Eugene Country Club, organized in 1899, is the second oldest country club in Oregon, antedated only by Waverley Country Club in Portland. The Club was incorporated in 1912 when it acquired its first clubhouse on South Willamette Street, next to the Club’s first golf course, a nine-hole layout with sand greens.
In 1923, the Club purchased three parcels of farmland from the Young, Ford, and McAlister families on the north side of the Willamette River, and began planning construction of the current golf course. H. Chandler Egan, U.S. Amateur Champion in 1904 and 1905, was engaged to design an 18 hole course.
Egan’s original design was never completed, likely due to financial constraints during the Great Depression and World War II. Very few of the fairway bunkers he planned were constructed and some modifications to his plans were made when the second nine were built in the late 1920s.
After 18 holes were completed, Eugene Country Club’s reputation quickly grew as one of the finest courses in the Western United States, with its natural setting and tall Douglas firs unparalleled.
In the late 1960s, the Club recognized that its course required updating. Renowned and prolific course architect, Robert Trent Jones, was hired to make design changes with significantly larger greens as one of the key goals. In a unique remodeling of a golf course, Jones reversed the original Egan routing, placing the first tee near Egan’s 18th green, and so on. Routing of just two holes was altered from the Egan design (#7 and #12). Jones built up the green complexes and teeing areas but did virtually no earthmoving on the original fairways of 16 holes. The reversal of the routing allowed him to add lakes and waterways to the course of play.
ECC maintains a policy of keeping its classic golf course a Robert Trent Jones design. Some changes to the course have been made to respond to the evolution of the game, with the advice of professional golf course architects. In 2005, Architect of Record John Harbottle advised the Club on the lengthening of nine holes and the placement of the fairway bunker on #4 in 2010.
Along with a number of national amateur championships held at Eugene Country Club, the Club was a stop on the LPGA tour from 1962 to 1968. Eugene Country Club has been on the rotation to host the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship since 1974, last hosting this prestigious event in 2010. It has been consistently been listed in Golf Digest’s Top 100 courses in the United States.
Over the years, Eugene Country Club has improved its clubhouse and other facilities. A major renovation was completed in 1990 included a new swimming pool facility and tennis courts, along with extensive renovation to the interior of the main clubhouse. In 1993, a modern golf course maintenance facility was added. The Wendell Wood Teaching Facility was added to the practice area in 2009. A club-wide renovation project, which combined history and modernity, was completed in 2017.
Eugene Country Club is proud of its history and the members who brought our Club through the years so successfully. This progress has been possible due to hard-working, interested, cooperative, and progressive Boards of Directors and members, along with a top-notch professional staff.
*For additional and more detailed information about the history of the Eugene Country Club please reference our history book:
Breaking 100 - Eugene Country Club's First Century, 1899-1999. By: Jeff Wallach and Todd Schwartz.