Manhattan Woods Golf Club

How much remains of the original Brian Silva and Geoff Cornish 1991 co-design at the super-exclusive Manhattan Woods Golf Club? For all intents and purposes, Manhattan Woods became a brand new Gary Player layout in 1998. Why anyone would choose to discard a Silva/Cornish creation after only a few years is anyone’s guess.

In The American Private Golf Club Guide Daniel Wexler had this to say: “Located on high ground three miles west of the Hudson River, Manhattan Woods is a golf-only Gary Player design best known for its downriver views of the distant New York City skyline. Rated at 75.7 from the tips, it is an obviously demanding test, yet strategic holes abound and the aesthetic is a bit more classical than much of Player’s American work.”

The reason Manhattan Woods is “a bit more classical than much of Player’s American work” is largely due to the fact that Stephen Kay handled most of the design. Stephen contacted us in January 2021, confirming that Cornish and Silva did the routing and he commented as follows:

“The third owner Ken Lee hired me… I kept most of the routing but changed a few holes (a couple of tee angles changed and three or four green locations shifted somewhat). I did all construction drawings (tees, bunkers and green contours). We were 95% completed [when] Gary Player came into the project. He did not do much… he added the fairway bunkers at the beginning of the fairway on #1 and #14 and designed the 18th putting surface (which his young associate Tim Freeland did).”