6 Spectacular Sanctuaries
Today’s private club locker rooms resemble nothing less than the swankiest
spa-like retreats. See for yourself in this peek at six of our area’s most spectacular
inner sanctums.
By Nancy and Peter Saltini
Photography by Philip Ennis
During an 1888 round of golf, John Reid and friends—founders of the Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson—hung up their coats, hats, and flasks on an apple tree in a Yonkers pasture. This was the humble
beginning of what has evolved into what these pioneers could not have begun to imagine, the luxurious spaces that serve as locker rooms for the contemporary golfer. The most spectacular of these are
designed to satisfy the most discriminating and demanding duffer, with marble showers and steam rooms, fully equipped gyms, full-
service spas, plush seating, fireplaces, and wide-screen hi-def televisions in lounges with full bar and food service. Hudson Valley’s golfers don’t have to miss out on these amenities.
Hudson National Golf Club
Croton-on-Hudson
Marshmallows Optional. Soaring hand-hewn roof trusses from native timber and a massive 24-foot-high stone fireplace are the dramatic focal points of this handsome lounge. The towering fireplace makes use of local granite and gneiss stone salvaged from the ruins of the 1920s Hessian Hills Club, still visible at the fifth tee. Columns and ceiling trusses match those in the Great Room dining area, the former family room of the clubhouse’s classic 1911 Larkin Family mansion, renovated in 1998. A small adjoining library, complete with TV and golf library, and the shower, steam, and exercise and massage rooms, complete the package.
A Cozy Inner Sanctum. Complete with green leather cushioned benches and shoe bins, Hudson National’s mahogany lockers replicate those at Augusta National. The original Collier’s cover shown dates back to 1915 and is but one of a large collection of more than 40 original Sports Illustrated covers, all autographed by the featured golfer, starting with the February 1962 issue of LPGA Champion Mickey Wright and including such greats as Snead, Miller, Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino, and Crenshaw.
Fenway Golf Club
Scarsdale
A Duffer’s Dream. This 1924 club’s men’s locker room is one of the most customized in the region. Refitted in the ’50s with then state-of-the-art oversized metal lockers, the locker room’s changes were vigorously resisted until 2000, when the club’s members agreed a facelift was overdue. At an enormous 19½ inches wide with double doors and integral benches and shoe bins, each locker is custom fabricated of walnut stained maple. With more than 10,000 square feet, including the two-chair barber shop, steam and massage rooms, the “dormitory” with beds for three napping members, and full service men’s bar, this locker room, presided by attendant David Lopez for more than 25 years, is one of the most expansive in the area. No wonder President Jeff Citron says, “David spoils us rotten here at Fenway.”
GlenArbor Golf Club
Bedford Hills
A Mahogany and Marble Retreat. Located on the second floor of a new clubhouse designed by Mark P. Finlay Architects and completed in 2003 on the site of the old White Estate, GlenArbor’s 3,500-square-foot men’s locker room features a handsome beamed cathedral ceiling of hand-hewn mahogany over showers and steam room complete with imported green and white marble. Bathrooms are stocked with Molton Brown soaps and creams made in London. Featuring Audubon prints, wool carpeting, wrought iron candelabra chandeliers, and mahogany lockers custom built in
Best Foot Forward. Locker room attendant Lawrence Henson retrieves, prepares, and lays out spikes for the day’s round of golf. He ensures that the imported Italian Frette bath towels are meticulously arranged to display the embroidered GlenArbor logo, and he can advise golfers of the soup du jour in the dining room.
Trump National Golf Club Westchester
Briarcliff Manor
Bathing Beauties. After they hit the links, Trump National’s women golfers can stow their spikes, don plush cotton robes, and indulge in a long hot shower or relaxing steam bath; both feature Damascata Breccia marble imported from Italy. Or they can step across the hall for the full spa treatment to massage away any post game frustrations.
Putting on the Glitz. From Honduran mahogany lockers and signature Italian breccia marble, to carved vanities and crystal lighting, no detail has been overlooked and no amenity spared in Trump National’s women’s locker room. “It is the club’s mission to provide special treatment to our members and guests on a regular basis,” says Membership and Marketing Director Ian Gillule. Members are pampered in opulent surroundings featuring original works of art, 12- to 22-foot-high ceilings, and an adjoining lounge complete with wide-screen TV, computer stations for e-mail boastings of the latest great round, and full bar and food service.
Saint Andrew’s Golf Club
Hastings-on-Hudson
A Hideaway with Heritage. Saint Andrew’s, the oldest continuously operated golf club in the country, is rife with history. The clubhouse and locker room, believed to have been designed by famed architect and club member Stanford White, were constructed at its current site in 1897 and remodeled and refitted several times prior to the last renovation by Butler Rogers Baskett Architects in 2001. At that time, new fully louvered mahogany lockers were substituted for the ’50s-era metal ones, and individual shower stalls replaced the former communal shower.
Post-Links Relaxation on Tap. The adjoining men’s bar-and-grill room is equipped with pool table, dart board, a large screen TV, extensive club memorabilia, and the cherished semicircular bar, presided over by Yonkers native Ed Kopec, bartender for the last 31 years. Because it was the only bar in the clubhouse until 1974, women before then were forced to wait in the lobby for someone to pass their order to the bartender.
The Tuxedo Club
Tuxedo Park
Posh Pampering. Located in a clubhouse designed in 1997 in the Tuxedo Park vernacular by Architect Robert Lamb Hart, with interiors by Walter Ballard & Associates, The Tuxedo Club’s women’s locker room projects the patrician lifestyle associated with this venerable gated community. Featuring Waverly fabrics, roman shades, and wall coverings, custom alabaster pendant lighting, gold leaf framed beveled mirrors, and traditional plaid carpeting, this space evokes a simple and understated feminine elegance.
Hers & Hers. Tuxedo Club’s understated elegant ambience is exemplified by the simplicity of the Tuxedo Club logo embroidered in hunter green on white. Not that we’d expect anything less—or more—from a club bearing the name of that often maligned but always elegant men’s evening wear.
