Founded as the Ann Arbor Golf Club in 1899, the Ann Arbor Golf & Outing Club occupies 38 rolling acres directly across from the University of Michigan football stadium. The intimate 9-hole private layout has served the University community for over 125 years.
History
The Ann Arbor Golf & Outing Club is one of the oldest continuously operating golf clubs in Michigan, tracing its origins to the 1890s when University of Michigan professors introduced the game to the Ann Arbor community. Golf came to Ann Arbor through the initiative of University of Michigan faculty members from the British Isles. During the period of 1893 to 1896, professors R.M. Wenley, Arthur Cushny, James Craig, and James McMurrich began taking their golf equipment into the countryside surrounding Ann Arbor. These faculty members, most of them from Scotland or Canada, had grown up with the game and sought to establish it in their adopted home. The effort they began germinated into the first golf club in Ann Arbor.
The Ann Arbor Golf Club was formally organized at a meeting held on September 26, 1899, at the residence of Junius E. Beal. The club leased a farm on the Ann Arbor-Saline Road in its early years, purchasing the original 40-acre tract for $4,000 in 1903 and simultaneously reorganizing under a new name. On March 30, 1903, the club was incorporated as the Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club—the name it carries today. The purchase made the club one of the first in Michigan to own its own grounds rather than operating on leased land. Thomas C. Trueblood (1856–1951), a University of Michigan professor, was among the club's founding figures. Trueblood went on to establish the University of Michigan Men's Golf Team and served as its first coach, creating a direct institutional link between the club and the university's athletic program that persisted for much of the twentieth century. The University of Michigan connection became even more apparent in 1925, when Athletic Director Fielding Yost wrote to the club noting that several individuals were considering the AAGOC property as a possible site for a new football stadium. The members declined to sell, and Michigan Stadium was ultimately built on a nearby site. The club's current location at 400 East Stadium Boulevard, directly across the street from Michigan Stadium, reflects that consequential moment in Ann Arbor history. The club's most celebrated figure in its history was Johnny Malloy, who joined the staff in 1918, served for 45 years as manager and the club's first full-time golf professional, won the Michigan Amateur Championship in three consecutive years from 1927 through 1929, and was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame. The Johnny Malloy Lounge in the historic clubhouse and the members' Malloy Cup competition honor his legacy. The club's facility also includes two outdoor tennis and pickleball courts with a separate court house called Angell House. Now more than 125 years removed from those first rounds on the Ann Arbor-Saline Road farm, the Ann Arbor Golf & Outing Club retains its character as a club built by and for academics and community members who valued the game for its social and strategic pleasures. Its proximity to the University of Michigan has kept it connected to the institution whose professors first brought the game to this corner of Michigan.