TCC Renovation Underway
FIRST BRICK CLUBHOUSE: Tulsa Country Club President David Thompson displays the first Tulsa Country Club brick clubhouse, which was located east of the course and closed in 1968. The current clubhouse is located west of the course at 701 N. Union Ave. Plans are underway for course renovations.
DAVID JONES for GTR Newspapers
One hundred years after it officially opened, Tulsa Country Club is about to get a face-lift.
Begun with 100 members whose “clubhouse” was a log cabin and whose golf course consisted of nine holes with sand greens, TCC, the second country club established in the fledgling state of Oklahoma (Muskogee claimed the first) is now ready to charge into its second century.
Tulsa Country Club was originally on land near what is now Hillcrest Medical Center. It moved to its present location when it leased 80 acres from Tulsa pioneer Dr. S. G. Kennedy.
Fire destroyed the log cabin clubhouse in 1916, but TCC members weren’t dismayed. Two years later the golf course was expanded to 18 holes and in 1920 famed golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast was hired to put in a new course and install greens made of real grass.
Since then the course has hosted a number of Professional Golf Association events. The current clubhouse dates back to 1968 and several of the holes were renumbered but the course remains largely as Tillinghast designed it.
TCC President David Thompson says new greens will soon be installed and other work will be done on the course but just where and at what cost has yet to be decided.
One thing is certain: Tulsa Country Club is looking forward to its next hundred years.
Updated 04-22-2008
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