I played at The Scarsdale Golf Club for the first time in April 2023, a guest of George and Rita P. I first met them when they were prospective members for TRCAA, and I am very pleased we have managed to remain in touch since, as they are a lovely couple, and enjoy visiting Scotland frequently.
George, Rita, Gill and me on the 18th tee
Scarsdale Golf Club began life in 1898 which makes it one of the oldest Clubs in the Westchester region.
This is a link to the Club’s website: https://www.scarsdalegolfclub.org
The Club boasts extensive Clubhouse facilities which have been refurbished recently, as well as tennis and a pool, plus terraces overlooking the first and tenth tees as well as ballroom overlooking the 18th green.
The golf course is laid out over rolling hills, especially on the back nine, and was designed originally by Willie Dunn (of Musselburgh) and later by Tillinghast. I believe there are seven Tillinghast courses in Westchester alone. Amazing. Here’s a link to the courses he touched in some ways: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_golf_courses_designed_by_A._W._Tillinghast
This is from the Club’s website:
In its early days, Scarsdale hosted exhibitions by some of the greatest names of golf lore: Harry Vardon, Ted Ray, Walter Hagen, and Bobby Jones. More recently, Scarsdale has been a qualifying site for the US Open and Senior US Open and annually hosts numerous Metropolitan Golf Association events. One of the cornerstones of Scarsdale's golf calendar is the Wilson Cup, named in honor of Charles "General Electric" Wilson, a longtime member who was famous for his role in rebuilding America after WWII. The Wilson Cup has become one of the Metropolitan area's top amateur team competitions. The Club boasts an AW Tillinghast designed 18-hole golf course, with a full-service golf shop, golf range, two practice greens, a short-game practice area, and an indoor practice facility to keep your game strong during the offseason.
I really enjoyed the golf course. We played late April and it was still a little chilly and overcast, but the course was in really good condition, and the greens almost fully recovered from the usual aeration. We played the Blue tees - 71.1/139 and 6,300 yards. I thought the layout was really quite good - I have no idea how the designers were able to pull this off back in the day given the equipment available to them. The more modern landscaping is really nice, paths and steps and walls all thoughtfully laid out, The greens are relatively small but in the summer I imagine are super quick as there are lots of slopes and borrows to navigate.
The course layout
The opening hole is a gentle introduction to the course, unless of course you hit too far right and land up on a very steep banking in thick rough… . That made my start a little challenging, but managed to get back on track at hole two which is a nice par three. The third hole provides a bit of a taste of things to come, with an uphill fairway leading to a well protected green. Hole 5 is blind into a small well protected green. I enjoyed the ninth hole, which you play over water with hole one on your left and the Clubhouse dead ahead.
On the back nine especially, there are multiple blindspots off the tees, so playing with a member really helps. We also had very good caddies. The tee shot on hole 10 is from right in front of one of the terraces. You definitely need good tee shots on the back nine holes - a forecaddie would be ideal too as any errant shot could find real trouble. I liked the risk reward of the second shot in - really good approach shots on this golf course get rewarded and vice versa.
Overall, a really enjoyable experience, with great company and a course I would definitely like to play again at some point.