Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge Country Club was founded in 1916 and it has operated from the same 120-acre property for over a hundred years now, with the city expanding around its perimeter. The club’s original course was a 9-hole affair designed by Bernard “Scotty” Sinclair Robson, the professional at what was then called Hamilton County Club in Olean, New York.

Twelve years after its formation, the club called in Tom Bendelow to add another nine and this 18-hole layout remained in play until World War II, when nine holes were turned over to agricultural use in aid of the war effort. Bert Stamps, the club’s head professional when the war ended, helped reinstate the course to the position it was in before its contraction in 1942.

Joe Lee and then Joe Finger carried out modifications in the late 1960s and early 1970s before Rees Jones was asked to renovate the course in 2007, re-grading a number of fairways, expanding existing ponds and adding new tees and fairway bunkers. The same architect has since returned to upgrade the green complexes, reconstructing some bunkers and removing others.