Westchester Country Club - New York, U.S.A.

Westchester Country Club's West Course in Harrison since 1967 has been the site of the PGA Tour's Westchester Classic, now known as the Buick Classic, a tournament that typically precedes the u.s. Open by one week and draws a strong field. Westchester is in many respects d1e archetypal Westchester County course, with its tight, hilly fairways, small animated greens, and stony ledges that give the course some of the flinty personality of its designer, the early leading amateur golfer Walter Travis. This old-fashioned course is a favorite of the pros, and four of the holes are rated among the most difficult on Tour. Westchester is an interesting amalgam of Travis's rigorous school of design, the tranquil beauty of the mature oaks, pines, and maples, and the opulence created by Westchester's founder, John McEntee Bowman. Bowman, who was president of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotel chain, purchased 583 acres from the Hobart J. Park estate in 1919. He began developing a lavish resort known as the Westchester Biltmore Country Club which, in addition to the golf course that opened in 1922, included polo fields and a beach club on Manursing Island in Long Island Sound. The centerpiece of the resort was a towering hotel, built in the style of an Italian palazzo. By 1929, Bowman had run into financial trouble, and the members purchased the property from him, with the hotel becoming the present-day clubhouse.

Winged Foot Golf Club (West Course) - New York, U.S.A.

The West Course of Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck is Westchester's great championship course, although the club actually boasts another excellent course in the East Course. Both were designed by the incomparable A.W. Tillinghast at the peak of his career. Winged Foot was founded by members of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan, who adopted the NY AC's winged foot symbol as their name. In 1922, the club acquired 280 acres of land that once was home to the Mohican Indians and adjoined the house of James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohican,. Both courses were completed by June 1923, with Tillinghast overseeing a massive construction project that included removal of 7,200 tons of rock, which was used to build the distinctive clubhouse designed by Clifford Wendehack. The West Course is considered Tillinghast's greatest masterpiece. Even though Tillinghast worked with more dramatic sites, the combination of deep, steeply banked bunkers built into the tiered, pear-shaped greens makes the course an immensely arduous challenge. As Tillinghast put it: ''A controlled shot to a closely guarded green is the severest test of a man's golf" Trees are a defining element of the Winged Foot experience, though the club recently removed some that encroached too much on play. The property is a magnificent arboretum with more than 20,000 trees from 50 different species, including flowering magnolias, dogwoods, crab apples, and Kwanzan cherries. Winged Foot has hosted four u.s. Opens, beginning with Bobby Jones's win in 1929, and the 1997 PGA Championship won by Davis Love III.