New York City's Lost Golf Courses

[John Sabino]

As I was conducting research for my new book, Golf’s Iron Horse: The Astonishing, Record-Breaking Life of Ralph Kennedy I had the chance to research golf in New York City in detail and include a chapter in the book about them. Kennedy set a record by playing golf on 3,165 unique golf courses over his lifetime (1882-1961). Ralph was a founding member of Winged Foot and resided almost all of his adult life in Manhattan. As such, he was able to play a lot of golf in the city and played 39 of the 58 courses that have ever existed in the city! The amount of golf that once existed in Queens is nothing short of astonishing. From an architecture standpoint Devereux Emmet played a large role in designing early courses there, as did Tom Bendelow. Amazingly, courses by Raynor, Mackenzie, and Tillinghast were all destroyed. I have listed the lost courses below with architects noted:
1.   Antlers Golf & Country Club – A William H. Tucker Sr.-designed course dates to 1927, when it opened as a twelve-hole course, subsequently it changed its name to the Spring Hill Golf Club after the stock market crash, and it was subsequently sold in 1933 to become the Arrow Brook Golf & Country Club
2.   Bayside Links – Alister Mackenzie
3.   Bayswater Golf Club – designer unknown, located in the Far Rockaway section
4.   Belleclaire Golf & Country Club – designer unknown, located in Bayside
5.   Corona Park Golf Club – designer unknown
6.   Edgemere Golf Club – designer unknown, located on sandy ground nearby on the Rockaway Peninsula
7.   Fresh Meadow Country Club – A.W. Tillinghast
8.   Highland Golf Club – designer unknown, the course was designed as a “very hilly and rugged” nine-hole course and was located near Kissena Lake in Queens.
9.   Hillcrest Golf & Country Club - located between Kew Gardens and Jamaica. Organized in 1921, the club started with a rudimentary nine-hole course and it later hired Devereux Emmet to expand it to an eighteen-hole course, built on only 110 acres
10.   Hollis Field Club – designer unknown
11.   Idlewild Beach Golf Club – designer unknown. Located on the spot where Kennedy Airport is today (originally named Idlewild Airport)
12.   Jackson Heights Country Club - The course opened in 1919 as a short par-3 course; A. W. Tillinghast was brought in and recommended changes in 1923
13.   Jamaica Golf Club – designer unknown
14.   Kew Terrace Golf Links – designer unknown
15.   Laurelton Golf Course No. 1 – Devereux Emmet
16.   Laurelton Golf Course No. 2 - Devereux Emmet
17.   Malba Field & Marine Club – designed by the local pro James Fraser
18.   Oakland Golf Club – Tom Bendelow designed the original 9-hole course and then Seth Raynor was subsequently brought in to redesign the course
19.   Ocean Country Club – a nine-holer located in Far Rockaway, designer unknown
20.   Pomonok Country Club – Originally called the Flushing Country Club, Tom Bendelow designed their original nine-hole course. In 1921 they decided to move and hired Devereux Emmet to design their new course
21.   Queens Golf Club - A nine-hole layout of John Dunn. The course was located in today’s Queens Village. The ill-conceived site they chose, “Interstate Park,” was simultaneously used for competitive pigeon shooting.
22.   Queensboro Golf & Country Club – designer unknown – located in Bayside
23.   Queens Valley Golf Club – Devereux Emmet
24.   Richmond Hill Country Club – a nine-hole course, designer unknown
25.   St. Albans Golf Club – The original course from the mid nineteen-teens has been attributed to Willie Park, Jr., although the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July 25, 1915 attributes the design to John Duncan Dunn. A.W. Tillinghast was brought in in 1925 to redesign the course.
26.   The Old Country Club – designer unknown
John

[Tommy Williamsen]

Lido? Or is it outside city limits?

[Brian Finn]

Lido?

The list appears to be limited to New York City.  Lido, along with others such as the Links Club, were on Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk counties).  I'm sure there were some in Westchester as well. 

