Idle Hour Country Club

Detailed description of Idle Hour Country Club

Idle Hour Country Club first opened for play in 1924. The course was designed by Donald Ross.

Black tees: par-71, 6,675 yards, 72.7 / 133

Blue tees: par-71, 6,414 yards, 71.5 / 131

White tees: par-71, 5,996 yards, 68.4 / 124

Red tees: par-73, 4,940 yards, 69.3 / 121

Until 2010, Idle Hour Country Club had no black members when former Kentucky college star and NBA player Sam Bowie was accepted as the club's first black member. Idle Hour has long been viewed as a vestige of segregation in Lexington. In 1999, the state Human Rights Commission began investigating Idle Hour because it had no black members. The commission dropped the case because it could not find a plaintiff who would assert that membership had been denied because of race according to Morgan Ransdell, an attorney with the commission.

Idle Hour officials said in 2006 that they were willing to have African-American members but that none had applied. Sam Bowie's admittance to the club (believed to be a $55,000 membership fee) tends to support the club's statements.