Top 100 Courses in the World, 2020-21: GOLF’s raters name the best of the best
The WMF currently approves four different course types:
The Top 20 Golf Courses in the United States in 2019
The Colonial Experience
Van Cortlandt Park Golf CourseJuly 6, 1895 - Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course opens - the first public golf course in America. The Country Club of Rochester is founded. The club is still operating in its original location today.
Saint Andrews Golf Club The club was founded in February 1888 by a Scottish sportsman named John Reid and his friends built a three yard course and played what is widely called the first round of golf in America.
The Old Course at St Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland, UK, is the oldest golf course in the world. Archbishop Hamilton's Charter in 1552 is the earliest documentary evidence that allowed the people of St Andrews to play golf on the Links.
The Van Cortlandt Golf CourseThe Van Cortlandt Golf Course opened on July 6, 1895, as the first public municipal golf course in the United States.
Weequahic Golf CourseWeequahic Golf Course (pronounced we-QWAY-ik) is an 18-hole public course located in the Dayton section of Newark, New Jersey. Designed in 1913 by George Low, it is the oldest public golf course in New Jersey.
Because the Presidio course was temporarily converted back into a practice drill field during the Spanish-American War, Del Monte Golf Course holds the distinction of being the oldest golf course in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River.
Historians believe that early versions of golf — such as the aforementioned ball and stick games and early Dutch precursors to golf— arose in America between 1650 and 1660 in upstate New York.
In the spring of 1893, Macdonald wrote in his c. 1925 book Scotland's Gift – Golf, that he increased the number of holes at Belmont to 18, creating the first 18-hole golf course in North America. On July 18, 1893, the charter was granted for the Chicago Golf Club.
The first ever 18-hole course was constructed at St Andrews in 1764, establishing the now recognised standard for the game.
Niagara Golf Club circa 1875 This is the oldest surviving golf course in North America.
It is believed that the Palmetto Golf Club is the oldest continually-operating 18-hole golf course in the Southeast that is still in its original location. Palmetto Golf Club could also be the second oldest golf club in the United States as well.
PrestwickStrath had the lead after the first round on 55, a one stroke ahead of Willie Dow and Park, and two ahead of Old Tom Morris. Making his debut, Young Tom Morris scored 60....1865 Open Championship.Tournament informationDates14 September 1865LocationPrestwick, South Ayrshire, ScotlandCourse(s)Prestwick Golf ClubStatistics7 more rows
The new Chicago Golf Club course hosted the 1897, 1900 and 1911 U.S. Opens, the 1897, 1905, 1909 and 1912 U.S. Amateurs and the 1903 U.S. Women’s Amateur. The Chicago Golf Club is still going strong today and considers itself the first 18-hole golf course in America.
However, these 9-holes were destroyed during the 1938 hurricane and were never rebuilt. 9. Saint Andrews Golf Club. Although this list shows otherwise, the Saint Andrews Golf Club claims it is the oldest golf club and has the oldest golf course in America.
The course slowly evolved over the years and today, there are 27 holes called the Clyde, Squirrel and Primrose nines.
Area: 61 acres (24.7 ha) photo source: Wikimedia Commons. The Foxburg Country Club is another golf club that’s brought up any time there is a discussion over which golf course is the oldest in America. The club’s founder was Joseph Mickle Fox, a descendant of the land and oil rich Fox family from Philadelphia.
Montegue had learned about golf in Scotland and decided to build his own golf course right outside of his home, which served as the Oakhurst Links Clubhouse for many years. The first competition at Oakhurst was held in 1888. Although Oakhurst is the oldest golf course, it has not been in continuous operation.
The Quogue Field Club is an old private golf course in New York, which dates back to 1901. However, the club was founded in 1887 , but they did not initially play golf. A rough 9-hole course was laid out in 1896 by RB Wilson, who has head pro at nearby Shinnecock Hills.
The Chicago Golf Club continued to play golf at the Downers Grove course until 1895, when it moved to a new course built again by MacDonald in nearby Wheaton, Illinois. After this, the golf course was passed around to different owners before it was purchased by the Downers Grove Park District in 1968.
