Dutchess Golf & Country Club, CLOSED 2016

Detailed description of Dutchess Golf & Country Club, CLOSED 2016

Dutchess Golf & Country Club is a Semi-Private, 18 hole golf course located in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The Dutchess Golf & Country Club golf course first opened for play in 1897 as a 9-hole course. The golf course was designed by Mungo Park, son of the famous Willie Park of Scotland, one of the first golf professionals to come from the area of St. Andrews, golf's birthplace. Within two days he staked out the 9-hole course, earning the handsome sum of $25 for his design work. The course was expanded to 18 holes in 1922, the design work being handled by Horatio Nelson. Golf-course architect Devereux Emmet redesigned the Dutchess Golf & Country Club golf course in the 1930s.

Those who pay attention to golf-course architecture will appreciate the fact that all 18 holes were constructed without modern earth-moving equipment, making the dramatic landforms - the towering tabletop green of the seventh hole, for example - all the more stunning. Its pre-golf-cart-era vintage means it was also designed to be a great walk. The fairways are fairly tight and narrow. It is a traditional course with small, fast greens. Water comes into play on four holes.

The Dutchess Golf & Country Club golf course plays to a par-70 and a maximum distance of 6,475 yards. The course rating is 71.3 and the slope rating is 129.

Course Closed

An email sent to club members on December 23, 2016, stated, "The clubhouse and golf course at the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., property “will (be) closed and no longer be in operation.” 

For years this was a private course with declining membership. The course went semi-private-open for public play in 2015. Even that move did not raise revenues to the break even point.