Chautauqua Golf Club - Lake Course

Golf at Chautauqua began on July 18, 1914, when the first round was played on a course at the Institution. The club credits two Scottish-born architects with its courses, Seymour Dunn and Donald Ross, and Dunn's work came first. The Donald Ross Society's directory, compiled from the Tufts Archives, lists Ross's work at Chautauqua as 18 holes made up of nine new holes and nine remodelled ones, both dated 1921. The club gives 1924 as the year the Lake Course was completed. Ross's detailed drawings of the course survive; Chris Wilczynski worked from them for his master plan, and on studying them found that Ross's routing had been modified and his individual hole designs never fully built when the course was laid out. The Hill Course, designed by Xen Hassenplug, came much later, and building it cost the Lake Course three of its Ross holes.

Holes to Know

The Lake Course is par 72 from the Blue tees at 6,470 yards, out in 35 and home in 37. It has five par 3s and five par 5s; the front nine carries three of the short holes and the back nine three of the long ones, and from the 3rd to the 6th par 5s and par 3s alternate.

The 132-yard 6th from the Blue tees (stroke index 13) is the shortest hole on the course. The tee sits between two white water tanks, and a pond covers the whole line from about 50 to 105 yards, ending roughly 10 yards short of a pear-shaped green that is deeper than it is wide, with a bunker on each side. Gene Sarazen put two balls in the water on the par-3 sixth in a 1930 exhibition.

The 421-yard 7th (stroke index 1) is the longest par 4 and the hardest hole on the card, and it has no bunkers. Tree lines run the full length of both sides, with West Lake Road beyond the right-hand trees, and the club's guide says the fairway rises about 150 yards from a small, round green, hiding it from most approaches.

The 521-yard par-5 10th leaves from beside the clubhouse down a straight, tree-lined corridor to the smallest green on the course, narrow and set along the line, with one bunker front-left and another on the right. This is where Sarazen made a double-eagle 2 in 1930, and the hole still carries the same number.

The 385-yard 14th (stroke index 10) and the 193-yard 15th (stroke index 18) open the three-hole stretch built in the 1980s. On the 14th a ditch angles in from the right and feeds a pond that covers the left half of the line from about 185 to 255 yards, a single bunker sits on the right edge of the fairway, and the hole turns left beside West Lake Road to a round green. The 15th, the longest par 3 on the Blue card, carries a pond that ends about 35 yards short of the green's centre; a bank rises from the water to a round green with woods directly behind and no sand around it.

Ross's Design Here

The clearest record of Ross's intent at Chautauqua is his set of detailed drawings. Wilczynski's study of the drawings found that the routing had been altered and the hole designs never fully implemented, so the course as first built already differed from what Ross drew. Ross's strategic bunkering is not on the ground today; implementing it is one of the master plan's recommendations.

The club's descriptions of today's course return to the same features: open tee shots, rolling fairways that tilt across the slope, and small greens that fall toward Chautauqua Lake, with the slope and grain toward the water on almost every hole. The 3rd, which the club calls its Road Hole, plays to a very shallow green with a bunker at the left front and a lip at the back, and an entrance road crosses behind it and marks out of bounds. The 12th drops from a tee about 30 feet above the green, and the 11th climbs to a green about 30 feet above the fairway. No source ties a particular hole on today's card to a Ross drawing, so these are descriptions of the course as it plays now.

Ross's par 3s at Chautauqua included at least one hole now lost to the Lake Course: Wilczynski reports that an original Ross par-3 green is still in place but is played as the par-4 18th of the Hill Course.

Historical Significance

The course was built for the Chautauqua Institution's summer assembly, which still owns it, and from 1929 to 1949 it drew touring professionals for exhibitions. According to Jim Riggs's 2012 history in the Jamestown Post-Journal, the first exhibition came in 1929, when Walter Hagen and Horton Smith played the course. Smith returned on August 7, 1930 with Gene Sarazen, Johnny Farrell and the Chautauqua professional Jack Cawsey; Farrell and Sarazen won 2 and 1, Farrell shot 68, and Sarazen made a double-eagle 2 at the 10th and a double-bogey 6 at the 11th.

Riggs records annual exhibitions from 1937: Sarazen and Paul Runyan in 1937, Lawson Little and Harry Cooper in 1938, Byron Nelson and Smith in 1939, Sam Snead and Henry Picard in 1940, Craig Wood and Ben Hogan in 1941, and Smith and Jimmy Thompson in 1942. After a wartime break they resumed with Porky Oliver and Sam Byrd in 1946, Hogan and Jimmy Demaret in 1948, and, last, Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum in 1949. The club counts fourteen World Golf Hall of Fame members among those who have played its courses.

