Carter Country Club

Carter Country Club began with Augustus Carter, a Lebanon resident whose father had started a clothing factory in the city. Ray Lagasse, the course's unofficial historian, quoted in the Valley News in 2024, said Carter wanted a course that "everyone could play, not just the elite." Carter hired Donald Ross to lay out nine holes off Mechanic Street.

The club dates the course to 1923. Sven Nilsen's year-by-year list of Ross courses, built on the Donald Ross Society's list and posted to Golf Club Atlas in 2018, records it as nine holes new in 1923 under its earlier name, Farnum Hill Golf & Country Club, and Links Magazine named it among the courses turning 100 in 2023 under the same former name. A 2024 Valley News column dates opening day to 1924 and records that Carter's wife and daughter were among the first to tee off; Lagasse said it was probably one of a small minority of American courses at the time that allowed women to play.

Nilsen notes that he has no Ross documentation for the course beyond the list entry, and the course is not among those named in the 1930 Ross office booklet. No plan, site visit or return visit by Ross is recorded, and no other architect is credited with work here before or since.

Holes to Know

The course is par 36 over nine holes, 2,830 yards from the Blue tees: two par 3s, two par 5s at the 3rd and 6th, and five par 4s, none longer than 360 yards.

The 360-yard 1st from the Blue tees (stroke index 3) leaves the clubhouse and runs straight up a ridge. There is no sand; a dirt cart path runs down the right, and the second shot climbs to a round green about 23 yards across.

The 180-yard 2nd from the Blue tees (stroke index 5) is the longer par 3. A pond crosses the line from about 25 to 50 yards off the tee, and a single bunker guards the left front of a green about 18 yards across, with woods behind and to the right.

The 360-yard 4th from the Blue tees is stroke index 1 and runs parallel to the 1st, up the same ridge, with the cart path between them. It has no bunkers; trees crowd the right side well short of the green, and the oval green is about 22 yards wide. A Valley News column in March 2024 called it the toughest hole at Carter and reported that the restaurant in the owner's redevelopment proposal would sit on this green.

The 270-yard 7th from the Blue tees (stroke index 11) is the shortest par 4. It bends slightly left near the end, with trees along the left from the tee, a pond left of the approach roughly 20 to 45 yards short of the green, and the smallest green on the course, about 13 yards deep.

The 110-yard 9th from the Blue tees (stroke index 17) closes the round. Five bunkers surround the green today, two in front, two on the left and a long one behind, and a busy road runs along the left side of the hole. In 2007 a Golf Club Atlas contributor wrote that the ninth played over the parking lot.

Ross's Design Here

The course is built on a hillside close to the clubhouse. The club describes "hilly terrain", "blind shots", "short distances" and small greens in "Ross's typical 1920's New England Style." A period postcard on the club's website, captioned "Carter Country Club Home Green" and signed Troup, shows the final green on flat ground at the foot of a steep grass bank, with the clubhouse on top of it.

The best-known feature of the routing is the pairing of the 1st and 4th. Writing on Golf Club Atlas in 2021, Anthony Fowler called them "the clearest example I've seen" of clone holes on a Ross course: "both holes play up the exact same ridge to similar greens," which he found especially odd "because it's only a 9 hole course." The 2021-22 aerial shows the two fairways side by side, separated only by a dirt cart path, with neither hole bunkered.

The holes are packed tightly on the property. A 2022 review on Always Time for 9 described tees and greens "very close together" and players approaching the 4th green from the 1st and 8th fairways; that reviewer also described the 3rd green as an elevated "turtleback" from which shots catching the edge run off, and a forced carry from the 3rd tee over reeds and native grass, which the aerial shows as a band of scrub about 70 to 150 yards from the tee with woods on both sides. Bunkering today is light: the aerial shows none on the 1st, 4th or 7th, one on the 2nd, two at the 3rd green, and the most sand at the 9th green. No source says which bunkers or ponds date from Ross's time.

Historical Significance

The club, and the Valley News citing it, describe it as Ross's only nine-hole course in New Hampshire. It appears on lists of Ross nine-holers in New England posted to Golf Club Atlas as far back as 2003, and Links Magazine marked its centennial in 2023.

Opinion on its design is divided. In 2007 the Golf Club Atlas contributor michael j fay wrote, "The worst I have seen was the Carter CC in Lebanon, NH," citing the par-3 ninth over the parking lot and holes where "one can be killed by a stray from three or four directions." In 2024 Brad Tufts, listing public nine-hole courses worth a visit, wrote that "Carter CC is not bad and a Ross." No championship or notable record round has been found.

Its local significance has been tested in court. In 1986 the owner, Edmond "Peanie" Goodwin, sold the course with a deed restriction that "at all times, in perpetuity, a nine-hole golf course shall be maintained and operated on the premises," and the right to enforce it passed to the Carter Community Building Association. That covenant became the centre of a six-year legal fight with the current owner, and in 2024 Goodwin's daughter, Sandra Goodwin Fontana, started a petition to list the course on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, which drew nearly 300 supporters.

Changes Since Ross

No restoration or renovation by any architect has been found. The changes on record are of ownership. Goodwin took a controlling share of the club's stock in 1983 and sold the 47-acre course in 1986 to developer Fred Fish. Doug Homan of New London, who also owns Lake Sunapee Country Club, bought it in the early 1990s.

