In the early 1920’s John McEntee Bowman, the owner of the Biltmore Hotel Group, decided to build a destination sporting resort close to Manhattan that could accommodate the members and guests with the finest sporting facilities and services for their recreation.  It came to include 45 holes of golf, tennis, polo, swimming, boating, skating, skiing, and shooting as well as a race track, casino, beach club, and a private lagoon.

His idea was members could come for long stays in the hotel or their private homes and have all services provided by the hotel staff. He spent over $6 million bringing this ambitious project to fruition and 1200 members joined in his first round of solicitations.

Walter Travis did the design of the championship West Course in 1922 and it came to be the site of an annual PGA Tour event from 1963 to 2006.  In 2007 it was home to the Barclays Classic in the Fedex Playoffs and hosted Senior Tour and LPGA Tour championships in 2011 and 2015 respectively.  As the Westchester and Buick Classic this was a favored stop by the tour pros each year because of the hospitality offered and the old school challenge of the layout.  The list of winners is a who’s who of the greatest champions of multiple generations.

The West Course is truly a challenge to the most skilled player because the extreme topography and forced carries make it play much longer then it’s posted distance.  They do not even bother to put out a forward tee for the membership on this course encouraging the shorter hitters to play on the more user friendly South Course.

A recent renovation by Tom Fazio and Tom Marzolf in 2020 has cleared out a huge number of trees opening up panoramic vistas from high teeing areas throughout the course.  The renovation added width to the driving areas bringing back original strategy to a thoughtful player navigating the course.  The hilly terrain with many green complexes set up on high plateaus makes for blind approach shots that require absolute trust in your caddy’s advice for proper club selection.  I must say that Travis did a brilliant job finding a playable routing given the extreme terrain so do not succumb to visual intimidation when you step on the first tee.

The full course descriptive of the hole-by-hole strategy can be found in link at the bottom of this posting.

The opening hole from the foot of the hotel gives you a drop dead look at a green setting three stories down.

Par four second is your first forced carry off the tee setting up a wrap-around draw approach into a green setting well to the left.

The third is a perfect example of add-on yardage.  The steepness of the incline to the green adds 50 yards to the number on the scorecard.

First on-level hole is a forced carry par three at number four that looks easier then it plays.

The eighth is another par four that climbs a steep hill on the drive and a steeper hill on approach to the green.

The blind shot on the thirteenth is off the tee but what waits on the other side is a visual look up the hill to a beautiful green setting.

The tumbling par five fourteenth wraps around the corner and presents a good scoring opportunity.

The next hole is one of the most beguiling one-shot holes of the day.  Not more then a short iron but very little room to miss on any side.

Seventeen has the only forced carry over water on your approach shot you will see today.

The final hole is a death march back up the hill you came down on the first and it plays much longer as a result.

All I can say is that this course is a big boy challenge but if you play from the appropriate tee and listen carefully to your caddy’s advice it is a memorable and enjoyable golfing experience.

Rye, New York

Architect:        Walter Travis (1922),  Tom Fazio/Tom Marzolf (2020)

Par     Rating   Slope   Yardage

Blue/Black      72        73.1     144      6718

Blue                 72        72.4     142      6505

White              72        70.9     136      6143

White/Green    75        73.3     141      5544

If you would like a printable PDF of this posting including a yardage book quality hole-by-hole description of how to play the course hit the link below.

(Click to get the the printable text of this posting)