St George's Golf & Country Club - New York

Laid out on a confined parcel of land at East Setauket, New York, in 1917 by Devereux Emmet, the course at St George’s Golf & Country Club extends to a mere 6,200 yards, indicating that hardly a thing has changed here in a century, apart from a sympathetic Gil Hanse restoration at the start of the new millennium.

St. George's came about in part as a response to C.B. Macdonald building the National Golf Links of America. Devereux Emmet and Macdonald were good friends who hunted, travelled, and worked together on golf course designs and when NGLA opened in 1911, Emmet was one of the founding members.

Emmet and Macdonald were not only good friends, they were friendly competitors, so Emmet set out to build his own special home course near his sprawling estate in St. James, gathering a group of wealthy businessmen in 1915 to discuss building a layout that would become his home course.

Almost a hundred years later, Gil Hanse was called in to advise on a master plan which would restore the course back to its original design intents. This resulted in a process of tree and cart path removal, along with fairway and green expansion, all of which helped to display the charm and character of the course that would have been in play when Emmet was alive.