Fargo

Originally founded as Fargo Golf Club in 1898, Fargo Country Club is the oldest golf facility in the Roughrider State.

Following the acquisition of additional land at a different site, the club constructed a nine-hole course, apparently with advice from William Watson, who stopped at Fargo in 1918 en-route to the Olympic Club. In 1923, the club tagged a second nine to Watson's course, becoming the first 18-hole club in North Dakota.

The installation of an irrigation system in 1935 was financed through profits from slot machines operated in the clubhouse but this valuable source of income ended after World War II when new gambling laws were introduced throughout North Dakota.

Robert Bruce Harris added a third nine in 1961 and the club then turned the Watson nine over to housing.

Fargo Country Club hosted the US Junior Amateur Championship in 1995 then the Women’s Trans-National Amateur Championship six years later. Former club caddie master Paul Runyan, known as the “Little Giant Killer,” went on to win 29 events on the PGA Tour, including the PGA Championship in 1934 and 1938.