[MCirba]

One of the spookiest rounds of golf I ever played was a late fall, drizzly, dark day.

I had driven a few hours to upstate NY to play Stephen Kay's "Union Vale" golf course and after finishing there decided I had more time and hoped to play one of the very historic ancient nine-hole courses in the area (i.e. Dutcher, Dinsmore) only to find the one I wanted had just closed for the season.

It wasn't long before I came across this place.   The parking lot was empty but they had a box for green fees so I strolled out along.

The day kept getting darker and wetter and my walking pace more hurried as I contemplated the surreal scene around me.   

It wasn't until later that I learned about the lobotomies performed there but that wasn't a surprise.   It was golf to the imagined aural sounds of shrieks and screams and after a quick nine I scrambled to my car without seeing another human soul.

I just learned that the golf course, built in 1939, shuttered it's doors at the end of last season.   Probably all for the best.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/harlem-valley-psychiatric-center

[David Wuthrich]

Hermann Park Golf Course (Public) in Houston is in the shadows of the world famous Texas Medical Center.

[Brian Brown]

Dyker Beach Golf Club which is located in Brooklyn at the head of the Narrows is next to the VA hospital.  From the upper floors of the hospital you can see the Verrazzano Bridge, Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty as well as Downtown Manhattan.  I believe you can also see Bayonne Golf Club.

[Angela Moser]

Niederrheinische GC Düsseldorf in Germany. Although it is so well grown in, that you only notice the helicopter being right next door.

[Thomas Dai]

In Malvern, UK, they dug up 9-holes by Alister MacKenzie to build a hospital during WWII.
Most of the other nine fortunately still exists in pretty original form, and they're cool holes, plus there's 1 original green that sits away from the others and wasn't dug up so it's nearly 80 yrs old and still has it's originally contours in place. It's a very cool green.
atb

[Sean_A]

At Harry Colt's Southfield (or Oxford GC as it has been renamed) in err.. Oxford, the short par three seventeenth is backed by a chain link fence behind which sits a small parking lot that serves the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, part of the enormous Churchill Hospital complex, of which I have been a patient for fifteen years.

Once, while playing Southfield, I came to the seventeenth, hit my normal club for the hole and airmailed the green. My ball took one bounce over the fence and into the parking lot. Suffice to say that I made sure to park my car on the far side the next time I attended OCDEM.

Access to the Churchill for private cars has become horrendous in recent years. They are building a substantial new multi-storey car park, but given the rate at which the hospital is growing I don't think it will cope for very long. Southfield is only on leased land; I'm afraid to say that eventually I see the golf course closing for development, at least part of which would be the hospital.

A shot of the hole and hospital.  The hole is actually very good as is the course.


Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

At Harry Colt's Southfield (or Oxford GC as it has been renamed) in err.. Oxford, the short par three seventeenth is backed by a chain link fence behind which sits a small parking lot that serves the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, part of the enormous Churchill Hospital complex, of which I have been a patient for fifteen years.

Once, while playing Southfield, I came to the seventeenth, hit my normal club for the hole and airmailed the green. My ball took one bounce over the fence and into the parking lot. Suffice to say that I made sure to park my car on the far side the next time I attended OCDEM.

Access to the Churchill for private cars has become horrendous in recent years. They are building a substantial new multi-storey car park, but given the rate at which the hospital is growing I don't think it will cope for very long. Southfield is only on leased land; I'm afraid to say that eventually I see the golf course closing for development, at least part of which would be the hospital.

A shot of the hole and hospital.  The hole is actually very good as is the course.


Ciao

Hospital's pretty good too... I owe them a lot 

[Phil Carlucci]

Gull Haven Golf Course — a 9-hole Town of Islip muni on Long Island — plays right alongside the abandoned remnants of the Central Islip Psych Center.  The ruins are about 30 paces from the first tee.

Equally creepy, and I assume once part of the psych hospital, is a dilapidated baseball grandstand that watches over the 5th fairway.

[Rich Goodale]

I'm pretty sure that Brookwood CC in Dallas abuts a hospital.

[Greg Hohman]

Wingfield Pines (NLE) in Upper St. Clair and South Fayette townships in western Pennsylvania was next door to Mayview State Hospital (NLE), a psychiatric hospital. The WP property is now a conservation area. The son of one of the owners told me the course had surprise guests over the years.

[Kirk Gill]

The old Fitzsimons golf course in Aurora, CO is closing this month to make way for development of a fast-growing medical campus. The course was built in 1918 (or 1938, I've seen both dates used), but I don't know much about its origins. All I could find in a quick online search is that it was designed and built by the Army Corp of Engineers. The course was only open to Army personnel for a long time.


Had a few cheap, fun rounds there once the course was opened for public play. You could always see Fitzsimons Army Hospital from the course. Given its location, it seems like it was always a question of when the course would be plowed under, not if.


Here's a blurry picture from an old postcard, showing the hospital and course in the background back before there was a lot of development. The postcard pic is from a site that sells old postcards and this one is for sale if anyone's interested!

[Bill Buthorn]

The Veterans Administration Hospital at the end of Clement Street in San Francisco overlooks and is next door to the Lincoln Park muni golf course.

I grew up in Grand Junction CO.  Played about a thousand rounds at a nine hole course in the middle of town.  It’s name, and the name of the hospital where sliced tee shots on the fourth and fifth holes ended up?  Lincoln Park golf course and the VA hospital.  It was a pretty good course, with small greens and tight fairways.  A couple of the holes were early versions of the modern target desert holes we see in AZ.  A kid could play all summer for 40 bucks.  Great memories.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()