Newport Country Club is a historic private golf club in Newport, Rhode Island, US. Founded in 1893, it hosted both the first U.S. Amateur Championship and the first U.S. Open in 1895.
History
thumb|Mrs. Bradlee, Mrs. Kennedy, Ben Bradlee, President Kennedy golfing at Newport Country Club
Theodore Havemeyer, a wealthy sportsman whose family owned the American Sugar Company, played the game of golf on a trip to Pau in the south of France in 1889 and returned to his summer home in Newport excited about its future. In 1890, he and his friends rented some property on the old Castle Hill Farm and played golf on a primitive course. He convinced a few pals from the summer colony's social elite, men such as John Jacob Astor IV, Perry Belmont, and Cornelius Vanderbilt II – to purchase the Rocky Farm property for $80,000 and establish the golf club in 1893.
At the time of the club's founding, Newport was at the peak of its prestige as the favorite summer colony of America's wealthy elite. The city had thus established one of America's earliest golf clubs since the sport was played almost exclusively by the rich when it was first introduced to the United States. The primitive course that they played upon in 1890 was bought roughly thirty years later and is now the site of seven holes (2–8) of the front nine.
Tournaments
Anxious to host national competitions, Havemeyer invited the country's best amateurs to his new course for a championship in 1894. That December, Havemeyer held a meeting at New York City's Calumet Club with representatives from four other clubs: Saint Andrew's Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY; Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton on Long Island, New York; The Country Club in Brookline, MA; and the Chicago Golf Club. These clubs agreed to form the Amateur Golf Association, the forerunner of the United States Golf Association (USGA).
In October 1895, Newport Country Club hosted both the first U.S. Amateur and the first U.S. Open. To this day, the U.S. Amateur champion is awarded the Havemeyer Trophy. won by defending champion Tiger Woods. Eleven years later, it was the site of the U.S. Women's Open in 2006, won by Annika Sörenstam in an 18-hole <!--On April 25, 2017, the USGA announced--> Newport was set to host the 41st U.S. Senior Open in June 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled all age-specific tournaments on the USGA calendar. The event was deferred to 2024, This second nine was long thought to be designed by Donald Ross, but a recent discovery (2013) of an original scorecard (1899) refuted this. This information is in the recently written club history.
A. W. Tillinghast, famous for such designs as Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Bethpage Black, and the San Francisco Golf Club, was hired in 1923 to remodel the course layout. Since 1995, restoration on some of the course has been completed by Ron Forse.
Scorecard
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
! !! <big>HOLE</big> !! <big>BLACK</big> !! <small>BLACK HCP</small> !! <big>RED</big> !! <big>WHITE</big> !! <small>RED/WHITE HCP</small> !! <big>PAR</big> !! <small>BLUE HCP</small> !! <big>BLUE</big>
|-
| <big>1</big> || <small>The First</small> || 459 || 1 || 480 || 442 || 15 || 4/5 || 11 || 427
|-
| <big>2</big> || <small>The Cop</small> || 410 || 15 || 366 || 352 || 11 || 4 || 9 || 341
|-
| <big>3</big> || <small>Ocean</small> || 347 || 17 || 328 || 312 || 17 || 4 || 15 || 228
|-
| <big>4</big> || <small>Graves Point</small> || 242 || 7 || 220 || 209 || 5 || 3 || 7 || 181
|-
| <big>5</big> || <small>Polo Shed</small> || 451 || 5 || 422 || 411 || 1 || 4 || 1 || 347
|-
| <big>6</big> || <small>Lookout</small> || 440 || 11 || 383 || 359 || 9 || 4 || 13 || 287
|-
| <big>7</big> || <small>Long Meadow</small> || 598 || 9 || 553 || 512 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 454
|-
| <big>8</big> || <small>Willows</small> || 192 || 13 || 177 || 164 || 13 || 3 || 17 || 155
|-
| <big>9</big> || <small>Orchard</small> || 470 || 3 || 422 || 406 || 3 || 4 || 3 || 381
|-
| <big>OUT</big> || || 3609 || || 3351 || 3167 || || 35/36 || || 2801
|-
| <big>10</big> || <small>Quarry</small> || 574 || 16 || 528 || 517 || 14 || 5 || 14 || 477
|-
| <big>11</big> || <small>Harbour</small> || 321 || 18 || 298 || 289 || 18 || 4 || 18 || 245
|-
| <big>12</big> || <small>Valley</small> || 463 || 2 || 477 || 436 || 16 || 4/5 || 10 || 396
|-
| <big>13</big> || <small>Club</small> || 188 || 14 || 151 || 137 || 12 || 3 || 16 || 123
|-
| <big>14</big> || <small>Plateau</small> || 209 || 10 || 189 || 172 || 6 || 3 || 12 || 159
|-
| <big>15</big> || <small>Brenton Reef</small> || 473 || 4 || 411 || 403 || 2 || 4 || 2 || 391
|-
| <big>16</big> || <small>Island</small> || 362 || 12 || 352 || 321 || 8 || 4 || 6 || 311
|-
| <big>17</big> || <small>Pond</small> || 466 || 6 || 441 || 387 || 4 || 4 || 4 || 380
|-
| <big>18</big> || <small>Home</small> || 420 || 8 || 379 || 365 || 10 || 4 || 8 || 318
|-
| <big>IN</big> || || 3476 || || 3226 || 3027 || || 35/36 || || 2800
|-
| <big>TOT</big> || || 7085 || || 6577 || 6194 || || 70/72 || || 5601
|}
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
! Tees !! Slope !! Rating
|-
| Black || 135 || 75.4
|-
| Red || 127 || 72.4
|-
| White || 121 || 70.6
|-
| Blue || 117 || 67.3
|-
| Women || style="background:#E6E8FA;" colspan=2|
|-
| White || 134 || 76.7
|-
| Blue || 126 || 73.0
|}
- Oliver Belmont, American politician