Overlooked Golf Courses: Gold Canyon and others you may not know
By Bill Felber
Yale University Course, New Haven, Ct. 6,825 yards, par 70
Yale’s parentage is impeccable enough to get it admitted into Yale. The layout was the collaboration of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, two of the esteemed names of early American golf course architecture whose other courses include the National Golf Links and Chicago Golf Club.
The course opened in the 1920s, making it perhaps the godfather of a genre of clubs that has recently become wildly popular: university-based courses. Yale’s team no longer contends for national titles, but the course remains among the most respected courses, and not just college courses, in the nation. As recently as 2010, Yale was selected by Golf Week as the best college course in the country.
At least three of the holes are routinely considered iconic. The fourth is a 432-yard par four that has been likened to the Road Hole at St. Andrews, which is featured in this slides picture. It requires a drive across a wetland that also imposes into the landing area. The ninth is a par 3 to a huge Biarritz green. The 10th is a 396-yard par 4 carved virtually straight up a hill to a green perched 40 feet above the fairway.
The course is widely recognized regionally, having hosted every Connecticut state tournament of significance. But Connecticut is another of those states that get short shrift from the major men’s professional competitions. Neither the USGA nor the PGA has ever sited its signature championship anywhere in the state.