Over 100 Years of Jamestown Golf
A Community Built This Club
Moon Brook Country Club wasn't founded by wealthy investors or a real estate developer. It was founded in 1919 by the Jamestown Rotary Club as their first major community service project. They bought the land, hired one of the greatest golf course architects in the world, and built something they believed Jamestown deserved.
That origin still defines everything about this place.
The Architect
When the Rotary Club set out to build Moon Brook, they didn't hire locally. They hired Willie Park Jr. — two-time Open Championship winner, World Golf Hall of Famer, and one of the most celebrated course designers of the Golden Age of golf.
Park believed a golf course should follow the land, not fight it. He used natural hazards, diagonal angles, and complex multi-tiered greens designed to reward smart players and test everyone else. He called it strategic golf.
Moon Brook was one of his final designs before his health declined. He was commissioned in 1919. The first nine holes opened in July 1921. He died in 1925.
Eleven of his original greens are still being played today — holes 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18. Over a century later, you're still playing Willie Park Jr.'s golf course.
Arnold Palmer Played Here
On July 27, 1959, Moon Brook hosted an exhibition match between Arnold Palmer — the reigning Masters champion — and Art Wall Jr., who had just won the Masters that same year. They played against club pro Toby Lyons and member Ben Bishop.
Local legend says Palmer drove the green on the 325-yard first hole.
Stand on that tee box and decide for yourself if you believe it.
From Men's Club to Family Club
Moon Brook started as a men's club. That didn't last long. By the 1930s, wives and children were not just welcome — they were essential. Family membership became the backbone of the club and the reason it's still here today.
That principle hasn't changed. Moon Brook has always been at its best when it's full of families.
A Club of Friends
The founding principle of Moon Brook was simple — a private golf club with family memberships, limited to those who properly use and support it. Not a status symbol. Not a real estate amenity. A club of friends.
Over 100 years later that's still exactly what it is.