UGA Golf Course Information

The University of Georgia Golf Course opened in 1968 with the purpose of supporting the university community and a collegiate golf program. Over the years the course has become an important recreation facility not only for the University, but for the state of Georgia as a whole.

Avid golfer Dr. Omer C. Aderhold served as the University of Georgia’s President from 1950-67 and was a driving force behind the creation of the UGA Golf Course.

“Dr. Aderhold loved the game of golf,” said Liz Murphey, UGA’s legendary women’s coach and athletics administrator, during the 1993 NCAA Championships. “He was the reason the course was built.”

The University already owned the land and Dr. Aderhold was a personal friend of Robert Trent Jones Sr., the golf course’s architect. In addition, UGA students were so interested in having a golf course that they agreed to pay for it in their student activity fees over a five-year period during the 1960s.

Over its history, the UGA Golf Course hosted a number of different tournaments including the annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, the PGA Junior Championship, the Men’s and Women’s SEC Championships, Men’s and Women’s NCAA Regionals, as well as the women’s collegiate national championships on five occasions – the 1971 Division of Girls’ and Women’s Sports (DGWS) Intercollegiate Championships, the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Championships and the 1983, 1993 and 2013 NCAA Championships. In 2020, the course was slated to host an NCAA Regional for the third time before the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended that season. In October 2020, it was announced the UGA layout will now host an NCAA Regional in 2023.

By 1990, the course needed heavy renovation and Dave Cousart, the golf course manager, worked to rebuild the greens and irrigation system, as well as integrate a number of Jones’ features that had been left out because of the limited budget back in the 1960s.

In May 2006, the greens and the greens complex were completely renovated by Love Golf Design of St. Simons Island. The new green design brought the course up to the championship standards of today’s top professional and collegiate players. The greens are very characteristic of a Jones course and the renovation included 21 new tees, making the course more versatile for both amateurs and professionals. From 2010-13, the UGA Golf Course hosted the Stadion Classic, an event on the PGA’s Nationwide Tour and later web. com Tours. The UGA layout joined only COLLEGE GOLF’S HOME COURSE a handful of university courses to ever

“You could even say this venue is to wom- host a Nationwide Tour event since the en’s collegiate championships in the same tour’s first tournament in 1990. fashion as what Oakmont Country Club might The UGA Golf Course has a long history be to the U.S. Open. for being ranked among the top courses

“Five times the UGA Golf Course has in the nation. In 2020, Golfweek tabbed hosted the women’s national championship UGA as the fifth-best public-access (1971, ‘81, ‘83, ‘93 and 2013). Oakmont Coun- course in Georgia and also named it the try Club has hosted eight U.S. Opens. “ 18th-best college layout in the nation. In 2019, Golf Advisor named the UGA – Lance Ringler, Golfweek course as the fifth-best university lay during 2013 NCAA Championships out in the nation and the eighth-best course in Georgia. In 2009, it was selected as one of the best 25 best university courses in the nation by Links Magazine. The course remains the home of the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, one of the nation’s longest running women’s intercollegiate competitions in any sport. Traditionally a spring event, the Liz Murphey did move to the fall in 1992 and 2012 to serve as a “fall preview” for the following spring’s NCAA Championships. The list of golfers who have competed in the LMCC reads like a “Who’s Who” of women’s golf, including LPGA Hall of Famers Beth Daniel, Betsy King and Julie Inkster as well as current standouts Stacy Lewis and Brittany Lang.

From the hill above the UGA Course’s No. 13 green spectators can view as many as nine (or more) shots.