"The best little golf club in the world" is a big claim, but Orleans backs it up with seven Vermont Amateurs, nearly a century of history and the warmest welcome in the Northeast Kingdom. Affordable, friendly and full of character.
Orleans Country Club was organized in 1928 on land that had been a fairground and then a farm, and the course opened in the spring of 1929 once the snow melted. Building it cost $13,000; dues were $10, and greens fees were a dollar, or 60 cents for nine holes. The first layout had six holes in the meadow, with an old farmhouse serving as clubhouse, and women's play began that first season. In the early 1950s the club bought 127 acres across the road for $5,000 to create a new nine, and a 1958 addition gave the clubhouse a dining room, locker rooms and a pro shop. Irrigation, ponds, new tees and greens followed over the years. Orleans has hosted the Vermont Amateur seven times, from 1960 to 1998. Its 1930s letterhead billed it as "The Best Little Golf Club in the World," a motto it still uses.