Ethan R.

I love Baltimore. I moved here after undergrad about 10 years ago. I got my first job here, went to grad school here, met my fiancée here, and learned how to play golf on the city’s municipal courses. This city has had a huge impact on my life, and that’s one of the reasons I have so much respect for Baltimore’s muni courses. They’re more than just affordable places to play. They’re part of the fabric of the city’s history. And the more I learned about them, the more I realized just how much history is packed into these 5 courses. The city’s 5 municipal courses have an incredible variety of golf packed into a relatively small area. You can play old school parkland golf, tight tree lined layouts, courses with elevation changes, and more modern championship style courses. All within a relatively small area. But the five city courses each have their own story, and I wanted to dig into that history: 1) Clifton Park Opened in 1915 as Baltimore’s first municipal golf course. Baltimore residents had been pushing for a public golf course for working people, and Clifton became the city’s first. 2) Carroll Park When it opened in 1923, Baltimore’s municipal courses were segregated. Black golfers, golf clubs, and civil rights advocates fought back for years. That fight eventually led Baltimore to desegregate all four of its municipal golf courses in 1951, three years before Brown v. Board of Education. 3) Mount Pleasant Opened in 1934 and has one of the most impressive competitive histories of the five. In 1956, Arnold Palmer won his second professional tournament here. 4) Forest Park Had five holes by 1927, expanded to 9 holes in 1934, and eventually became the 18-hole course it is today. It has also become an important part of Baltimore’s junior golf community, with a First Tee learning center on the property. Guys like Pete Brown, Calvin Peete, and Jim Thorpe used to play here during Forest Park’s heyday. It’s pretty cool knowing that some legitimate PGA Tour history happened here. 5) Pine Ridge The youngest of the five, opened in 1959. It sits along the beautiful Loch Raven Reservoir and has hosted PGA and LPGA events over the years. Five courses, five completely different personalities. Together they form the “Classic Five,” a municipal golf system that has been serving the city for generations. They’re part of Baltimore’s history, part of American golf history, and for a lot of people including me, they’re where the game began. – at Baltimore, MD