Insurance Golfers: Birthplace of U.S. Golf in West Virginia For Sale

By | August 19, 2009

Attention all you insurance industry golfers filling out your gift lists: the birthplace of American golf is up for sale.

Lewis Keller, the owner of West Virginia’s Oakhurst Links, says that after 50 years, it’s time for someone else to oversee the nine-hole course that held its first competition in 1884.

The asking price: $4.5 million.

Keller bought the White Sulphur Springs property in 1959 from the family of the original owner, Russell Montague.

The course has been closed to public play this year although a national tournament was held this summer. Instead of using their own equipment, golfers at Oakhurst Links rely on replicas of hickory-shafted clubs and gutta-percha balls used a century ago.

The 86-year-old Keller said he hopes a new owner can be found to maintain the course in its current playable state.

Topics USA Virginia

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Latest Comments

  • August 19, 2009 at 1:10 am
    Tigger... says:
    "Hickory-shafted clubs and gutta-percha balls"? That could get old after a couple of holes. I need the R-7 and Taylor Made irons....
  • August 19, 2009 at 12:59 pm
    $$$ says:
    Own it? I'd just like to be able to afford to play it.
  • August 19, 2009 at 9:09 am
    wudchuck says:
    i would love to have the money to own this. maybe i'd be a lawyer w/the many frivilous claims in order to purchase this great tradition. what would be neat is to have actua... read more

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