over Newbury Racecourse, as does Cleeve Hill over Cheltenham (but from way up on high!)

Lansdown GC is right next to Bath Racecourse, as are a few holes of East Brighton GC next to Brigthon Racecourse (which unusually is not a loop)

Lingfield Park GC is right next door to Lingfield Park, as is Uttoxeter GC next Uttoxeter, and Chester GC next to Chester (which claims to be the oldest racecourse in the World from 1539!)

Kelso GC is mostly inside Kelso Racecourse

Strathclyde Park Golf Course abuts Hamilton Racecourse


Happy Thanksgiving to all over there in the US.


Cheers!

[Bernie Bell]

Glen Riddle in Ocean City, Maryland has two courses, Man O' War and War Admiral, built on land of former Riddle Farms, which produced those two horses and Sea Biscuit.  I understand that the training track is a cross-hazard on some holes on one of the courses.  I've never played either one.

[Greg Hohman]

A variation on the track theme: Some ridings to hounds must share ground with golf courses. I can think of one hunt club based where an excellent golf course is. My invitations must have been lost in the mail, so I don’t know if the course is OB.

[BCrosby]

Colin -


Not quite the same thing, but Chicago Golf Club, in both its CBM and Raynor iterations, was built around a polo field. It is still possible to make it out.


Bob

[Joe Hancock]

Diablo CC in CA…..track isn’t there any more, but enough remnants to see where it was.

[Colin Sheehan]

Joe,
Thanks. I just added an image from 1939 that was from google earth. I've never seen the back-in-time function go earlier than mid 80s so that was a treat.


And thank you Simon for the list. I've added many of them.


Bernie, I added Glen Riddle.


Michael, are you asking if Brookline was a bicycle race course? Or somewhere else? Because Brookline was definitely a horse racing track. All those images are in the slideshow.


While there a few interesting moments at Great Yarmouth and Northumberland, I wish there were more instances of the track used in really meaningful way, where fence and boundary were strategic other than making things tight. Granted, the tracks do seem to add persistent peril to many of the courses. And I wonder if it is a playable hazard in some instances.


The first hole at Great Yarmouth is an exception in that is crosses the track twice to the par-four green. And there's a tight opening hole at Northumberland and several drives later on, but I wish there more instances it was used in some diagonal capacity.

[Michael Moore]

Sorry, Brookline has a visible bicycle track near the horse track.

[Tom_Doak]

I think Epsom Golf Club used to be more integrated with Epsom Downs, but I could be mistaken.  Northumberland and Royal Ascot definitely were, when I visited 40 years ago.  And I don't know if anyone has mentioned Royal
Durban in South Africa yet . . . not the great Durban CC, but a nearby course with several holes in the racetrack.


The old Speedway GC in Indy [precursor to Brickyard Crossing] had NINE holes in the infield and nine outside . . . Mr. Dye reduced it to four.holes.

[Tim_Cronin]

The original configuration at IMS was nine holes inside the track. Then nine were added outside, then another nine outside in 1956 and that 18 was used for the Speedway 500 Classic on the PGA Tour in the 1960s. All by Bill Diddel of Indianapolis. (Some tournament rounds were played during track practice, which led to complaints by the golfers about too much noise. Ya think?)


Pete Dye took the property and built a true test, 14 holes outside and four inside (7-10 normally, though the LPGA played those as the last four holes) near the back straightaway. As the track was then replacing its concrete walls with taller walls for NASCAR, Dye used some of the old slabs as hazards in place of his signature railroad ties. So you can hit the wall on the Brickyard course just as a driver can on the track.


The 500 is my favorite thing to cover all year and has been since 1979, but I've only been in the pro shop once and have yet to play the course.

[Colin Sheehan]

Tom,
You were correct about Royal Ascot. The entire golf course was within the track as of 2003 and it has since migrated to the east outside of it. (I see very little about Royal Ascot. Rather quiet for essentially a new build. Who did the work?) I added before and after images to the slideshow.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/DJkdmLw9espnXKTq6


I couldn't find an image with holes inside Epsom Downs.


I also added a pre-renovation of the Indianapolis speedway.

[Mark Pearce]

There was a cricket ground as well as the golf course within the track at Ascot.  I played there once on the Sunday of the Royal Ascot meeting.


The track is in play at Northumberland on 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 14, 16 and 17.  It's crossed on 18, as well.

[Colin Sheehan]

Mark,
I also added a 1945 image from Northumberland. It's great to see how very little has changed there.


Looks like it also crosses the track on 13 and on that wee dunt of a par-three, 14.


No doubt the track is in play on those holes, but what I was getting at is it often an ob feature parallel to the hole--and, apparently, a rather tight one at that.


