One of the first venues to make eastern Savannah a destination for recreation was the Savannah Golf Club. The club rented 110 acres in 1900 to lay out a unique nine-hole course that incorporated Confederate breastworks and moats. With convenient access by automobile or streetcar, the club membership by the next year consisted of 178 men who paid ten dollars in annual dues. Women from Chatham County, with no male relative qualified to join, were eligible for associate membership, giving them full use of the facilities but no right to vote or attend meetings. As early as 1900, the club established an annual women’s championship tournament, an indication that women golfers were taken seriously.
The club put down roots in 1911 by purchasing instead of renting land and expanding the property over the years. A clapboard club house gave way to a more imposing structure in 1917, a new two-story stucco building with red tile roof. Most important, an eighteen-hole course challenged golfers by the 1920s. At this point, travel brochures included the Savannah Golf Club as one of the city’s premier attractions.
The event that confirmed the Savannah Golf Club’s stature nation-wide was the Savannah Open of 1930. Bobby Jones, a golfing legend even before he retired, came to Savannah as the undisputed favorite but amazingly lost by one stroke to the young Horton Smith. The four-day tournament treated the gallery to new course records and masterful performances by both golfers. For Jones, however, the Savannah Open was preamble to a grand slam triumph in the four most prestigious tournaments in golf at that time. The Savannah Golf Club also nurtured its own talent to shine in the national spotlight with stars Ceil Maclaurin and Hollis Stacy.
A legacy that the Savannah Golf Club has left to eastern Savannah was an enduring love of the sport among neighborhood boys, both black and white, who worked as caddies. Boys as young as eight caddied at the club in the 1930s for fifty cents, good money for an afternoon’s work. In East Savannah, African American boys who caddied at the club constructed a home-made three-hole course and played it with a putter, two-iron, and a wedge. Black caddies who became avid golfers themselves sometimes played the course on Mondays when the club was closed, on some occasions using clubs lent to them by members.
1916 Golfing Party
Courtesy of the Savannah Golf Club.
A golfing party consisting of two gentlemen, one young woman, and two caddies starts a round at the first tee in 1916.
1916 Golfing Party
Courtesy of the Savannah Golf Club.
Sand greens made putting more challenging for these golfers in 1916. In the background are the remains of Confederate breastworks.
Golfers at Original Club House
Georgia Historical Society Photograph Collection, MS 1361-PH, Box 22, Folder 31.
Courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society.
Ladies in full-brimmed hats and gentlemen in ties relax on the veranda of the original club house about 1910. On fine days, tea was served on the veranda; on cool or stormy days, members gathered around an oversized fireplace in the living room.
First tee and fairway
Cordray-Foltz Photograph Collection, MS 1360, Box 26, Folder 24
Courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society.
A foursome in the 1930 Savannah Open is pictured on the first tee, a full eleven feet above the fairway. Beyond the fence at Goebel Avenue stand two-story homes that were among the first built in the Twickenham neighborhood during World War I.
Second Club House
Courtesy of Walt Kessel.
From 1917 until 1962, this stucco building served as club house for the Savannah Golf Club. With space enough for a ballroom and functional enough to provide locker facilities, the club house met the needs of members for over forty years. In 1962, the Savannah Golf Club sold the building to the Little Theatre, Inc. that transformed the property into a performing space with a seating capacity of 199 seats. An electrical fire destroyed the building in 1979.
Hollis Stacy
Courtesy of the Savannah Morning News.
Hollis Stacy learned to play golf at the Savannah Golf Club where she was mentored by Ceil Maclaurin, a gifted amateur with titles on the state, national, and international level. Hollis Stacey won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship for three years, steppingstones to her first major professional victory at the U.S. Women’s Open in 1977. Over the course of her career, she won seventeen more LPGA titles, included two more U.S. Open titles.
New Club House
Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
Courtesy of the City of Savannah Cultural Affairs Department.
Major renovations marked the Savannah Golf Club as it moved into its second century at its eastern Savannah site. In 2010, a spacious new club house opened, the fourth in the club’s history.
