Athens Country Club

Athens Country Club was founded in 1926 by Alonzo "Lon" Dudley, who wanted the new club to have one of the country's best courses. According to the club's history, Dudley decided on Donald Ross after a trip to Westchester Country Club in New York, and paid him $5,000 for the design. Ross spent ten days in Athens laying out the eighteen holes, and at the end of the visit produced a charcoal drawing of the layout and its greens. The club still displays those drawings in the clubhouse.

Construction began at once and, by the club's account, without machinery: the holes were shaped with mules and quarter-yard pans, and the ground was levelled with mule teams dragging railroad cross-ties borrowed from the railroad. Dudley stocked the course's lake with bass and bream from Warm Springs. The course was ready by mid-1926, and Bobby Jones came to dedicate it, playing with Watts Gunn and Gene Cook of Atlanta and John Oliver of Valdosta. The club records that Jones shot 75, chipped in for an eagle at the 4th, and returned to play the course several times afterwards.

Ross designed the eighteen as a new course; the club had no earlier layout. The club added a third nine, designed by George Cobb, in 1985.

Holes to Know

From the Blue tees the Ross Course measures 6,954 yards and is par 36 on each nine, 3,385 yards out and 3,569 in. Each nine has two par 3s and two par 5s. The par 5s range from 449 to 579 yards, and the 239-yard 12th is the longest par 3.

The 320-yard 3rd is the shortest par 4 and one of the most heavily bunkered holes. It runs straight between tree lines, with a bunker on the left about 250 yards out, two off the right edge at about 260 and 275 yards, and four around a roughly round green.

The 573-yard 4th is a straight par 5 lined by trees on both sides. Its only fairway bunker sits on the right about 70 yards short of the green, and three more sit short of the green: two on the left, about 20 and 35 yards short, and one at the front right. This is the hole where, the club records, Jones chipped in for eagle at the 1926 dedication.

The 449-yard 6th is the shortest par 5 and the sharpest turn on the front nine. The drive goes up and slightly right past three bunkers to a corner about 200 yards out; the hole then bends left, over a ditch that angles across the fairway about 100 yards short of the green, with a pond on the left 55 to 105 yards short.

The 444-yard 7th is stroke index 1. It plays straight, past a pond left of the line near the tees and a ditch about 250 yards short of the green, to an oval green with a bunker short on each side and one against its right edge.

The 440-yard 18th turns hard right, by more than 50 degrees, about 260 yards from the tee around a stand of trees. It has no fairway bunkers; the green has one long bunker down its left side and finishes beside the club's tennis courts.

Ross's Design Here

The clearest evidence of Ross's intentions at Athens is the charcoal drawing he left of the layout and greens. When Ron Forse restored the course in 2009 and 2010, he used Ross's drawings to rebuild the greens to their original specifications. The greens that resulted are small bentgrass surfaces; the club's general manager described them in 2018 as small and undulating, with subtle breaks and ridges.

What is on the ground today is a routing over hilly, wooded land. Tom Doak, who played the course in 2017, called it "a fairly hilly site" where "the fairways are all tree-lined". On the aerials, most holes run between continuous tree lines, and the routing uses the site's ponds and drainage ditches: a pond sits beside the 7th tee, and on the 6th a ditch and a pond sit about 100 yards short of the green. On the holes described above, most of the bunkers sit around the greens and in the second-shot zone rather than in the driving area; the 3rd and 6th have the most fairway sand. Whether this bunkering follows Ross's plan is not documented.

Historical Significance

Athens was one of the courses Ross built in Georgia in the 1920s, and it came with a rare documented site visit: the club's ten-day account and the surviving drawings. Bobby Jones dedicated it.

The club has been one of the Georgia State Golf Association's most-used venues. It hosted the Georgia Amateur in 1950 (won by Arnold Blum), 1958 (Hugh Royer Jr.), 1964 (Bunky Henry), 1972 (Lyn Lott), 1992 (Paul Claxton), 2004 (David Denham, 280) and 2018, when Brett Barron won the 97th championship at 271. The GSGA also played the first Georgia Junior Championship here in 1966, and held the Georgia Women's Amateur here in 1983 and 1998, after hosting one of its two divisions (stroke play in 1959, match play in 1964 and 1969). In June 2026 the club hosted the 97th Georgia Women's Amateur, won by Kylie Chung of Cumming at 210.

