Roland Park Historical Course

Baltimore Country Club’s Roland Park Course was Maryland’s first 18-hole layout and the host of the 1899 U. S. Open. It must not be confused with the present East Course at Five Farms, which opened in 1926.

The club was founded in 1898 and established its first golf course at Roland Park, historically attributed to Willie Dunn. It hosted the fifth U. S. Open only a year later. The club developed Five Farms during the 1920s, and golf at Roland Park ultimately closed in 1962.

Roland Park belonged to the earliest period of American golf architecture. Historical accounts note that the 1899 championship course had no sand bunkers, an extraordinary characteristic for a major venue. Its identity is entirely separate from A. W. Tillinghast’s later East Course.

The Roland Park campus continues as a club facility, but the golf course no longer operates. The Atlas must store it as a non-bookable historical version attached to Baltimore Country Club.

U.S. Open — 1899 Willie Smith 315; George Low, Val Fitzjohn et W.H. Way deuxièmes à 326.