James Baird State Park Golf Course

James Baird State Park Golf Course in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, is one of the Hudson Valley's most historically significant public-golf properties, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that opened in 1948 on land donated to New York State by James Baird himself. Baird was the contractor and engineer whose firm built the Lincoln Memorial; in 1939 he donated 590 acres of his Dutchess County farmland to the state on the stipulation that it be named James Baird State Park, and construction began on the park and golf course in 1940. Work continued intermittently through World War II before the course officially opened in 1948. RTJ Sr., the most prolific championship-course designer of the 20th century, laid out a scenic, relatively flat 18-hole routing at 6,768 yards par 72 with a 124 slope. The par-5 4th is the only par-5 on the front nine and plays as one of the course's most memorable strategic holes; the par-5 13th is considered one of the most challenging holes in the entire Hudson Valley. For the NY State Parks Golf Trail visitor, James Baird is the companion to Bethpage and Saratoga Spa, Jones Sr.'s RTJ imprint sitting alongside Tillinghast (Bethpage) and Mitchell (Saratoga) on the state park circuit.