[Sven Nilsen]

John:


It would be cool to see a map of where these courses were (or are) located.


Sven

[Joe Bausch]

I believe Isaac Mackie designed the additional nine added to Idlewild Beach.

[John Sabino]

Sven - Great idea, it will be interesting since a lot of them were clustered near each other, specifically Oakland, the Bayside Links and Belleclaire were all near each other in Bayside. It almost seems to me they were an early 20th century Shinneckock-National-Sebonack setup in the city. If I'm not mistaken Oakland and Bayside Links were right near each other giving us Raynor and MacKenzie courses in close quarters. Will see what I can do.


John

[Sven Nilsen]

John:


There are a couple of maps in this thread that will probably give you some help:


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,62664.msg1491668.html#msg1491668 


The old guides are pretty good at helping to nail down exact locations.


Sven

[Ed Homsey]

Perhaps the 9-hole course, Longue Vue, at Hastings-on-Hudson, by Walter J. Travis, would not be considered a NYC lost course?

[Nigel Islam]

This is a really cool topic John! Thanks for sharing your information.

[Sven Nilsen]

John:


Pretty sure Bayside, Belleclaire and Queensboro (all located in Bayside) were all the same course.  There was also an earlier Queensboro located in Astoria.


Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Four additional courses to look into:

Glen Oaks

Clearview Park

North Hills

Kissena GC

[John Sabino]

Thanks Nigel


Ed - the full list of courses he played is here:


http://www.valuable-book.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Kennedy-Course-List-Formatted-4.pdf


He did play Long Vue in Hastings-on-Hudson. He also played some amazing lost courses not in New York City such as Lido and the Raynor-Macdonald Ocean Links in Newport. One amazing thing I got to do as part of my research was to visit the USGA often, where all his historic scorecards are stored. It's pretty neat and insightful to look at them (and the length of the holes) to reflect on how much the game has changed


He also played Augusta shortly after it opened when the two nines were reversed. His custom was to have someone from every course attest to his score and to prove that he actually visited a course. On his Augusta visit he had P.J.A. Berckman's sign it, and he wrote "greenkeeper" next to his name.  I never knew that any of the family members of the nursery stayed on and participated in the course.

[John Sabino]

Sven - You are right, Belleclaire and Queensboro were the same, although he captured cards from both places. A short excerpt from the NYC chapter of the book describes it.



"Ralph played the Belleclaire Golf & Country Club in Bayside in 1919. Members of Belleclaire engaged in not only golf, but a popular pastime of the era: motoring. Since automobiles were an emerging technology and a novelty, leisure seekers “motored” out to the (then-)countryside for recreation. The club struggled financially, eventually changing its name to the Old Belleclaire Golf Club. Even with the new identity, the club didn’t last a decade; it was renamed the Queensboro Golf and Country Club in 1927, and Ralph has a card from that course from 1929. An April 1931 newspaper headline described the problem that led to the course’s eventual demise: “Queensboro Golf and Country Club Landlord Broke.” Its 116 acres were sold to a developer, who used them to build one thousand homes in Bayside Hills to satisfy the needs of the ever-expanding population of Queens. The soil that was excavated for the development was removed to nearby Flushing Meadows for use in building the 1939 World’s Fair."

Bayside Links was a different course done by Mackenzie.

John

[John Sabino]

Sven - on the other four my comments below:





Four additional courses to look into:


Glen Oaks - He played it, but I believe it was just over the border in Nassau County, not Queens


Clearview Park - Yes, still exists in NYC. I was only listing the ones NLE


North Hills - Yes, it survives today and is called Douglaston


Kissena GC - Yes, still a course in NYC

[Sven Nilsen]

John:

Bayside Golf Links dates back to 1916, MacKenzie's Bayside came later.

July 25, 1917 New York Tribune -

[MCirba]

Kissena is actually the only NYC Muni that I haven't played. 