Homan proposed a 306-home subdivision on the surrounding 253-acre tract that would have relocated the golf course; the Lebanon Planning Board never approved it. In 2018 he proposed the Kings Grant Village plan of 186 senior units, 400 apartments, a 300-seat restaurant and 60,000 square feet of retail space, which was never formally submitted to the city. He also sued in 2018 to clear the covenant. The Grafton Superior Court sided with him in 2020; the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed that ruling 4-0 in December 2021 and sent the case back; and in December 2022 Judge Lawrence MacLeod ruled that the association could enforce the covenant. The case closed in May 2024 with a settlement whose terms were not made public, and Homan agreed to keep the course open "for at least another year." In July 2024 the city had no development project on file for the property.

The course itself has seen maintenance rather than redesign: a new clubhouse roof and porch repairs in 2024, and, in Dick Nelson's Valley News column that year, fairways "better than ever" and greens "in perfect condition." The two ponds are not dated by any source.

Uncertainties

• Opening year: the club, the Ross Society-based list and Links Magazine give 1923; a 2024 Valley News column gives a 1924 opening day. This listing uses 1923 as the design and opening year.

• Homan's purchase: the Valley News gave 1990 in 2021 and 1992 in 2022 and 2024. The text says the early 1990s.

• The founder's name appears as Augustus and, once, Augusta in the same Valley News column; this listing uses Augustus.

Sources & Notes

1. Carter Country Club, home page and "The Course" page, https://www.cartercc.com/ and https://www.cartercc.com/golf/course - 1923 date, only Ross nine-hole course in NH, hilly terrain, blind shots, small greens, two ponds, four tee sets.

2. Carter Country Club, scorecard image, https://www.cartercc.com/images/pictures/scorecard.jpg - Blue/White/Red yardages and ratings, 2,830-yard Blue total.

3. Carter Country Club, historic postcard "Carter Country Club Home Green" (Troup), https://www.cartercc.com/images/widgetkit/course/history1.jpg - home green below the clubhouse bank.

4. Carter Country Club, Golf Rates, https://www.cartercc.com/club/rates - fees, carts, rentals, junior policy.

5. Jim Kenyon, "Kenyon: Why not keep Carter Country Club just the way it is?", Valley News, July 14, 2024, https://vnews.com/2024/07/14/carter-country-club-still-on-course-55951295/ - Augustus Carter, Lagasse quotes, 1924 opening day, settlement, membership, historic-register petition.

6. Dick Nelson, column on Carter Country Club, Valley News, March 8, 2024, https://vnews.com/2024/03/08/column-carter-country-club-golfers-watch-and-wonder-what-s-next-54320426/ - 4th green as toughest hole and restaurant site, conditioning, no club pro.

7. Tim Camerato, "Judge opens path for Carter Country Club owner to develop land", Valley News, Aug. 5, 2020, https://vnews.com/?p=69322 - Goodwin's 1983 stock purchase, 1986 sale and covenant, development proposals.

8. Tim Camerato, "Lebanon golf course appeal headed to NH Supreme Court", Valley News, May 19, 2021, https://vnews.com/?p=155416 - covenant wording, Fred Fish, Homan purchase (1990).

9. John Lippman, "NH Supreme Court overturns ruling on Lebanon golf course", Valley News, Dec. 31, 2021, https://vnews.com/2021/12/31/nh-supreme-court-overturns-ruling-on-lebanon-golf-course-44292453/ - 4-0 Supreme Court ruling and remand.

10. John Lippman, "Judge rules against developer's plan for housing complex on Lebanon golf course", Valley News, Dec. 17, 2022, https://vnews.com/2022/12/17/judge-sides-with-nonprofit-over-lebanon-golf-course-covenant-49211059/ - MacLeod ruling, Homan purchase (1992), Kings Grant Village.

11. David DeSmith, "Notable U.S. Courses Turning 100 in 2023", Links Magazine, 2023, https://linksmagazine.com/notable-u-s-courses-turning-100-in-2023/ - centennial and former name Farnum Hill Golf & Country Club.

12. Sven Nilsen, "Reunderstanding Ross" reply #85, Golf Club Atlas, Feb. 25, 2018, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65481.msg1565824.html - DRS-based 1923 entry, former name, absence from the 1930 booklet.

13. Anthony Fowler, "Prominent Courses With Clone Holes" reply #21, Golf Club Atlas, Sept. 4, 2021, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=70172.msg1686426 - holes 1 and 4.

14. michael j fay, "'Pretty Bad' Donald Ross Courses" reply #7, Golf Club Atlas, March 27, 2007, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=28523.msg548973 - critical assessment, ninth over the parking lot.

15. Brad Tufts, "Best Public 9 Hole Course - State by State" reply #1, Golf Club Atlas, Jan. 2, 2024, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=72540.msg1742251 - assessment.

16. Scott Burroughs, "A Tough/Fun Decision to be made" reply #8, Golf Club Atlas, Nov. 18, 2003, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=7011.msg134707 - list of Ross nine-holers in New England.

17. Always Time for 9, "Carter Country Club - Lebanon, NH", March 17, 2022, https://alwaystimefor9.com/carter-country-club-lebanon-vt/ - hole-by-hole observations (3rd green, 3rd tee carry, close spacing of holes).

18. USGS NH 2021/2022 6-inch orthophotos, NH GRANIT, University of New Hampshire, https://granit.unh.edu/ - hole shapes, hazards and green sizes described as of today.