The club also has a long tie to college golf. Dudley and University of Georgia athletic director Herman Stegeman created the Southern Intercollegiate in 1934. It was first played in 1935, ran until 1942, resumed from 1946 to 1965 and from 1975 to 1990, and was revived in 2015. Its past medalists include Arnold Palmer in 1950, Vinny Giles in 1966, Chip Beck from 1976 to 1978, Bob Tway in 1979 and Hal Sutton in 1980, and the Stegeman Memorial Trophy that carries their names is kept at the club. The 2019 edition was played on the course.

Doak's 2017 assessment was mixed. He rated the course five out of ten and wrote that "the contours of the greens lack the flair of Ross's best work", calling it "the rare Donald Ross course I think I would get tired of if I played it regularly." That comment was written after Forse's restoration.

Changes Since Ross

The club says it has "held fast to the Ross design principles", and no rerouting of the eighteen is recorded. The main change has been to the greens. Over the decades they had shrunk, and in 2009 and 2010 Ron Forse led a two-year restoration that enlarged a number of the shrunken greens and rebuilt them to Ross's specifications from his drawings. The same project fixed drainage in the fairways and around the greens, added new chipping and putting greens, and lengthened several holes: the course played 6,671 yards for the 2004 Georgia Amateur and 6,917 for the 2018 championship. The trees that now line the fairways are part of what Doak saw in 2017.

The third nine, designed by George Cobb, opened in 1985. Forse redesigned it in 2024 to bring it closer in style to the Ross Course, and it now plays as the Dudley Course. That work did not involve the Ross holes.

Uncertainties

• The club gives 1926 for its founding, Ross's visit and the opening, so the design, construction and dedication all fall within one year. No source gives months for Ross's visit or for the start of construction; this listing uses 1926 throughout.

• The restoration is dated 2009-10 by the club's general manager in 2018 and as 2010 by Top100GolfCourses. This listing follows the club.

Sources & Notes

1. Athens Country Club, "Golf: Ross Course History", https://www.athenscountryclub.com/golf. Dudley, the Westchester trip, the $5,000 fee, Ross's ten-day stay, the charcoal drawings, mule-built construction, the lake, Jones's 1926 dedication, his 75, eagle at the 4th and later visits.

2. Athens Country Club, "About Us", https://www.athenscountryclub.com/about-us. Founding in 1926, Ross as designer of the original 18, "held fast to the Ross design principles", Cobb's 1985 nine and Forse's 2024 redesign.

3. Athens Country Club, "Membership" and "Lifestyle", https://www.athenscountryclub.com/membership and https://www.athenscountryclub.com/lifestyle. Invitation-only membership, amenities, Dudley Course.

4. Kevin Price, "Georgia Amateur golf tourney slated this week for Athens Country Club", AllOnGeorgia, July 10, 2018, https://www.allongeorgia.com/georgia-sports/georgia-amateur-golf-tourney-slated-this-week-for-athens-country-club/. Forse's 2009-10 restoration from Ross's drawings, drainage, added length, practice greens, 2004 and 2018 yardages, seventh Georgia Amateur.

5. Georgia State Golf Association, Georgia Amateur Championship results, https://www.gsga.org/competitions/results/georgia-amateur-championship. Host years and winners at Athens.

6. Georgia State Golf Association, Georgia Women's Amateur Championship results, https://www.gsga.org/competitions/results/georgia-womens-amateur-championship. Host years and the 2026 result.

7. Georgia State Golf Association, "History: Through the Years", https://www.gsga.org/history. First Georgia Junior Championship at Athens, 1966.

8. Top100GolfCourses, "Athens", https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/athens. Ross as designer, Forse's 2010 restoration of shrunken greens, Tom Doak's 2017 Confidential Guide comment and rating.

9. South Carolina Athletics, "No. 17 Gamecocks Finish Regular Season at Southern Intercollegiate", April 14, 2019, https://gamecocksonline.com/?p=28901, and Bulldawg Illustrated, March 14, 2017, https://bulldawgillustrated.com/mens-golf-georgia-finishes-seventh-southern-intercollegiate-championships/2017/. Southern Intercollegiate founding, years, medalists, trophy at the club, 2019 venue.

10. Golfdom, "Golf course architects Ron Forse and Jim Nagle part ways", 2024, https://www.golfdom.com/?p=61010 (read as a search summary only). Forse's redesign of the North Nine; supports the club's own 2024 date.

11. Greens Visited course data: scorecard (Blue tees) and USDA NAIP aerials of each hole (https://www.greensvisited.com/courses/athens-country-club), for the hole descriptions.