St Andrew’s Golf Club (New York) also deserves mention because it is among the oldest golf courses with continuous use today. The golf club proudly acknowledges more than 125 years of continuous course play and can attribute continuous play on the current course back to 1897 — although the club itself has been notably active since 1888. Shortly after the opening of St Andrew’s course in 1897, the Savannah Golf Club responded with a course that has been in use since 1899. Although there are some discrepancies about what makes a golf course old, the oldest golf courses or clubs in the United States are all worth visiting if the opportunity arises. They are all an important piece of history and loved by their communities.
Consider the Foxburg Golf Club (Pennsylvania), and The Oakhurst Golf Club (West Virginia). Both Foxburg and Oakhurst had records of playable courses in 1884. The Foxburg, however, was a private course on private property that only had eight holes when it was created.
Originally, the Quogue was an 18-hole course. In 1938, however, three holes were lost to a natural disaster. Now, only nine holes remain of the original 18 from 1887. Those nine holes are among the oldest in the United States golf course history.
The course was originally only nine holes, but it was increased to 18 in 1893. The 18 holes were redesigned in 1895 and moved to a location in Wheaton, making it the second oldest 18-hole course still existing in the United States, next to Shinnecock. All 18 holes, sadly, are no longer accessible.
The Oakhurst Golf Club also formed in 1884. Oakhurst claims to be “the first organized golf club in the United States.”. Remember, some golf clubs at that time were not exclusively golf clubs. Oakhurst is the oldest golf course still in use in the same location in the United States. Although the Oakhurst links make up one ...
Shortly after the opening of St Andrew’s course in 1897 , the Savannah Golf Club responded with a course that has been in use since 1899. Although there are some discrepancies about what makes a golf course old, the oldest golf courses or clubs in the United States are all worth visiting if the opportunity arises.
The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec has a history of different locations. When the Royal Montreal first opened in 1873, it was a highly recognized club. It even received a Royal title from Queen Victoria.
St Andrews Golf Club. 1888 1897 1897. The St Andrews Golf Club is presently the oldest golf club documented to be in continuous existence in USA. It was started, as is widely known, by John Reid and four friends on three holes in an orchard on the outskirts of New York in November 1888 and nicknamed the Apple Tree Gang.
The Savannah Golf Club, in Georgia, USA can trace its origins back to 1794 and claim to be the oldest golf club in North America and USA, on a non-continuous basis. There is a note in 1796 of the club holding a ball and also a notice of the annual general meeting to be held 1st October 1796 being the anniversary of the club formation.
This is the oldest extant course in North America which has 18 holes. The initial course of 12 holes was designed by Willie Davis from the Royal Montreal Club and opened in summer 1891. In 1894, Willie Dunn himself added 6 more holes to make it an 18-hole course.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club was founded in 1891, and has the oldest extant 18-hole golf course, as well as the oldest golf clubhouse, started in 1892 in America. It was also the first club in America to admit women, which it did from the start, and possibly the second in the world to do so, after Aldeburgh GC in England.
The present Savannah Golf Club and course was founded in 1899, apparently without knowledge of its ancestry at the time or for decades after, (much like Fraserburgh Golf Club ).
USGA. The US Golf Association was formed in 1894 and the Canadian Golf Association a year later in 1895. The founding members of the USGA were St Andrews Golf Club, The Country Club, the Chicago Golf Club, the Newport Golf Club and the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. The Country Club 1892 1893 1899.
The first golf course was a 9-hole layout on Fletcher’s Field, part of Mount Royal Park on the outskirts of Montreal but the club moved to Dixie in 1896 where it remained for over sixty years until it moved to its present site at Ile Bizard in 1959.
1961: Pine Tree Golf Club | Boynton Beach, Fla. - Dick Wilson, who worked with great Canadian architect Stanley Thompson, turned the profuse flanking bunkering and runway tees that marked "Dark Age" golf course design into high art. The tee box on the par-5 16th at this private club in Boynton Beach is 147 yards long. Sam Snead used to bet visitors that they couldn't hit a 7-iron from end to end. He cleaned up. Hogan called the course "maybe the best flat golf course in America." He's not far off; it's a wonderful example of post-war architecture.
