Oakhurst Links | |
Location | 1 Montague Dr., White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |
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Coordinates | 37°49′41″N80°16′47″W / 37.82806°N 80.27972°W |
Area | 37.8 acres (15.3 ha) |
Built | 1884 |
Architect | Montague, Russell W.; Torrin, Lionel, et al. |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 01001327 [1] |
Added to NRHP | December 4, 2001 |
Oakhurst Links is a historic golf course located at White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. It was the first golf course in the United States. It is a nine-hole course built in 1884, in a design based upon traditional Scottish design elements. The first competition for the Oakhurst Links Challenge Medal was held in 1884. [2]
Located on the grounds is course developer Russell W. Montague's home, which served as the Oakhurst Links Clubhouse. The clubhouse was built around 1880, and is a two-story "I house" plan dwelling with sparse Colonial Revival stylistic elements. The property was operated as a golf course until 1912, when the property reverted to pasture. In 1959 the property was purchased by Lewis Keller and his wife, Rosalie. For many years, Keller raised thoroughbred race horses on the property. Keller often played with Sam Snead, who was the resident playing professional at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs. Snead told Keller he believed the property was the site of the first golf course in the United States.
In 1994, a restoration effort was launched for the course. [3] The course was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. [1]
Except for one year at Pinehurst No. 1 course, the National Hickory Championship was played at Oakhurst Links from 1998 to 2015. Modern players typically dressed in period clothes and use hickory-shafted clubs and gutta-percha balls driven from tees fashioned from sand as was done before the wooden tee was invented. [2] [4]
The course was damaged by floods in 2016; as of 2023, it has still not re-opened. [5]
Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for the better part of four decades and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Snead was awarded a record 94 gold medallions, for wins in PGA of America Tour events and later credited with winning a record 82 PGA Tour events tied with Tiger Woods, including seven majors. He never won the U.S. Open, though he was runner-up four times. Snead was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
White Sulphur Springs is a city in Greenbrier County in southeastern West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,231 at the 2020 census. The city emblem consists of five dandelion flowers and the citizens celebrate spring with an annual Dandelion Festival.
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The White Sulphur Springs Open was a PGA Tour event that was played on the Old White Course of the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia during the 1920s and 1930s. The hotel is now a 721-room resort called The Greenbrier. The Old White Course opened in 1914 and is named after the Old White Hotel, which stood on the grounds from 1858 to 1922.
Lester George is an internationally renowned golf course architect who was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1955 while his father was stationed there by the United States Air Force.
The Sam Snead Festival was an unofficial money golf tournament, played from 1948 to 1961, at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It attracted many PGA Tour players and was won by longtime Greenbrier club pro Sam Snead six times.
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James Wylie House, also known as The Shamrock, O'Connell House, and Hanna House, is a historic home located at White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. It was built before 1825, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, red brick house with a Georgian style floorplan. A remodeling executed in 1906, added Italianate style design elements to the roofline and window openings. Also on the property is a settlement period, two story log cabin and a miniature stone replica of a castle. It is operated as a bed and breakfast.
The Greenbrier Presidential Express was a proposed luxury passenger train that was planned to operate between Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States, and the train station at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The project was initiated in June 2011 but canceled in May 2012 due to numerous issues, among which were capacity constraints on the Buckingham Branch Railroad and Federal approval of the train's engineering.
Seth Jagger Raynor was an American golf course architect and engineer. He designed approximately 85 golf courses in about 13 years, his first in 1914, at age 40. His mentor was Charles Blair Macdonald, the creator of the National Golf Links of America, and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
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