Sponsored: In Westchester, the golf courses are well above par…in a good way | Crain’s New York Business

A quick scan of most lists that rank the nation’s best golf courses reveals an unparalleled cluster in the New York City neighboring communities of  Westchester and Long Island.

“The history of golf runs very deep in Westchester County,” says Natasha Caputo, the county’s director of film and tourism. The St. Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-On-Hudson was the site of the first round of golf played in America, she points out.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer notes that the most famous courses draw people to the county to play or watch tournaments. The courses, he says, are part of Westchester’s appeal to business executives who play and schmooze simultaneously. The clubs are frequently used for films and TV shows, further raising their profile and enhancing their appeal to tourists, Caputo adds.

But Latimer emphasizes the county also offers six public golf courses. “And they are nice,” he says emphatically. “They’re not open cow pastures where you whack a ball around on a flat piece of land—I have seen places like that.”

Those six public courses in Westchester, Latimer refers to are: Dunwoodie in Yonkers, Hudson Hills in Ossining, Maple Moor in White Plains, Mohansic in Yorktown Heights, Saxon Woods in Scarsdale and Sprain Lake in Yonkers. Visit  www.visitwestchesterny.com/things-to-do/sports/golf/.

Here’s a brief tour of the county’s four most famous clubs.

Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck

The club’s two renowned courses were designed by architect A.W. Tillinghast, with a recent restoration by architect Gil Hanse.

Winged Foot club has hosted numerous major tournaments, most notably a PGA Championship and six U.S. Opens—only two other clubs in the nation have been home to more U.S. Opens.

Members have also reportedly voted against holding more U.S. Opens there in recent years, preferring to keep tee times for themselves. The most recent Open there, won by Bryson DeChambau in 2020, came nearly a century after Bobby Jones’ 1929 triumph.

Jack Nicklaus was once asked to rate the West Course’s difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10, and he gave it a 12.

It’s such a challenge that Hale Irwin’s 1974 U.S. Open win there, at 7 over par, was dubbed “Massacre at Winged Foot.”      The club is extremely desirable. Despite a reported $150,000 initiation fee and annual dues topping $15,000, the waiting list for membership—which is by invitation only—is supposedly more than a decade long.

The most famous (fictional) caddy, Danny Noonan, was played in Caddyshack by actor and Larchmont native Michael O’Keefe, who actually caddied for two years at Winged Foot.

Quaker Ridge Golf Club, Scarsdale

This course, also designed by Tillinghast, was also restored by Hanse, who removed numerous trees and altered everything from bunkers to greens, some of which had shrunk but he expanded to their original dimensions.

It may not be as famous as it’s Mamaroneck neighbor, but when told that Winged Foot was considered by some to be the world’s best course, Nicklaus replied, “That may be, but there is quite a golf course down the street.”

He was talking about Quaker Ridge.

Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Sleepy Hollow

The club, which features majestic views of the Hudson River from the course, was founded by a group that included an Astor and a Vanderbilt. More recent members have ranged from Rockefellers to Bill Murray.

The original course had 11 holes designed by C.B. Macdonald. Tillinghast added seven holes, but in the past decade, it was redesigned to follow Macdonald’s original style for the entire course.

It’s a star of the screen, having shown up in The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, 30 Rock, The Blacklist and Ray Donovan.

Westchester Country Club, Harrison

In 1963, when the Thunderbird Classic came to Westchester, it featured some of the sport’s biggest stars, with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus winning it in two of the first three years. In 1967 the tournament, a key U.S. Open tuneup, was renamed the Westchester Classic. Although that tournament ended 15 years ago, the club has since hosted the Senior Players Championship and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

The club’s member roster through the decades has featured boxer Gene Tunney, Shirley  Temple, Howard Hughes and television stars Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett and Johnny Carson.