The 3 Most Haunted Golf Courses in America (and Why They're So Scary)

Autumn in America means pumpkin spice, costume parties and haunted houses. But for golfers with a taste for the macabre, it also means something else: the chance to tee off on fairways where the dead supposedly refuse to stay buried.

These courses aren't just difficult. They're downright creepy, built on Civil War battlefields, abandoned sanatoriums, and centuries-old burial grounds. Skeptic or believer, there's something unsettling about sinking a putt while wondering if you're being watched by something you can't see.

Here are the spookiest spots in the United States. Tee it up if you dare!

The Shawnee Inn Golf Resort has been around since 1911. A.W. Tillinghast designed it, and the course runs along the Delaware River with views that belong on a postcard. Beautiful place. But the land has a violent past that predates the resort by centuries.

During the French and Indian War, this area saw brutal fighting. According to locals, that violence left a mark that never faded. The inn itself is the hotspot for paranormal activity. Staff and guests claim they've seen a woman in Victorian clothing roaming the hallways and grounds. The story goes that she was a bride who died on her wedding day sometime in the late 1800s. Now she wanders the property's 27 holes, searching for her lost groom.

Out on the course, things get stranger. The island green hole is a par-3 surrounded by water. Golfers report sudden cold spots there, even in summer heat. Some say they've heard voices whispering on the wind when nobody else is around. Maintenance workers have their own stories. Several claim they've seen shadowy figures crossing the fairways before sunrise, only to find nothing when they go to investigate.

The Presidio Golf Course opened in 1895, making it one of the oldest courses on the West Coast. Yes, the views of the Golden Gate Bridge are spectacular. But this land served as a military outpost for over two centuries under three different flags: Spain, Mexico and the United States. Disease, battle, accidents. Lots of people died here. Some say they never left.

The course sits near the San Francisco National Cemetery, established in 1884 as the first national cemetery on the West Coast. It holds 30,000 military burials. The proximity shows. Golfers and maintenance workers report seeing figures in old military uniforms near the holes that border the cemetery grounds. Spanish soldiers. Mexican cavalry. American infantry from different wars. They stand at attention or march in formation before vanishing.

Then there's the fog. It rolls in from the bay thick and heavy, and that's when golfers hear things. Marching boots. Bugle calls. Sometimes even cannon fire. Sounds with no source.

If Presidio's ghosts are military, Lincoln Park's are something else entirely. Forgotten. Abandoned. Angry, maybe.

Lincoln Park Golf Course sits on top of what was once the Golden Gate Cemetery, also called City Cemetery. The cemetery opened in 1868 as a pauper's field for immigrants and the indigent. Chinese laborers. Italian families. Irish, German, French, Japanese. People who built San Francisco but couldn't afford fancy burials. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people were buried here.

In 1909, the city ordered the cemetery closed and the bodies moved. But relocation cost money that most families and benevolent associations didn't have. The city refused to pay for moving the poor. So they didn't move them. They just built over them. Golf enthusiasts had already laid out three holes on part of the land in 1902, even while it was still an active cemetery.

Today, somewhere between 10,000 and 19,700 bodies still lie under Lincoln Park's fairways and greens. The 18th hole sits over what was primarily the Italian section. The 1st and 13th fairways cover the Chinese burial grounds. In 2022, the city finally designated the site as a historic landmark, more than a century late.

Two cemetery monuments still stand on the course. Near the 1st green sits the Kong Chow funerary altar, a stone structure marking the Chinese section. Near the 15th green is a bronze obelisk from the Ladies' Seaman's Friend Society. Everything else was demolished, buried, or removed to make room for golf.

The paranormal activity here feels different than Presidio's military ghosts. Golfers report seeing figures in old-fashioned clothing wandering the course looking lost or confused. They appear near the monuments, particularly around the Chinese altar. Some witnesses describe seeing groups of people in 19th-century immigrant clothing walking the fairways before fading away.

During construction and routine maintenance over the years, workers have repeatedly uncovered human remains, coffins, and grave markers. Bones keep surfacing. The ground remembers what the city tried to forget.

America has plenty of haunted golf courses. These are just a few with the most persistent and well-documented reports. What makes them intriguing is the contrast. Golf is logical. It's about precision, mathematics, and physics. These courses force you to consider something else entirely.

Planning a Halloween golf trip? These courses deliver more than birdies and bogeys. They deliver atmosphere. Maybe it's genuine supernatural activity. Maybe it's imagination running wild.

Either way, playing these courses in October changes things. Shadows look deeper. Wind sounds like whispers. Every unexpected noise makes you glance over your shoulder to see if you're really alone out there.

PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. Read his recent “Playing Through” on R.org and his stories on Athlon Sports. To stay updated on his latest work, sign up for his newsletter and visit OneMoreRollGolf.com.