Hole #4: In the Style of Devereux Emmet (1861-1934)

New York aristocrat Devereux Emmet was a sportsman who made numerous golfing trips to Scotland before the start of the 20th century. In 1898, he staked out his first golf course, Garden City Golf Club on Long Island. A few others followed, but it wasn’t until he surveyed numerous British holes for his friend C.B. Macdonald in preparation for the National Golf Links of America that Emmet thought of golf design as a business. He founded his company in 1908, and over the next 20 years became New York City’s most prolific designer. Among his best work was Wee Burn in Connecticut, Leatherstocking in Cooperstown, New York and Pomonok Country Club in Queens, which hosted the 1939 PGA Championship, but did not survive World War II.

Emmet usually made his golf holes seem like steeplechase courses. The crossbunker on our 4th fairway is a classic Emmet, as the low mounds are ringing the green. To succeed on a Devereux Emmet hole, golfers had to clear his hazards through the air.