Yale GC: A Short History

Alex Eppler in the Yale Daily News files a nice story on the history of CB Macdonald and Seth Raynor's splendid but long-neglected Yale Golf Club design.

The course is seeing a maintenance resurgence verified by the awarding of a 2015 NCAA regional.

In 1923, the widow of former Bulldog football captain Ray Tompkins 1884 bestowed Yale with a sizable donation to be used for the University’s athletic programs. The University purchased a 700-acre swath of land close to Yale’s campus that golf course architect Charles Blair Macdonald once described as forest, rock and muck.

Eighty-nine years later, one of the country’s premier college golf courses occupies that area. Ranked by Golfweek as the No. 1 campus course for the past three years, the course at Yale will play host to an NCAA regional tournament for the fifth time in its history in 2015. Director of Golf Operations Peter Pulaski said the course stands as a prime example of early American golf architecture.

“It remains a very relevant, challenging test of golf for college golfers,” men’s golf team head coach Colin Sheehan ’97 said. “It really was one of the landmark courses from that golden age of design.”

Ran Morrissett's 2008 review of Yale includes a nice photo tour during the fall.