I do think that first hole is really clever. And yes, the drive on hole 16, I believe, has an element of diagonal carry. 

[Michael Felton]

Of all the courses I've played on or beside race tracks, Northumberland is the one with the most interaction. As far as I am aware the golf course at Epsom Downs has always been the other side of the road. It all gets turned into parking and entertainment related stuff during Derby week, but that's about the limit of the interaction. The grandstand is in view from most of the course.


I was thinking of Goodwood too, but the golf course there isn't particularly close to the racetrack. Sandown is one that's fully enclosed, but I've only ever played the par 3 course there and that was about 40 years ago, so I remember nothing of it.

[Colin Sheehan]

Thanks, Michael. I've added Sandown.

Here's the recap:

Currently playing inside and outside:
Musselburgh
Great Yarmouth 
Northumberland 
Ludlow (one green out)
Gowran Park
Fakenham 
Kelso 
Indianapolis Motor Speedway 
Links, Newmarket (only first tee out)

Entirely Inside:
Paris CC, France
Leopardstown, Ireland
Durban CC, South Africa 
Doncaster Town Moor 
Sandown
Aintree
Warwick
Royal Golf Anfa, Morocco

Adjacent:
Jockey Club
Tauranga
Royal Ascot (former within)
Strathclyde Park
East Brighton
Epsom Downs
Bath
Ellerstina


Formerly had track:
The Bridge
Somerset Hills
Brookline
Torrey Pines
Hoylake (not in slideshow yet)
Ohoopee (Indy car-grade track rough shaped but never completed)
Longleaf
Diablo CC
Eagle's Nest, Indiana (not in slideshow yet)
Glen Riddle
Rose City
Idlehour (not in slideshow yet)
Jeffersonville (not in slideshow yet)
Torquay (not in slideshow yet)


Courses that No Longer Exist:

Babbacombe 
Speedway Park
Washington Park
Haarlem Jockey Club Chicago

[Chris Hughes]

Idlehour Golf Club in Macon Georgia once had a horse track and a few remnants remain on several holes.

I too was thinking about Idle Hour!!


It's not inside the course, or racing, but at Bethpage they play polo on a field that is directly adjacent to holes on both the Blue and Red courses.  They also fly (big) model airplanes on that field, on multiple occasions we have seen a plane get away from the operator and crash on the golf course. 

[Tim Martin]

Colin -


Not quite the same thing, but Chicago Golf Club, in both its CBM and Raynor iterations, was built around a polo field. It is still possible to make it out.


Bob

Polo fields predated the golf course at Piping Rock and serve as the driving range today.

[Michael Moore]

Kebo Valley quickly gave up the horse track in favor of golf.

[Adam Uttley]

Thanks, Michael. I've added Sandown.

Here's the recap:

Currently playing inside and outside:
Musselburgh
Great Yarmouth 
Northumberland 
Ludlow (one green out)
Gowran Park
Fakenham 
Kelso 
Indianapolis Motor Speedway 
Links, Newmarket (only first tee out)

Entirely Inside:
Paris CC, France
Leopardstown, Ireland
Durban CC, South Africa 
Doncaster Town Moor 
Sandown
Aintree
Warwick
Royal Golf Anfa, Morocco

Adjacent:
Jockey Club
Tauranga
Royal Ascot (former within)
Strathclyde Park
East Brighton
Epsom Downs
Bath
Ellerstina


Formerly had track:
The Bridge
Somerset Hills
Brookline
Torrey Pines
Hoylake (not in slideshow yet)
Ohoopee (Indy car-grade track rough shaped but never completed)
Longleaf
Diablo CC
Eagle's Nest, Indiana (not in slideshow yet)
Glen Riddle
Rose City
Idlehour (not in slideshow yet)
Jeffersonville (not in slideshow yet)
Torquay (not in slideshow yet)


Courses that No Longer Exist:

Babbacombe 
Speedway Park
Washington Park
Haarlem Jockey Club Chicago

You missed off Morfontaine (adjacent).


I think Yas Links also ought to go on the adjacent list.

[MKrohn]

There would be at the bare minimum half a dozen in Australia given there is a race track in almost every town, if you are doing adjacent, we have a golf course that is on a Formula 1 circuit

[Tim Leahy]

Santa Anita Golf Course in SoCal was built on the site of one of the original Santa Anita horse race tracks and you can even make out one of the turns shapes between holes.
Also NLE is the 9 hole pitch & putt within the infield of Golden Gate Park in SF, CA also within Bay Meadows race track near SF.
There was a course adjacent to Los Alamitos horse track by Pete Dye called Cypress Golf Course.
There was a topic with many more on this subject from March, 2014 if you do a search.