History Meets Development At Oakhurst Golf Links

)A roadside historical marker denotes Oakhurst Golf Club as the oldest golf club with a golf course, built in 1884.
A roadside historical marker denotes Oakhurst Golf Club as the oldest golf club with a golf course, built in 1884.

In most cases, there’s a tendency to avoid letting history collide with development. History demands the lack of change, while development begs for the opposite.

Nestled, almost unnoticed for over 132 years, five miles north of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Oakhurst Golf Links is not only the first golf course designed and built in America, but is also the future home to what many are predicting to be one of the most exclusive and unparalleled golf clubs in the world.

Built in 1884, Oakhurst Links is a unique 30-acre nine-hole course with a museum and clubhouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A modest historical roadside plaque sits at the intersection of Routes 50 and 92 just outside White Sulphur Springs via Exit 181 off I-64. A couple miles down Route 92 leads to Montague Drive, a winding two lane country road that leads to Oakhurst.

It may well be the best kept secret among sporting venues in the country.

Russell Montegue, the original owner, learned about golf in Scotland and built the course with some local friends before any other existed in America. Area residents and even guests at the Greenbrier Resort, which opened in 1778, thought golf was an oddity, so rare was the game at that time. The first competition at Oakhurst was held in 1888 in the Scottish match play tradition, and golf was played on the course for many years.

The flag stick of the finishing 9th hole at Oakhurst Links sits in front of the original Oakhurst Clubhouse.
The flag stick of the finishing 9th hole at Oakhurst Links sits in front of the original Oakhurst Clubhouse.

Located on the grounds is Montague’s home, built in 1880 in a two-story Colonial Revival style. It served as the Oakhurst Links Clubhouse. While other golf clubs have claims to being the first in America, Oakhurst is the first to actually have a golf course.

The property was operated as a golf course until 1912, when it reverted to pasture. In 1994, a restoration project was launched for the course, which allowed play to resume.

However, after a Richmond-based group couldn’t raise $2.5 million to take over the course in 2011, and a failed auction to sell the course in July, 2012 after financing for the $410,000 winning bid fell through, 89-year-old owner Lewis Keller feared a Virginia bank would foreclose on the property and its history and mystique would be gone.

In stepped Greenbrier Resort owner Jim Justice, a billionaire and staunch supporter of anything and everything that promotes the State of West Virginia. Justice, known for his deal-making, saved the course by negotiating a price with Keller, announcing that his plans were to keep the course intact while making some improvements if needed.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t know that it’s going to be a great thing for The Greenbrier,” Justice said at the time. “But, I know it’s a great thing to do.”

The Greenbrier already had three 18-hole courses open for play.

Keller said the purchase price was “less than $1 million, but a lot more than the price that was bid at auction.” Play continued at Oakhurst, in the same style as Montague introduced in 1884.

A round of golf at Oakhurst is a trip back in time. Conventional golf clubs are not used at Oakhurst. Instead, players use hickory shafted clubs and hit gutta-percha balls off tees fashioned from sand and water, the same way it was done more than 130 years ago before the wooden tee was invented.

Gutta-percha golf balls, often called the “gutty,” are a rubber-like material that comes from the dried sap of sapodilla trees, the ball of choice in the late 1800s. Current day players typically dress in period clothes that include knickers for men and dresses for women, before they take to the course that measures 2,235 yards. Forgot to bring your knickers? No problem, they’re available in the clubhouse.

The scorecard of Oakhurst Links feature the unusual local rules that were commonplace in golf in the late 1880s.
The scorecard of Oakhurst Links feature the unusual local rules that were commonplace in golf in the late 1880s.

The Oakhurst Clubhouse also houses a museum, with photos and memorabilia from players who have played there, including Sam Snead, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson. The Oakhurst score card lists three local rules, including the requisite of playing the Stymie Rule, the requirement that if your “gutty” breaks during play you must play the largest piece until holed out, and the notation if your ball lands in sheep castings, you are allowed a free drop.

Par for the nine holes is 37, although in the tradition of the 19th century, the number of shots to reach the green are shown instead of today’s par. Thus, the two par-5s at Oakhurst, with modest distances of 322 and 356 yards, are shown on the card as 3-shot holes.

The once questionable fate of Oakhurst took a dramatic turn in 2015, when Justice announced plans to develop a new Oakhurst golf course, club and exclusive residential community on mountaintop property overlooking the old Oakhurst layout.

Justice brought together golf icons Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino to collaborate for the first time on one golf course design – an unprecedented architectural achievement in the history of building golf courses.

The proposed mountain course, with dramatic elevation changes and sitting 2,000 feet above the historic Oakhurst Links, is rapidly taking shape with fairway seeding expected to begin by September and play to begin in the fall of 2017.

Justice’s goal is to have a championship course that will host a major championship, perhaps even a U.S. Open, within 10 years. In addition to the golf course and prestigious home sites, the new Oakhurst community will include a well-appointed club house, dining, pro shop, outdoor pool as well as ski and snowboarding facilities.

The Roanoke Star was invited to preview the new Oakhurst in early June as the fairways were being finalized and construction was underway at the future clubhouse site atop the mountain. The vistas throughout are magnificent and the course, expected to play at over 8,000 yards from the back tees, will offer an unbelievable challenge to the best of professionals while being able to accommodate an enjoyable round for the average golfer at shorter tee boxes.

“Our goal is to create something unique at Oakhurst,” Nicklaus noted of his joint effort with the other three legends. “I think having all of our ideas of how the game should be played combined into one golf course positioned right next to Oakhurst Links, where the game has its origins in our country, will be something very special and we will have fun doing it.”

“We have as much experience as any four players who have ever lived,” Player added during a visit in April. “To get all four ideas and formulate them into one idea, we should be able to do something with great quality. It might be a golf course with the best views in the world.”

“I’m looking forward to spending whatever time it takes to do a good job for Jim Justice and The Greenbrier that will be an enduring and memorable contribution to golf,” Palmer added.

“No four guys with those credentials have ever built a golf course together,” Trevino pointed out. “It’ll be a unique challenge, but we’ll get it done.”

“It’s not often you are truly in the midst of history being made,” Justice commented.

Especially, with history meeting development.

Bill Turner

 

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