George Bahto, the legendary Macdonald expert and historian, summed it up: ‘In all, the course Macdonald and Raynor left the club with was moderate at best.’ Tillinghast helped when he pushed holes into the wooded portion at the high southeastern end but his holes lacked defining qualities. Macdonald’s contentious relationship with Rockefeller over tree removal soured him early-on with the project and Raynor was still learning his way under Macdonald, this being but their third project together. Even worse, the best work may well have been done by Winton as neither Macdonald or Tillinghast’s efforts were their finest. Unfortunately for future Club boards, Sleepy Hollow had a mixture of holes from both titans. In fact, much of Tillinghast’s reputation for building superb parkland courses is based on his work here in Westchester County. Tillinghast increased the number of holes to twenty-seven when he created the first, eighth through twelfth and eighteenth holes and knitted them into Macdonald’s course.īoth Macdonald and Tillinghast were giants in the Golden Age of golf course architecture. In the 1920s, Tom Winton, a local architect, performed work when land that housed four of Macdonald’s holes was sold off. Though it proved successful, hardly a decade has gone by where the golf wasn’t altered in some meaningful manner. It is an integral part of American history and on its east side, Macdonald set about exposing the American golfer to classic United Kingdom features including a Redan (in this case, a reverse one) and a Punchbowl green.Ĭonstruction was slow due to the rocky environs and the course opened in 1914. Vessels today cruise up and down for commerce just like they have for over four hundred years. Hook Mountain and the Palisades provide the leafy, rugged backdrop on the far west side but it is the historic, cobalt blue river that dazzles. Located an hour northeast of Manhattan, its 340 acres climbed up and over an embankment that afforded one-off views of the Hudson River where it widens to over three miles just north of the Tappan Zee bridge. What a setting they had too as it was located on a former Vanderbilt estate. Therefore, it was no surprise that a who’s-who group of businessmen headed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Jacob Astor and William Rockefeller called on Macdonald to build them the course. Indeed, Charles Blair Macdonald’s own recently opened National Golf Links of America staked its claim as the best in the country and that was soon followed by Piping Rock. The standard bearers included The Country Club, Myopia Hunt, and Ewkanok. 2 had yet to evolve into the design masterpieces that we admire today. Neither Pine Valley nor Alister Mackenzie’s work existed. In 1911 when Sleepy Hollow was formed, golf course design in America was in its infancy. Charles Blair Macdonald’s work dominates the golf landscape as evidenced by the Punchbowl green in the foreground and the Short hole in back.
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