Just south of the main UND campus, land donated to the University more than 60 years ago by the late Ray Richards, a Tulsa, Okla., petroleum engineer, forms the nucleus of what has become the Ray Richards Golf Course. The idea for a new golf course was born in the early 1960s when former UND President George Starcher occasionally joined Richards for golf outings during the benefactor’s visits to Grand Forks.
Richards worked with UND to turn the land around his family homestead into what has become a longtime place of recreation for UND students and the community. UND eventually purchased additional land and raised construction funds for the golf course project.
Ray Richards Golf Course first opened on April 30, 1968, and has hosted more than 500,000 rounds of golf over the years — 59,000 since 2020.
It currently serves as the home for the UND cross country program's home meet – the Ron Pynn Classic and potential renovations are planned to create a new home for the North Dakota golf programs.
