Nation’s first golf course – Oakhurst Links 

Oakhurst Links is a historic golf course located at White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. It is a nine-hole course conceived in 1884, in a design based upon traditional Scottish design elements. The first competition at Oakhurst was held in 1888.

Located on the grounds is course developer Russell W. Montague’s home which served as the Oakhurst Links Clubhouse. It was built about 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. Later the property was purchased by Lewis Keller and his wife, Rosalie. For many years, Keller raised thoroughbred race horses on the property. Keller a prominent amateur golf and often played with Sam Snead, who grew up in West Virginia. 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. 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 dress 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.

The course was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Oakhurst Links	National Hickory Championship

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Note: The Link takes you to YouTube Video. The Facts & Photos are from wikipedia.org