The Fishers Island Club is a country club located near the eastern end of Fishers Island in New York. The club includes an eighteen-hole golf course designed by Seth Raynor that was ranked ninth in the 2023 Golf Digest list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.[2]
| Club information | |
|---|---|
   | |
| Coordinates | 41°16′48″N 71°56′51″W / 41.28000°N 71.94750°W |
| Location | Fishers Island, NY |
| Established | 1926 |
| Type | Private |
| Total holes | 18 |
| Website | www |
| Designed by | Seth Raynor Charles Banks |
| Par | 72 |
| Length | 6,616 yards[1] |
| Course rating | 72.0[1] |
The golf course has been called the "Cypress Point of the East" and is also referred to by its members as "The Big Club" to distinguish it from the Hay Harbor Club, another country club on the western part of the island with a nine-hole golf course.[3][4] The course opened in July 1926, a few months after the death of its architect, Seth Raynor.[5] Charles Banks, an associate of Raynor, completed the work on the course after the unexpected death of Raynor in January 1926. Banks went on to finish several of Raynor's other ongoing projects and designed other courses on his own before he died in March 1931.[6][7][8] Most of the holes have water views of Block Island Sound or Fishers Island Sound.[5] Like his mentor Charles B. Macdonald, Raynor patterned many of the holes after classic designs at other courses including the Alps, Biarritz, Cape, Double Plateau, Eden, Punchbowl, Redan and Short.[9][10]
The golf course was a key component of the development of 1,600 acres (650 ha) of land on the east end of Fishers Island into a new community for summer residents in the mid-1920s. Real estate developer Frederick S. Ruth was engaged by Fishers Island Farms, Inc. to explore the feasibility of creating the new development. He endorsed the proposal and recommended the hiring of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to plan the residential subdivision and Seth Raynor to design the golf course.[11][12][13][14] Ruth, Olmsted, and Raynor had all previously worked together on the design of a new residential community with a golf course in Mountain Lake, Florida.[15][16] The scale of the residential development envisioned in Olmsted's plan was never fully realized due to the effects of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[11][14]
The club originally had a massive Norman Farmhouse-style clubhouse that was designed by architect Charles R. Wait of Boston.[14][16] In 1933, the clubhouse served as a temporary home for students from the Ethel Walker School after a fire had destroyed two of the dormitories used by girls at the preparatory school in Connecticut.[16][17] During World War II, the building was leased to the United States Navy and used as a training school.[13][14][18] By 1963, the clubhouse was operating with an annual deficit of more than $50,000 and the club's Board of Governors decided to demolish the structure as a cost-cutting measure. It was intentionally destroyed by a fire set on September 19, 1963 after an attempt to blow up the structure using dynamite earlier that month proved to be unsuccessful.[5][13][14][19]
The country club also has five tennis courts and a beach club.[20]
References
edit- ^ a b "Fishers Island Club". Metropolitan Golf Association. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ Duncan, Derek; Hennessey, Stephen (May 2, 2023). "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses". Golf Digest. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
- ^ Barr, Jeff (2005). 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die. Portland, ME: Ronnie Sellers Productions. p. 179. ISBN 1-56906-585-3.
- ^ Ravo, Nick (September 14, 1988). "The Talk Of Fishers Island; Isle's Summer Gentry Squeezing Out 'Locals'". The New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ a b c Clavin, Tom (May 24, 2007). "Golf Treasure On This Island". Hamptons Online. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ Pioppi, Anthony. "The Brief, Bright Career of Charles Banks, and the Burning Questions He Left Behind". The A Position. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
- ^ "S.J. Raynor, Golf Architect, Dies". The New York Times. January 24, 1926. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
- ^ "Charles H. Banks". The New York Times. March 21, 1931. ProQuest 99371244.
- ^ Silva, Brian. "Common Golf Hole Designs". Links Magazine. Archived from the original on December 18, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "Fishers Island Club". Golf Course Atlas. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ a b Scopaz, Valerie M. (September 2007). "Fishers Island Strategic Plan: 2007-2017". p. 8. Retrieved July 26, 2024 – via Issuu.
- ^ "Fishers Island Club". The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ a b c Bartol, Norma (August 31, 2009). "Crashes, bailouts and syndicates: A history of Fishers Island". Greenwich Time. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Special Exhibition: Building the Olmsted Plan". The Henry L. Ferguson Museum. June 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ "Olmsted on Long Island". The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ a b c Bartol, Norma (July 14, 2016). "The beginnings of the Fishers Island golf course". Greenwich Time. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ "Walker School Will Move to Fisher's Island As Temporary Refuge After Incendiary Fires". The New York Times. April 15, 1933. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
- ^ Rafferty, Pierce (Spring 2011). "Island History: A World War II Mystery Solved" (PDF). Henry L. Ferguson Museum Newsletter. Vol. 26, no. 1. p. 12. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ Boyle, Robert H. (September 6, 1965). "Island Of The Discreet Shudder". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ "About Us". Fishers Island Club. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
Further reading
edit- Ferguson, Charles B.; Rafferty, Pierce (2002). The Fishers Island Club and its Golf Links: The First Seventy-Five Years. Fishers Island Club, Inc. ISBN 978-0972191500.
External links
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