Ghosts on the Green

Halloween is here, the time of year when falling temperatures and leaves prompt golfers to hasten to local courses to play a few final rounds before the greens get frosted over. While the fairways may soon be deserted, that doesn’t mean they will remain entirely vacant. We here at Playfair Golf Travel (www.playairgolftravel.com) love a good ghost story and what better time than now to share five haunted golf course tales from around the globe.

Tom Trickery…Old Course (St. Andrews, Scotland)

St. Andrews is distinguished around the world as the Home of Golf, but it’s also known as the Home of Ghosts – with no less than five notorious apparitions associated with this historic town. It’s the ghost of Young Tom Morris; however (winner of four Open Championships), who’s the most kindly and compassionate of these spirits. The ghost of Young Tom is said to wander the Old Course and help golfers locate and retrieve their stray balls from the rough. Some eyewitness accounts have actually reported a phantom apparition of Morris gliding through St. Andrews’ bunkers and fairways, and even playing shots and then simply vanishing. The Old Course is arguably the most fun course you’ll ever play on either side of the Atlantic, and the ghost of Young Tom just might help you pull off some spine-tingling shots of your own.

A Specter’s Sport...City Park Golf Course (New Orleans, LA)

Tee up at your own risk at City Park Golf Course. Known for its haunting, voodoo, and supernatural tales, New Orleans is home to City Park Golf Course, a championship level golf course featuring historic oak trees and beautiful lagoons. In the early 1960s, a man shot and killed a woman as she was completing her round on the 18th hole. Still today, patrons have heard gunshots and screams so clearly that it has urged them to call for help.

Treachery on the Tee Box…Victoria Golf Club (British Columbia, Canada)

If you love a good horror story, then buckle up for this terrifying tale. According to legend, a woman named Doris Gravlin agreed to meet with her estranged husband one evening in 1936 on the seventh hole at Victoria Golf Club in British Columbia, Canada. Days later a caddie found her body along the shoreline next to the course. A month later, when police also found her husband’s body, their deaths were ruled a murder-suicide. Since then, reports abound of a woman wearing a white gown (like the one Doris wore on that tragic night) angrily rushing towards golfers only to evaporate a moment later. Others have described feeling a clammy hand grabbing their shoulders on days when security cameras have confirmed strange, unexplainable glows floating around the course. One golfer even contends he saw Doris walking around on the course, and only after completely boxing him in did she disappear. 

Revenge in the Rough…Baltusrol Golf Club (Springfield, NJ)

Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., site of the 2016 PGA Championship, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered man who is the namesake of the club. Baltus Roll, a farmer on the land which the club now stands, was believed to be wealthy. Two men, identified as Peter B. Davis and Lycidias Baldwin, went to Roll's home on Feb. 22, 1831 to rob him. Roll, was tied up by the criminals and beaten after refusing to cooperate. His wife escaped, but when she returned with help, the men had left and Roll was dead, left on the side of an icy hill. Centuries later, historians have uncovered writings by the golf course’s renowned architect, A.W. Tillinghast, which mentioned sightings of strange, devilish creatures stalking the woods of the ridge at night. Today, members invoke the namesake spirit of the club when commenting “that the rough is so thick it’s Baltus Roll getting his revenge.”

A View to Die For...Lincoln Park Golf Course (San Francisco)

Lincoln Park Golf Course offers incredible views of the San Francisco skyline and Golden Gate Bridge. However, hidden just below the surface are the final resting places for more than 1,000 corpses. Back in 1909, due to the value of the land, the course was built on top of Golden Gate Cemetery. Wealthy families moved the remains of their loved ones; however, poor residents were forced to leave their loved ones behind. Patrons here tell of ghosts that have hindered their shots or made perfectly struck balls disappear into the ether. Today patrons of the course are welcomed by a variety of ghosts, but as you can imagine, many of these restless spirits are a bit perturbed.

Playfair Golf Travel wishes you a Happy Halloween and hopes that the ghost of Shivas Irons is the only one you'll come across! Visit www.playfairgolftravel.com for more information about these and other thrilling places to travel for your next golf adventure.