History

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The Audubon Golf Course located at 500 Maple Rd. in Amherst, NY has a rich history, originating as a privately owned golf course and eventually becoming a municipally owned facility.  The Audubon Golf Club was incorporated in 1935 as a distinctly separate association from course ownership but the history of the course and the club is intertwined.  The Audubon Golf Club has made the course its home since inception. The Audubon Golf Club is a member of the USGA, NYSGA, Buffalo District Golf Association and the Western New York Public Links Golf Association.

The land was purchased by Martin Marzolf from Willhem Willink of England in 1838 for $250. The land was divided in 1918 into seven parcels. The father of former Audubon Golf Club champion Harold Wik, Andrew Wik, was one of the parcel owners, purchasing 42 acres on a foreclosure for $2,800. Mr. Jocobi owned two parcels, one of which was the area currently containing the Audubon Par 3 course. For many years four of the original 18 holes were on that land: two par 4's, one par 5, and a par 3. The original greenskeeper was another parcel owner, Difenbach. Five time Audubon Golf Club Champion Ralph Hergenroder's grandfather was another parcel owner along with Smith and Knab.

Burkhardt-Neisbitt Inc. purchased the land in December, 1926 and sold it to Audubon Village Corporation in 1928 for $318,000. The Bank of Williamsville held the mortgage. Audubon Village built the original course and developed it to be opened between 1929 and 1930. In May of 1932 the owner of the Maple Forest land company, Joe Schuchert, purchased the land. His company established the Audubon Golf Club in 1933 where his son Joe Schuchert Jr. won the first Club Championship. The layout was a par 70 stretching 6300 yards with two par 5's, four par 3's and twelve par 4's. The original club house was located in the area between the current #4 green and #12 tee and was reached via an 800-foot road from Millersport Highway.

Joe Schuchert sold the course and land in the early 1960's to the University of Buffalo, who resold it in 1963 to the town of Amherst. The four holes across Maple Road (currently the Par 3 course) were moved in the mid 1960's. The course designer for this change was William Harries, and Bob Kinkel from the Town of Amherst was project manager on the new par 70 layout. The 6575-yard course was played until the early 1980's when a long par-4 hole was lengthened to a 500 yard par 5 stretching the course to a challenging 6635-yard par-71. A few design changes a decade later resulted in the current par-71, 6412-yard course. The holes and nines have been rotated at various times to try to speed up play and make it a wonderful flowing venue. Prior to the redesign in the 1980's the course record was a 63 (7 under) shot by Rick Buczynski. In 2007, Peter Mellen shot the modern-day course record of 64 (7 under).