In 1924, a 700-acre tract of swamp and woodland was given to Yale by Mrs. Ray Tompkins in memory of her husband. Under the supervision of Charles Blair Macdonald, the renowned golf course architect, champion golfer, and co-founder of the USGA, plans were made for an 18-hole golf course. With a budget of $400,000, Macdonald, in collaboration with Seth Raynor and Charles Banks, designed a masterpiece which opened for play in 1926. Today, the Yale Golf Course is recognized as one of the finest examples of early American golf course design. Large deeply bunkered greens and narrow rolling fairways are the core of Yale's penalizing character.