The history of the New Haven Country Club is nearly as old as the history of American golf itself.  The club was founded, complete with clubhouse and rudimentary golf course, in the horse and buggy days of 1898, just a decade after the St. Andrew's Club in Yonkers, N.Y., became the country's first established golf club.

Our club is one of only about 20 in Connecticut to trace its history to the 19th century.  In fact, it was one of just a dozen charter clubs to form the Connecticut League of Golf Clubs, the forerunner of the Connecticut State Golf Association, in 1899.

The story of the club actually precedes the founding date by three years when a prominent law professor at Yale chanced to meet an immigrant cabinetmaker from Scotland.  In the spring of 1895, Theodore S. Woolsey, the professor, met Robert D. Pryde, the Scotsman who was crafting a cherrywood chest in the home of Woolsey's friend, Justis Hotchkiss, just two blocks from the New Haven Green.

Woolsey was one of a group of the city's professional men who were interested in taking up the newly imported sport that had been a favorite game of the Scots for centuries.  Learning that Pryde had played golf in his homeland and even apprenticed as a clubmaker, Woolsey employed him to lay out a course on property where Albertus Magnus College stands today.

The new course, known as the New Haven Golf Club, existed into the 20th century, but it quickly became overcrowded with enthusiastic Yale students, prompting Woolsey and his associates to search for a new place to build a course.  In 1898, they found a suitable tract of farmland beside Lake Whitney in Hamden and founded the New Haven Country Club.  The founding fathers leased the property, built a clubhouse which still stands as the core of our clubhouse today, laid out a crude playing ground, and within a year, constructed a footbridge over the lake to connect with the Whitneyville trolley stop.  Our signature red-tile roof was added in 1913.  The footbridge was dismantled in 1956.

Pryde certainly had a hand in the formation of the NHCC, as he had with Woolsey's first venture three years before.  He probably was responsible for the construction of the original course, which was available for at least limited golf that first year and remained a work-in-progress until a major redesign 20 years later.  Pryde, who was our second club professional from 1910-15 continued his association with the club even as he became the most prominent patron of the first half century of golf in Connecticut.  He became the preeminent clubmaker in the area, designed numerous courses in the Northeast and Canada, and was the top executive of the CSGA from1899 until his retirement in 1946.

Almost immediately after its founding, the NHCC became a center of social life in New Haven.  In 1900, CONNECTICUT MAGAZINE called it the leading social organization of the city.  "A handsome stone clubhouse was erected last fall of the Old English pattern, similar to the clubhouses of England and Scotland," the magazine wrote, "where many of the largest social entertainments of the smart set are held." Walter Camp, father of American football, and William Howard Taft, the former U.S. president, were among the members during the first two decades.

Despite the social success, disatisfaction grew with the layout and condition of the golf course.  This began the second great chapter in NHCC history and introduced the fourth Scotsman to exert a major influence on the club.  Our first three professionals, Robert Shields, Pryde. and Bobby Andrew were Scottish, and when it came time to redesign the course, we turned to another Scot named Willie Park Jr.

Park, 55 at the time, had won the British Open twice in the 1880s and was among the most recognized golf course architects in America.  He designed 114 courses around the world, including Shuttle Meadow, Woodway and Tumble Brook in Connecticut.  The club settled on Park only after two other prominent designers, Donald Ross and Seth Raynor, were found wanting.  Ross agreed to the project, but never seemed to find the time to work on it, and Raynor declared after two years of preliminary work that there was not enough land to build a championship course.  Park had no such trouble.  He followed the lay of the hilly, lakeside terrain to fashion a course, which has been praised and enjoyed by members and guests since it reopened for play on Memorial Day, 1922.

The Great Depression took its predictable toll on the club, but strong leadership and frugal policies enabled it to survive, unlike many other private clubs at the time.  In fact, the club's sporting and social life rose to new heights after World War II when it became the center of social and family life for its members and home to celebrated golfers like Charles C. Clare and Veggo Larsen.

Throughout its first century, New Haven has been the site of important competitions.  It has been host to 14 Connecticut Amateur and six Connecticut Open Championships, the New England Amateur, countless USGA and CSGA qualifiers, and the Women's Western Championship, a significant national amateur competition.

In 1998, the club celebrated its first 100 years with a series of events and the publication of a 122-page, hard-cover centennial book.  We look ahead with a full membership, sound finances, a newly renovated course, and most importantly, a thirst for the future built on a respect for the past.

To ensure that the rich heritage of our club is understood and appreciated by present and future generations, the Board of Governors has established the Traditions Committee.  Its task will be to assist and encourage the membership to uphold the club's long-established standards of conduct. By doing so we can ensure every members enjoyment of all of our facilities.