The course also hosted an event outside golf. On July 20, 1929, the plane carrying Amelia Earhart to a lecture in the Amphitheater landed on the 14th fairway of the Chautauqua Golf Course, where Institution president Arthur Bestor met her; the 14th of 1929 is not today's 14th.

Changes Since Ross

The largest change came with the Hill Course. Three holes from Ross's design were lost when it was built, and three new holes, today's 14th, 15th and 16th, were built in the 1980s to keep the Lake Course at 18. Wilczynski described the result as parts of each course mixed into the other. One lost Ross hole's corridor still exists, and an original Ross par-3 green survives as the Hill Course's 18th.

The club hired Wilczynski, of Saline, Michigan, in 2018 to prepare a master plan for both courses, and it was published in early 2020. For the Lake Course it recommends a full return to Ross's design: moving holes 14 to 16 into the Hill layout and bringing the three Ross holes back, building Ross's strategic bunkering, removing trees, expanding the greens to their original shapes, and adding forward and back tees. The Institution's chief financial officer, Sebastian Baggiano, called it a set of benchmarks to work toward and a case for philanthropic support. No construction on the plan has been reported since.

More recent work has been maintenance. A new cart path a little over a mile long went in on the Lake Course before the 2025 season, and superintendent James Hayes, in charge since April 2024, has said the irrigation system, between 25 and 40 years old, is due for replacement.

Uncertainties

• Ross's dates: the Donald Ross Society dates both his new and remodelled holes to 1921, while the club gives 1924 for completion. This listing treats 1921 as the design date and 1924 as completion.

• Dunn's part: the club credits Seymour Dunn alongside Ross, and the Society's directory shows Ross remodelling nine existing holes, but no source read for this listing says which holes were Dunn's or which of them Ross reworked.

• When the three replacement holes were built: Golf Course Architecture in 2020 puts the Hill Course and the rerouting in the mid-1980s, while the club and Golf Course Architecture's 2018 report give 1994 for the Hill Course. This listing follows the 1980s date for holes 14 to 16, which comes from the architect who studied the plans.

Sources & Notes

1. Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Golf Club, https://chq.org/golf (first round July 18, 1914; Dunn and Ross; Hall of Famers; club history book; memberships and tee times).

2. Chautauqua Institution, Golf Course page, https://www.chq.org/things-to-do/recreation-and-fitness/chautauqua-golf-club/golf-course/ (Lake Course completed 1924; Hill Course 1994 by Hassenplug; hole-by-hole guide; local rules).

3. Donald Ross Society, Directory of Donald Ross Golf Courses, January 2026, https://www.rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf (9 new and 9 remodelled holes, 1921; Tufts material).

4. Golf Course Architecture, "Chris Wilczynski to create masterplan for Chautauqua Golf Club", 2018, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/chris-wilczynski-to-create-masterplan-for-chautauqua-golf-club (Wilczynski hired; Lake Course 1924; Hill Course 1994).

5. Golf Course Architecture, "Wilczynski to restore Chautauqua's Lake course to original Ross design", February 2020, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/wilczynski-to-restore-chautauquas-lake-course-to-original-ross-design (Ross drawings; routing and hole designs not fully implemented; three holes lost; plan recommendations; Baggiano quote).

6. Golf Course Architecture, Issue 60, April 2020, p. 41, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/digital/magazine/issue60/41/ (holes 14 to 16 built in the 1980s; Ross par-3 green now Hill 18th; corridor of a lost hole survives).

7. Jim Riggs, "Some Of Golf's Best Played Here", The Post-Journal, January 14, 2012, reprinted by the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame, https://www.chautauquasportshalloffame.org/benbishop2012.php (exhibitions 1929 to 1949; Sarazen's 1930 double eagle at No. 10).

8. The Chautauquan Daily, "90 Years Ago, Amelia Earhart, 'First Lady of the Air' Lands at Chautauqua", July 2019, https://chqdaily.com/2019/07/90-years-ago-amelia-earhart-first-lady-of-the-air-lands-at-chautauqua/ (landing on the 14th fairway, July 20, 1929).

9. The Chautauquan Daily, "Golf Superindendent James Hayes building new (literal, metaphorical) paths", June 2025, https://chqdaily.com/2025/06/golf-superindendent-james-hayes-building-new-literal-metaphorical-paths/ (2025 cart path; irrigation age; superintendent since 2024).

10. Greens Visited scorecard and course tour, with New York State Digital Orthoimagery Program aerials, https://gis.ny.gov/ (yardages, pars, stroke indexes and hazard positions measured from the aerials).