Established in 1925, Ballston Spa Country Club presents a classic upstate New York parkland layout that rewards strategic play over power. The course is open to the public Monday through Thursday while reserving weekends and holidays for members.
History
Ballston Spa Country Club was founded in July 1925 when a group of golf enthusiasts purchased 116 acres of the John Gilman farm located a mile west of the village of Ballston Spa, in Saratoga County. When the club incorporated on September 16, 1925, ninety-eight charter members signed on, with first-year dues set at $25 for access to the six holes then under construction. That modest beginning — a handful of holes on a recently purchased farm — launched what would become a club with a century of continuous operation in the hills southwest of Saratoga Springs. The original course design was entrusted to Tim Thompson, a native of Scotland who brought Old World course-building instincts to the Saratoga farmland. Thompson shaped the first six holes in 1925 and 1926, and the initial nine opened for play in 1927.
His parkland layout worked with the natural contours of the Gilman property, routing fairways through agricultural clearings and along the natural drainage corridors that would eventually become water hazards on several holes. Gordon Creek runs through the property and ultimately creates water features that come into play on eleven of the eighteen holes — a characteristic that gives the course a risk-reward dimension Thompson could not have fully anticipated when he laid out the original nine. The club grew steadily through the 1930s and 1940s, surviving the Depression years with reduced but loyal membership before rebuilding during the postwar prosperity of the late 1940s and 1950s. In September 1962 the board approved plans to expand from nine to eighteen holes, financing the $75,000 project through a ten-year loan from Schenectady Savings Bank. Sixty-nine additional acres were acquired to accommodate the expansion, and the design work for the back nine was carried out by Gino Turchi and Jim Farina.
The new nine holes, delayed by drought and construction challenges, opened in April 1965 — completing the eighteen-hole layout that the club has maintained ever since. The completed course plays to 6,292 yards from the back tees with a par of 71. The course rating of 69.6 and slope of 124 reflect a layout that rewards accuracy and strategic thinking over raw length. The parkland setting, with its mature tree lines, rolling terrain, and the recurring presence of Gordon Creek, gives Ballston Spa a character rooted in the Scottish golf ideals Thompson carried from his homeland. The club's proximity to Saratoga Springs brought it into regular contact with the world of thoroughbred horse racing that defines the region's summer culture.
Notable golf visitors over the decades have included LPGA professional Dottie Pepper, a Saratoga Springs native who grew up playing the area's courses, as well as NFL coach Bill Parcells and jockeys Mike Luzzi and Jose Ortiz — figures whose connection to the Saratoga world naturally extended to the region's golf facilities. In 2025 Ballston Spa Country Club celebrated its centennial with a weekend of events held June 20–22, marking one hundred years of continuous operation on the Gilman farm property. In conjunction with the centennial, the club completed construction of a new clubhouse, replacing the facility that had served members for much of the club's history. The combination of the anniversary celebration and the new building represented a renewal of the club's physical and social identity as it entered its second century. Today the club operates as an 18-hole private facility serving the Saratoga County golf community, with a membership that includes both longtime family connections to the club and newer members drawn by the course's condition, the area's quality of life, and the competitive programming the club offers through the New York State Golf Association and related organizations.