New Bedford's municipal course opened in 1920 as a nine-hole Donald Ross layout called Whaling City. A back nine was added in 1947, and the course was modified in the 1970s to accommodate highway construction, during which the City renamed it New Bedford Municipal Golf Course. Johnson Golf Management undertook a major renovation beginning in 2000, and it reopened in spring 2001 under its original name, Whaling City Golf Course.