Course History

Uncovering the Truth behind the Design of Seven Oaks

Thanks to the research of Will Delano, a current member of the Colgate golf team and with the help of Jim Ford, Jim Nagle, Marian Blain, Rees Jones, Sarah Kunze, and Warren Delano the history behind the design of Seven Oaks is now available in a video.







...SINCE 1934

Colgate University is the proud owner of "Seven Oaks Golf Club", named after the ancestral home of the Colgate family. The original nine hole course pictured was located on the campus just back of Andrews and Stillman Halls. The nine hole course on campus turned out to be too small to meet present day requirements thus the plans for an 18 hole course were put into action.The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones. He graduated from Cornell in 1930 and immediately set about his love and subsequent life's work - designing golf courses.Jones designed Seven Oaks in 1934, but because of the great depression, the plans sat idle in a drawer until the 1950's. Ground was broken for the first nine holes in May of 1958. A year later, the course was completed for play. The second nine was completed in 1965. Seven Oaks is characteristic of all Jones' courses, which include strategic deployment of water, along with extensive tee areas and large, expansive greens.

SEVEN OAKS CLUBHOUSE AND PRO SHOP BEFORE 1977