The Westchester County golf club is awarded a spot on the National Register of Historic Places after a five-year campaign.
Photo courtesy of Quaker Ridge Golf Club
Quaker Ridge Golf Club has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The designation places the Scarsdale club alongside some of golf’s most respected clubs including Winged Foot, located literally across the street from Quaker, and fellow Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) members Baltusrol and Shinnecock Hills. Other nationally renowned clubs on the list include Augusta National, Merion, and Oakmont.
Efforts to gain approval from both New York State and the National Parks Service spanned nearly five years and included a 67-page submission report. The review process focused largely on the Club’s affiliation with some of golf’s greatest names including architect A.W. Tillinghast and nationally-known club professionals Johnny and Jimmy Farrell.
“One of the key components of our application was the club’s connection to Tillinghast, [Quaker Ridge] being his first great course,” says club Historian Martin Davis. Tillinghast completed the course in 1918 and went on to have influence on upwards of 260 golf courses in the United States.
“In addition to recognizing the period-distinct architecture of the clubhouse, a further factor in our application was our first club professionals for many years, the Farrell brothers, Johnny and his older brother Jimmy,” says Davis. Johnny was considered as the country’s best professional during his time at Quaker Ridge and in 1928 beat Bobby Jones in a 36-hole playoff for his U.S. Open title.
Additionally, Quaker Ridge owns a long history of hosting significant events, including the 1936 Met Open won by Bryon Nelson. It has also hosted the MGA’s other two major championships – the Met Amateur and the Ike – and annually hosts its Hochster Memorial, one of the region’s top invitationals played in honor of the Club’s first president William Rice Hochster. On the national stage, it stands as one of just three U.S. venues to have hosted both the Walker Cup (1997) and Curtis Cup (2018).
