Trysting Tree Golf Club

Detailed description of Trysting Tree Golf Club

Trysting Tree Golf Club, is a Public, 18 hole golf course located in Corvallis, Oregon.

Trysting tree is the home course of the Oregon State Beavers Golf Teams.

Trysting Tree golf course first opened for play in 1988. While it is only 20 years old, Trysting Tree's roots are even deeper. The idea for an OSU golf course originally was conceived by former university president A.L. Strand in 1951, and the university purchased 175 acres that year with the purpose of building a golf course. But the project didn't gain traction until the late N.B. "Nat" Giustina championed the cause in the 1970s. A 1941 OSU graduate, successful lumberman and golf aficionado, Giustina provided the lead gift for the project and oversaw much of course's construction. The course was designed by the noted golf course architect Ted Robinson.

Depending which of four tees you chose, the distance for this par-72 layout will range from 5500 to 7000 yards. Water and sand are the major hazards on this course. From the back tees the course rating is 73.9 and the slope rating isf 129. The Scottish links-style course uses mounds and swales to vary its flat Willamette River flood-plain location.

In addition to then 18-hole championship golf course, the facility offers a magnificent 300-yard driving range with 3 target greens.

Now about that name....An Oregon State University campus landmark between Benton and Education Halls for over a century was a poplar tree that was planted in the early 1880's by George Coote, the College's first horticulturist. The Class of 1901 christened it as the "Trysting Tree" after college President Thomas Gatch admonished two students for meeting there regularly for romantic purposes. Homer Maris' song Carry Me Back, which became OSU's alma mater in 1919, memorialized the poplar in verse. "I love to wonder on the pathway, down to the Trysting Tree." ..."For there again I see in fancy old friends dear to me." Decay forced its removal in 1986. A cutting was made from the original tree several years earlier and today Trysting Tree II grows strong nearby. It is from this "named poplar tree" that the course gets its name.