New Haven Country Club dates its origins to downtown New Haven in the 1890s.
Yale University professor Theodore S. Woolsey was instrumental in the development of the nine-hole New Haven Golf Club in 1895 at what is now Albertus Magnus College. Woolsey and other NHGC members desired a new setting as the nine-hole course became overcrowded with Yale students who began to enjoy the newly imported sport. A major provision of the newly established NHCC was that it would allow guest play but not membership to Yale students. Notable Yale-associated members included U.S. President Howard Taft, who taught law at his alma mater, and Yale alumnus Walter Camp, the father of American football. Since the creation of
Yale Golf Course the club does not have as strong of a Yale connection, but many members have dual memberships at both courses or work at Yale University. In the first 17 years of existence, NHCC leased the farmland. However, in 1915 the members voted to buy the land for $80,000. In the late 20th century NHCC became a much more inclusive and egalitarian club than it was in its first 50 years. The porch off the men's locker room eventually allowed access to female members and the grill room allowed women to dine in 1991. The club's membership became increasingly diverse with Italian, Jewish, and other cultural groups. With the closing of several area country clubs around the
Great Recession NHCC absorbed many new golfing members. Today NHCC is more socially, economically, geographically diverse than it has ever been. While members in the first half century mostly lived within a few miles of the club, today they live as far as Fairfield and Hartford Counties. ==Course==