Westchester Country Club, West Course

Detailed description of Westchester Country Club, West Course

The Westchester Country Club (or Westchester Biltmore Country Club) was founded by John McEntee Bowman, who hired Walter Travis to design two golf courses in Rye, New York as amenities for his luxury resort hotel. 

The West and South Courses opened in 1922.

The West Course has since been revised by several notable architects including Rees Jones, Ken Dye and most recently by Tom Fazio. 

Winding its way through terrain dotted with rocky outcroppings, the West Course is hilly and heavily wooded, rolling through thick stands of pine, oak, and maple, and features many blind spots which add to the complexity and difficulty of the course. Four holes on the West Course, Nos. 2, 3, 6, and 17, rated among the toughest on the PGA Tour during the course’s long tenure as a host on golf’s top professional circuit. 

The West Course was designed for championship play and has hosted PGA tournaments since 1963.

Westchester Country Club hosted its first PGA tournament in 1963 with the Thunderbird Classic. The Thunderbird was also held in 1964 and for the last time in 1965. There was no PGA tournament at Westchester Country Club in 1966, and starting in 1967, the West Course has annually hosted the Westchester Classic stop on the PGA Tour. Since then, the tournament name has changed several times due to sponsorship switches and is now called The Barclays. Starting in 2007, The Barclays will be held during August and played at rotating sites in the New York Metropolitan Area. Westchester Country Club will continue to host the majority, but not all of the annual stops in the New York region.

The South Course was originally designed for women and higher handicap golfers. Around 1997, the South Course was reconstructed with longer tees, new sand and grass bunkers, water hazards, and some new greens. The South Course is now more competitive with the West Course to accommodate low handicap golfers.