Athens Country Club (Ross Course)

Overview: Athens Country Club’s Ross Course is a private Donald Ross design in Athens, Georgia. The routing uses rolling terrain, hardwoods, water, and carefully shaped green complexes to create a traditional parkland course with a strong sense of place in northeast Georgia.

History: The club was founded in 1926, and Alonzo Dudley recruited Donald Ross to design its first 18 holes. Ross reportedly stayed in Athens for ten days to lay out the course; construction used mules and hand methods, and Bobby Jones later came to dedicate the finished links.

Did You Know? Ross left a charcoal drawing of the course and its greens, and those drawings are preserved in the clubhouse. The surviving plans make the Athens course unusual among Ross layouts: golfers can see a direct record of the architect’s intended green shapes.