Celebrating 100 years of golf

Northampton Country Club turned 100 in 1998

The oldest organized golf club in America is the Oakland Links, founded in 1884 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. In 1898 the Warner Meadow Golf Club, later to become the Northampton Country Club, was founded on the land that is now look Park in Florence.

Golf came to Northampton as the result of a unique melding of diverse groups which shared an enthusiasm for the game. A number of students and members of the faculty at SmithCollege joined with community leaders to investigate the possibility of establishing a golf course. This all came at a time when town-gown relations were strained over the location of the new Forbes Library which was just across the street from Smith College.

In the following pages, local writer and historian, Jim Parsons tells the story of golf in Northampton and the Northampton Country Club, which marks it 100^th anniversary this year.