Class News

Ted Jones ’64 on the Yale Golf Course restoration

February 16, 2026

Ted Jones, the organizer of the biennial golf outings of the Class of 1964, provided the following update on the current restoration of the Yale Golf Course.

Below is a video that describes the circumstances of the concept and development of the Yale Golf Course in the early '20s a century ago. This video is particularly timely, because as many of you know, the course will reopen this spring after being closed for 2½ years for a complete restoration to the original design by CB McDonald and Seth Raynor, two luminaries of the golf-course-design world of that era.

The details of the restoration (photos, write-ups, tours) have been non-existent during the restoration process, but we do know that over 2000 trees have been removed to create a hugely more ecologically friendly environment, open up vistas not seen in many decades, and create a course that can attract high-level tournaments (NCAA, PGA, LPGA) to what has always been regarded as the #1 college-owned course in America.