1990: Troon North Golf Club (Monument) | Scottsdale, Ariz. - Troon North helped accelerate the development of high-end golf in the desert surrounding the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, and it also helped institute the country-club-for-a-day model, where daily fee golfers started to be treated to perks like cushy locker rooms, personalized service, immaculate course conditions and triple-digit green fees. Architects Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, who had considerable success in the last two decades of the century and the early 2000s, added to their successful Troon North debut with the 1995 opening of the Pinnacle Course.
The modern game of golf is generally considered to be a Scottish invention. A spokesman for The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, one of the oldest Scottish golf organisations, said "Stick and ball games have been around for many centuries, but golf as we know it today, played over 18 holes, clearly originated in Scotland." The word golf, or in Scots gowf [gʌuf], is usually thought to be a Scots alteration of Dutch " colf " or " colve " meaning " stick, " club ", " bat ", itself related to the Proto-Germanic language *kulth- as found in Old Norse kolfr meaning " bell clapper", and the German Kolben meaning " mace or club". The Dutch term Kolven refers to a related sport where the lowest number of strokes needed to hit a ball with a mallet into a hole determines the winner; according to the "Le grand dictionnaire françois-flamen" printed 1643 is stated the Dutch term to Flemish: "Kolf, zest Kolve; Kolfdrager, Sergeant; Kolf, Kolp, Goulfe."
A golf-like game is, apocryphally, recorded as taking place on February 26, 1297, in Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. The winner was whoever hit the ball with the fewest strokes into a target several hundred yards away. Some scholars argue that this game of putting a small ball in a hole in ...
These standards were later followed by a USGA regulation stating that the initial velocity of any golf ball cannot exceed 250 feet per second.
The evolution of golf can be explained by the development of the equipment used to play the game. Some of the most notable advancements in the game of golf have come from the development of the golf ball. The golf ball took on many different forms before the 1930s when the United States Golf Association (USGA) set standards for weight and size. These standards were later followed by a USGA regulation stating that the initial velocity of any golf ball cannot exceed 250 feet per second. Since this time, the golf ball has continued to develop and impact the way the game is played.
In December 1650, the settlers of Fort Orange (near present-day Albany, New York) played the first recorded round of kolf (golf) in America. The Dutch settlers played kolf year round. During the spring, summer and fall it was played in fields. In the winter it was played on ice with the same rules.
Another notable factor in the evolution of golf has been the development of golf clubs. The earliest golf clubs were made of wood that was readily available in the area.
The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (1829), the Mauritius Gymkhana Club (1844) and the club at Pau (1856) in south western France are notable reminders of these excursions and are the oldest golf clubs outside of the British Isles. The Pau Golf Club is the oldest in continental Europe.
Some say it started in Scotland; some say it started in North Carolina. If we're talking time period alone, Scotland wins the hole-in-one. Back in 1867, a group of women formed the Ladies' Putting Club of St. Andrews as a response to the belief of the day that golf was unladylike.
Soon, people began building small putting courses on New York City rooftops. Once the Great Depression hit, though, most people couldn't afford to play golf. So smaller mini-golf courses started popping up with scrounged-up materials, like old rain pipes, tires and barrels, for obstacles.
A fun family outing, a unique date or a beach vacation tradition, miniature golf (or mini-golf) is 18 holes of silly obstacles, ramps and rails. It's almost like a cartoon version of regular golf. Who would come up with such an idea?
Then, around 1916, a man named James Barber developed a miniature golf course in North Carolina called "Thistle Dhu.".
Soon enough, mini-golf became fun for people of all ages and backgrounds. The courses and obstacles started becoming more and more complicated and elaborate. Mini-golf always has the element of surprise: You never know when your ball might get knocked away by a wayward windmill propeller or chomped up by a clown's mouth.