Thanks for providing this very interesting and wonderful historical information, John.   

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven - on the other four my comments below:





Four additional courses to look into:


Glen Oaks - He played it, but I believe it was just over the border in Nassau County, not Queens


Clearview Park - Yes, still exists in NYC. I was only listing the ones NLE


North Hills - Yes, it survives today and is called Douglaston


Kissena GC - Yes, still a course in NYC

Didn't pick up on the NLE distinction. 


Was the Queens/Nassau border redrawn at some point?  This 1946 map has Glen Oaks just on the Queens side of the border.

[John Sabino]

Thanks Sven, that clears it up, the common name was causing me confusion. Ralph didn't play that one, and I had never heard of it in my research.

[jeffwarne]

When you see how many golf courses(26!) were located inside the city limits, and the horrifying concrete jungle that has become, it paints a sad picture of what Nassau, Westchester and nearby surrounding countiees could eventually become in 75-100 years

[John Sabino]

Sven - Thanks for the map, also very helpful. My source was the New York Times archives. They always described it as being in Great Neck and in Long Island. Hard to argue with your map, where it looks to be 90% in Queens. John

[John Sabino]

Jeff - Excellent point. One of my takeaways from studying what Ralph did is to see how fleeting golf courses can be. Not just in NYC but across the country and around the world. He played the Donald Ross-designed Country Club of Havana, the Gatun Golf Club, which sat adjacent to and essentially on top of the Panama Canal, courses in South America, etc. that are all gone, etc. In total, roughly 30% of all the courses he played are NLE, which I think is astonishing.


Instructively, ALL the courses he played in the British Isles still survive. Something different in the DNA on the other side of the Atlantic.


John

[Brad Tufts]

A bit OT, but I was intrigued at the Bermuda list.

A quick search revealed Frascati GC likely closed during the depression, and Elbow Beach had golf through at least WW2.

Can't seem to find any reference to Devonshire GC...Ocean View didn't open till the early 60s so that's not it.

Apart from Ralph Kennedy...also came across a 9-hole par three course at the Horizons Cottages in BDA that closed in the last couple years...never knew it existed!

[MCirba]

Brad,

I walked through that Horizons par three course a number of times as it was on a pathway from the cottages.   Set mostly in a valley surrounded by towering flora it wasn't difficult to miss unless you stumbled upon it.   I never did find any architectural history related to the course and never did get to play it.

[Brad Tufts]

Found a 1940 aerial of Bermuda online...the Frascati Golf Club course was already gone by then, although the corridors still existed.  There was golf at the Ocean View GC site in 1940, so that was probably the Devonshire CC from the Kennedy collection.  Elbow Beach Hotel golf looked like it was in play in 1940 also, but tough to tell.  It was clearly a rather short 9-holer.

The same site had a 1973 aerial, and it was fascinating to see some of the golf stuff there too.  Horizons was in full effect in 1973, and the St. George's site had not yet been combined to the RTJ configuration before it's demise about 5 years ago.  It was still split into the old 9-hole Rose Hill course a bit to the west, and 9 holes around the old Holiday Inn/Club Med that was demolished in 2008.

Check it out...  http://decouto.blogspot.com/2010/12/bermuda-aerial-photos-1940-1973.html

[Sven Nilsen]

One of the courses noted above is Jackson Heights CC, which is given a date of formation of 1919.  A while back the Tillinghast Association noted this as a Lilliput links, and had this as an original design of AWT.  Currently they only list it as an examination.

The course, originally known as the Jackson Heights GC, dates to 1917, when it started with 5 holes.  By 1919 it had 9, and most certainly was not a par 3 course as the 1921 Annual Guide notes a 9 hole 3,149 yard course.

Noted below is an article from the 1919 Spalding Official Golf Guide describing the origins of the course.  Curious if anyone has any more concrete information on the course and Tillinghast's involvement with it.