Southern Hills Country Club

Phillips offered approximately 300 acres if the founders raised development funds within two weeks. On January 14, 1935, they reported selling 140 shares at $1,000 each. Although the $140,000 raised fell below his requested $150,000, Phillips accepted their effort and the project proceeded.

The clubhouse made the new institution visible from its hilltop. Donald McCormick and John Forsyth designed it around the character of an English country house, using substantial timbers and locally quarried limestone. Moving materials uphill and supplying water to the site complicated construction.

The Club’s competitive history reaches well beyond professional majors. Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur here, Rex Baxter Jr. the 1953 U.S. Junior Amateur and Bob Murphy the 1965 U.S. Amateur. Those championships brought different generations and forms of amateur golf to Tulsa.

Southern Hills also became a repeated major-championship host. Tommy Bolt, Hubert Green and Retief Goosen won its three U.S. Opens. Its PGA Championship winners through 2022 included Dave Stockton, Raymond Floyd, Nick Price, Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, extending the Club’s national role across more than half a century.