Knollwood Country Club

Devereux Emmet designed Knollwood Country Club in 1909 on a piece of Elmsford, New York Westchester County land north of New York City. The course is one of Emmet's earlier Westchester-area routings and predates much of his more-famous Long Island work — the Knollwood routing reflects the strategic-design principles that Emmet established in the early years of his architectural career. The course has been redesigned multiple times since the 1909 opening, with significant work through subsequent decades and continuing restoration through more recent years that has preserved the Emmet design framework.

The course plays around 6,700 yards par 71 from the back markers, with bent fairways and a slope in the upper 130s. The yardage is short by modern championship standards, but the routing's age and the natural Westchester terrain give the course defense that modern equipment doesn't overcome through length alone. The fairways play firm given the Westchester subsoil. The fifteenth hole is a 444-yard par-4 with a tee shot played over a natural ridge; the seventeenth, a 195-yard par-3 across a natural depression, is the routing's most-discussed one-shotter.

Knollwood Country Club is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The membership is regional Westchester County and New York metro business and professional families with multi-generation ties through the club's pre-World War I founding. The hospitality model is traditional country club, and the Emmet architectural pedigree is part of the institutional identity.

Westchester County climate gives Knollwood a playing season of April through November, with the firmest conditions in September and October. The course closes through brief winter cold snaps. The mature tree canopy through the property and the autumn color through October are part of the routing's seasonal photographic signature.