History

For a number of years, Knollwood's golf course was unique among major American courses - because of its short length. With a golf course measuring just 5300 yards, Knollwood was the last of America's major clubs to enter the era of the rubber-cored ball, and expand to a standard 6000 yards (or more). But few people really cared. They loved Knollwood's old-fashioned course, which proved that the lay of the land, rather than length, was the key factor defining the character of a golf course.

As already noted, there was talk as early as 1919 about expanding the course, and indeed the financing was in place by 1920. In 1921, Henry Evans, an active member of the Board for a number of years, offered the club the use of some of his land north of the course - provided that no trees were cut down. But no changes were made to the course at this time, aside from new greens for the first, fifth, and 18th holes, which were built in 1923.

After Evans died on August 29, 1924, member Harry Kelly, Jr., purchased his estate, including his mansion, which was called the "Knoll."Kelly acted partly in the interests of the club, realizing that the Evans property formed a buffer between the golf course and adjacent land, room for the club to grow when the time came. That it did, in 1925, when a crisis, fueled by declining membership, and an out-of-date course that did not help attract new members, forced a change.

At that time, Kelly sold to the club two separate tracts of land, totalling 38 acres, from the former Evans estate for $35,000, taking no profit on the transaction. The club immediately engaged noted golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast, to revise the course.

"Tillie" designed seven new holes (#6, #7, and #10 through #14) on the new land, and presented plans for a revision of the rest of the course whereby 18 holes would be open for play at all times. In particular, Tillinghast recommended eliminating the old 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 18th holes, for the most part because of their lack of modern length. He particularly disliked the old 13th hole, which he called an "abomination."

Construction of the new holes began immediately, but work was delayed by persistent summer rains - and then a change of architects. By August, for some unexplained reason, Tillinghast was out of the picture and Seth Raynor and his assistant, Charles Banks were hired to finish the work. Raynor kept Tillinghast's new holes, which were ready for play in 1926, but had ideas of his own for the revision of the old property.

The present 18th hole is attributed to Raynor. It was built over what had been a swamp, which proved no problem for Raynor, who had built the legendary Lido course on Long Island's south shore on land reclaimed from the sea. When the new Knollwood holes were given names, #18 was called"Raynor"in tribute to the architect, who thought the hole was the greatest he ever built. Raynor's opinion was confirmed in 1954 when a blue-ribbon panel of golf professionals, amateurs, and officials selected our 18th hole as part of an "All Met"course for the New York Herald-Tribune.