Duke University Golf Club

Overview: Duke University Golf Club is a public 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Sr. course in Durham, North Carolina. From the longest listed markers it plays to par 72 and 7,154 yards through rolling Duke Forest terrain, with hardwoods, pines, streams and pronounced changes in elevation shaping the holes. The routing asks for thoughtful positioning rather than a single repeated shot, and the restored bunkers, tees and putting surfaces reinforce the original Jones strategy. It is a university course with the scale and examination of a championship venue, yet its wooded setting gives the round a remarkably quiet North Carolina feel.

History: Duke’s course was first imagined before the Second World War, when university leaders studied a site for a campus facility. Perry Maxwell prepared earlier plans, but Duke ultimately commissioned Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1955. The course opened to the public on September 26, 1957, and attracted the 1962 men’s NCAA Championship soon afterward. A major restoration program began in the late 1980s, with Rees Jones leading the 1993–94 work on tees, landing areas and putting surfaces. The resulting course is best understood as a Jones-and-Jones collaboration: the father’s routing remains the foundation, while the son clarified its playing lines.

Did You Know? Rees Jones was actually in the 1962 NCAA field at Duke while playing for Yale. He later returned to the same course as its restoration architect, creating one of golf’s neatest family links between a designer’s original work and its next major chapter.