GLENS FALLS HISTORY
LINKS: PLAYER MEMO | TERMS | THE FIELD | QUALIFYING
In January 1912, a group of Glens Falls businessmen set out to build a country club worthy of their region — a nine-hole course, tennis courts, and a clubhouse. The idea drew immediate enthusiasm, and 190 charter members signed on. To design the course, the founders turned to Donald Ross, the preeminent architect of the era, then at work on a course in Rochester. Ross toured the candidate sites, dismissing one as flat and uninteresting (today the site of the Warren County Airport), but raving about the Round Pond property — calling it as ideal a site for golf as he had ever seen.
Ross laid out the original nine in 1912, and it opened on June 2, 1914. He returned on June 3, 1921, to design the second nine, promising to make of the unused ground a links "equal to many of the best in the country." That nine opened in the spring of 1922, completing the 18-hole Donald Ross design Glens Falls plays today.
The routing has remained essentially as Ross drew it, altered only at the 16th and 18th over the decades. In recent years, restoration work guided by consulting architects Gil Hanse, Ian Andrew, and Brian Schneider has reclaimed original fairway widths and angles of play. and the course has drawn the acclaim its land always deserved. Tom Doak, in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, places Glens Falls "comfortably in Ross's top 10 courses"; Schneider, who has led the restoration, ranks it among Ross's five best anywhere. In 2020, Golf Magazine ranked it No. 86 among the top 100 courses in the United States. The par-3 ninth, a green perched volcano-like out of the ground, with no safe place to miss, stands as the course's signature.
The Glens Falls Open (1929–1939)
Long before its modern acclaim, the course proved itself against the finest professionals in the game. Soon after the second nine opened, exhibitions featuring host pro Ben Lord alongside Gene Sarazen and U.S. Open champions Johnny Farrell and Billy Burke drew enthusiastic crowds and an appetite for a professional event. With backing from the Glens Falls Insurance Company and other local supporters, the Glens Falls Open debuted in September 1929, playing for a first prize of $500.
The tournament ran through 1939 and drew the era's giants - Sarazen, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, and Sam Snead among them - with coverage from The New York Times and the Herald Tribune. A 72-hole test contested over two 36-hole days, it produced its share of drama. In the inaugural event, Billy Burke and "Wild Bill" Mehlhorn tied at 286 and went to a nine-hole playoff; on the final green, stymied by a ball mark, Burke chipped over it with a 3-iron and holed a 25-footer to win. The tournament record of 274 was set in 1935 by Scotland's Willie Macfarlane, who closed with rounds of 67 and 66 before a gallery of more than 3,000.
The 1962 New York State Men's Amateur
In July 1962, Glens Falls hosted the New York State Men's Amateur for the last time before this summer, a match-play final still regarded as one of the greatest in the championship's history. It pitted two future NYSGA Hall of Famers: Elmira's Bill Tryon and Rochester's Don Allen. Tryon holed birdie putts of 35 feet on the 35th hole and 10 feet on the 36th to force extra holes, halved the 37th with a 28-footer, and closed out the match on the 38th. It was the first of Tryon's three State Amateur titles; Allen would go on to win six State Amateurs and a record 11 NYSGA titles overall.
A Return, 64 Years On
Sixty-four years have passed since Glens Falls last welcomed the State's finest amateurs. The membership — now more than 450 strong, on a property Donald Ross recognized as exceptional more than a century ago — is proud to host the New York State Men's Amateur once again. We welcome the best golfers in New York and invite you to enjoy your time at the Glens Falls Country Club.