History of The Woodmere Club

Like several other golf clubs in the Met area, the Woodmere Club wasn't born with golf in mind. In fact, Woodmere was founded in 1908 as a tennis club, and at a different site in the village of Woodsburgh. The club moved to its present location in 1910, purchasing some property along Railroad Avenue, and leasing adjacent land from the White family. Woodmere's Colonial clubhouse had been built as a home in 1908, and was remodeled and opened on Labor Day, coinciding with the completion of the golf course. The building underwent a major renovation in 1994.

The club's leased acreage had a storied past in conjunction with the neighboring Rockaway Hunting Club. Several holes in Rockaway's early golf course has been on that very land, as had the Hunt club's second steeplechase course. For many years, the two club's courses laid side by side, until 1939 when Rockaway Hunting sold its remaining land north of Atlantic Avenue.

Woodmere's golf course underwent constant upgrading during its early years. What resulted was a low-lying marshland links of definite Scottish flavor, even though the numerous hazards were man-made.

Without questions, the fourth hole was the center-piece of the old course. It was a par-4 of about 400 yards, with a 20-foot-high cross bunker in the drive zone. Beyond the bunker, the fairway sloped right, and the three-tiered green featured a "valley of sin" through the middle, with out of bounds close to the right side. The club offered a $500 prize to anyone who could carry the bunker off the tee and stay in the fairway!

The Woodmere caddies of 1925 were trailblazers of sorts, being the first in the Met area to carry with them on the course envelopes filled with grass seed to plant wherever divots were taken.

The Woodmere golf course underwent a major facelift in 1947, when the club bought a large parcel of land from the Rockaway Hunting Club. The land was the former site of several golf holes which the latter club had discarded in 1939. Although Woodmere rejuvenated those holes for a short time, in 1949 Robert Trent Jones was commissioned to build an entirely new back nine. That land had been purchase outright from the White family that same year.

A new seventeenth hole was built in 1952, again the direct result of a (smaller) land purchase from Rockaway Hunting. And the greenside bunkering, perhaps the distinguishing feature of the course, was remodeled in 1986-1987 by architect Brian Silva.

Today, Woodmere's members also enjoy six tennis courts and a unique "elevated" swimming pool. Indeed, the club's first pool, dating back to the 1920's, was unequaled in the Met region, featuring two "floats" fifty yards apart, surround by deep water.