Foxburg Country Club: America’s oldest active golf course

(WJET/WFXP) – Foxburg Country Club, in Foxburg, Clarion County, is the oldest golf course in continuous use in the United States.

In 1887, Joseph Mickle Fox was introduced to golf while traveling in Great Britain. He was playing cricket in Edinburgh, Scotland, and visited St Andrews to see a game of golf. He became friends with Old Tom Morris, the pro at the club. Morris taught Fox the fundamentals of the game and sold him golf clubs and gutta-percha balls to take back to the United States.

When he arrived back at his summer estate in Clarion County, he made an eight-hole course on the Fox Estate. He invited the locals to utilize the course.

The sport became so popular that the size of the course couldn’t accommodate everyone who wanted to play. It was decided that the club would build an expanded course. Fox provided the land rent-free.

In 1888, the Foxburg Country Club was established, and a course was built with nine holes. According to the country club’s history, Fox wanted to design the course exactly like the Old Course at St. Andrews, but the structure of the land didn’t allow that reproduction. Instead, the course was short with narrow fairways and small greens.

Quart tomato cans were used as cups on sand greens, and the footprints in the sand were brushed out after use with a burlap sack nailed to a long pole. The fairways were cut using a scythe.

At the time, golf was considered a game for the wealthy, but the discovery of oil helped create a flush of wealth for those in the area. Emlenton reputedly had more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the world at that time. This allowed the game of golf to take root in the area and spread throughout Pennsylvania, becoming one of the country’s most popular pastimes.

The Foxburg Country Club is home to the American Golf Hall of Fame, a museum with an extensive collection of priceless golf clubs and artifacts depicting the history of the sport. The museum is free to view.

The clubhouse was originally a private residence built in 1912 and was acquired by the club in 1942.

The Foxburg Country Club golf course is considered a must-play by lovers of golf.