2015 CSGA TOURNA
Black Hall Club Celebrates 50th Anniversary with
First Amateur Championship
E
stablished in 1965,Black Hall Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut
will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2015. As part of the
celebration, Black Hall will play host to the 113th Connecticut
Amateur Championship on June 15th - 19th. In 2014, Black Hall Club
was the qualifying site for the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship and
the United States Amateur Championship.
Black Hall Club has quite an interesting history that dates back
to the early 1960’s, when Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was commissioned to
design the course. In the early 1960s, the lower Connecticut Valley was
becoming more populated with the existence of Route I-95 and the
advent of Route 9 running from Hartford down the Connecticut River
to Old Saybrook, and the number of people playing Golf was on the
rise. A group of prominent Old Lyme residents felt the “existing area
golf courses were inadequate to meet the demands of a new-found
interest in golf generally.”
To that end in 1962, Robert Trent Jones was retained to design
and supervise the construction of the course. Jones is one of the most
famous golf course architects in history, having designed over 500
courses in his career. Some of his most famous course designs include
Hazeltine National, Spyglass Hill, Port Royal Golf Club and the Dunes
Club.
Black Hall Club, named after a historically important section of
Old Lyme, was incorporated in March of 1965. Opening Day, July 8th
of 1967 represented the many victories of so many obstacles along the
way that on several occasions nearly stalled the project. Some of these
challenges included; acquiring land, securing funds, course construction
and recruitment of the necessary members. The present clubhouse was
built in 1980 and the championship layout has quietly become one of
the highest regarded layouts in the state of Connecticut.
Although 2015 will mark the first Connecticut Amateur
Championship, the club is no stranger to hosting the state’s best amateur
and professional golfers. Black Hall Club has hosted the Connecticut
Mid-Amateur seven times in the twenty-eight year history of the event,
and also hosted the 2003 Connecticut Open Championship. In addition,
the club annually hosts the CSGA Two Man Team Championship,
conducted in honor of Bill Hermanson, longtime member and storied
champion.
16 | CSGA Links // March, 2015
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