Scarsdale Golf Club
Designed by A. W. Tillinghast
History
Scarsdale Golf Club traces its founding to 1898, part of the wave of clubs organized by New York’s commuting class as the game took hold in the suburban counties north of the city. The membership’s early years were spent, as was common practice then, on grounds that would later be reconsidered as the club’s ambitions and finances allowed for something more permanent — and that ambition eventually led them to Hartsdale, in the Town of Greenburgh, and to the drafting table of A. W. Tillinghast.
By the time Tillinghast took up the Scarsdale commission, he was already building the reputation that would carry him to Winged Foot, Baltusrol, and Bethpage. His work for the club reflected the same guiding hand he brought to those grander assignments: a willingness to let the natural contours of Westchester County’s rolling, wooded terrain dictate the routing rather than forcing the land into a preconceived template. For a membership rooted in the New York suburbs, this gave Scarsdale a course that felt native to its ground rather than imposed upon it.
Like many clubs of its era, Scarsdale has remained a private institution through more than a century of change in the region and in the game itself, its Tillinghast design serving as the constant thread connecting the club’s founding generation to its present membership.
Playing Notes
Expect a walking round through the rolling terrain typical of this stretch of Westchester — the hills here are persistent rather than dramatic, but they'll test your legs and your club selection on approach shots where a level stance isn't guaranteed. Tree lines pinch several fairways, so off-the-tee accuracy matters more than raw distance, and misjudging a shot into the rough under a canopy can turn a simple par attempt into a scramble. Greens here tend to hold subtle breaks that aren't obvious from the fairway, so pace on putts deserves more attention than sightlines suggest. Bring a rangefinder if you have one, wear shoes with real traction for the slopes, and plan on the round taking a bit longer than a flat, wide-open course would — this is a track that rewards patience and clean iron play over pure power off the tee.