New Haven Country Club
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| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Hamden, Connecticut |
| Established | 1898 |
| Type | Private |
| Total holes | 18 |
| Website | newhavencc.com |
| Designed by | Willie Park Jr. |
| Par | 70 |
| Length | 6,602 yards |
| Course rating | 71.8 |
| Slope rating | 131 |
| Course record | 58 |
New Haven Country Club is a private country club located in Hamden, Connecticut. Founded in 1898 NHCC is one of the oldest golf courses in America. The club was founded in downtown New Haven and then moved to newly purchased farmland along Lake Whitney in Hamden a year later. Notable early members include President William Taft, Walter Camp, Eli Whitney III, Henry Sargent, Frank Bigelow, Winthrop Bushnell, and Henry Hotchkiss. The club's PGA Head Golf Professional is William Wallis.
The original golf course was completely redesigned in 1921 by two-time Open Champion Willie Park Jr., incorporating the natural elevation changes of the 110 acre plot. In recent years thousands of trees have been cut down to restore the original vistas of Lake Whitney. New Haven Country Club's distinctively fast and large greens are a defining feature of the course. Del Kinney, the former Executive Director of the Connecticut State Golf Association remarked, “New Haven [Country Club] is very demanding and sneaky tough, but a very fair test. In fact, it’s the best in the state from the perspective of being both fun to play and challenging.”
New Haven Country Club dates its origins to downtown New Haven in the 1890s. Yale University professor Theodore S. Woolsey was instrumental in the development of the nine-hole New Haven Golf Club in 1895 at what is now Sacred Heart University. Woolsey and other NHGC members desired a new setting as the nine-hole course became overcrowded with Yale students who began to enjoy the newly imported sport. A major provision of the newly established NHCC was that it would allow guest play but not membership to Yale students. Notable Yale-associated members included U.S. President Howard Taft, who taught law at his Alma Mater, and Yale alumnus Walter Camp, the father of American football. Since the creation of Yale Golf Course the club does not have as strong of a Yale connection, but many members have dual memberships at both courses or work at Yale University.
In the first 17 years of existence NHCC leased the farmland. However, in 1915 the members voted to buy the land for $80,000.
In the late 20th century NHCC became a much more inclusive and egalitarian club than it was in its first 50 years. The porch off the men's locker room eventually allowed access to female members and the grill room allowed women to dine in 1991. The club's membership became increasingly diverse with Italian, Jewish, and other cultural groups. With the closing of several area country clubs around the Great Recession NHCC absorbed many new golfing members. Today NHCC is more socially, economically, geographically diverse than it has ever been. While members in the first half century mostly lived within a several mile radius of the club, today live as far as Fairfield and Hartford Counties.
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