Fishers Island Club

{{Short description|Country club in New York}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox golf facility | golf_facility_name = Fishers Island Club | image = | imagesize =  | caption = | location = Fishers Island, NY | coordinates = {{coord|41|16|48|N|71|56|51|W|display=inline,title}} | establishment = 1926 | type = Private | owner =  | operator =  | pushpin_map = USA#New York | pushpin_relief = 1 | holes = 18 | tournaments = | website = {{URL|www.fishersislandclub.com}} | course1 =  | designer1 = Seth Raynor<br />Charles Banks | par1 = 72 | length1 = 6,616 yards<ref name="mga">{{cite web |url=http://www.mgagolf.org/intraclub/memberclub/showclubratings.html?id=19551 |title=Fishers Island Club |work=Metropolitan Golf Association |access-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref> | rating1 = 72.0<ref name="mga"/> | record1 = }} The '''Fishers Island Club''' is a country club located near the eastern end of Fishers Island in New York. The club includes an eighteen-hole golf course designed by Seth Raynor that was ranked ninth in the 2023 ''Golf Digest'' list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Duncan |first1=Derek |last2=Hennessey |first2=Stephen |date=May 2, 2023 |url=https://www.golfdigest.com/story/americas-100-greatest-golf-courses-ranking |title=America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses |work=Golf Digest |access-date=July 27, 2024}}</ref>

The golf course has been called the "Cypress Point of the East" and is also referred to by its members as "The Big Club" to distinguish it from the Hay Harbor Club, another country club on the western part of the island with a nine-hole golf course.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barr |first=Jeff |title=1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die |year=2005 |publisher=Ronnie Sellers Productions |location=Portland, ME |isbn=1-56906-585-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/1001golfholesyou00barr/page/179 179] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/1001golfholesyou00barr/page/179 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Talk Of Fishers Island; Isle's Summer Gentry Squeezing Out 'Locals' |first=Nick |last=Ravo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/14/nyregion/the-talk-of-fishers-island-isle-s-summer-gentry-squeezing-out-locals.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 14, 1988 |access-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref> The course opened in July 1926, a few months after the death of its architect, Seth Raynor.<ref name="Clavin" /> Charles Banks, an associate of Raynor, completed the work on the course after the unexpected death of Raynor in January 1926. Banks went on to finish several of Raynor's other ongoing projects and designed other courses on his own before he died in March 1931.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pioppi |first=Anthony |url=http://theaposition.com/anthonypioppi/golf/personalities/2313/the-brief-bright-career-of-charles-banks-and-the-burning-questions-he-left-behind |title=The Brief, Bright Career of Charles Banks, and the Burning Questions He Left Behind |website=The A Position |access-date=July 27, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=January 24, 1926 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/01/24/archives/sj-raynor-golf-architect-dies.html |title=S.J. Raynor, Golf Architect, Dies |work=The New York Times |access-date=July 27, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=March 21, 1931 |title=Charles H. Banks |work=The New York Times |id={{ProQuest|99371244}}}}</ref> Most of the holes have water views of Block Island Sound or Fishers Island Sound.<ref name="Clavin">{{cite web |url=http://www.hamptons.com/Adventure/Links-Life/1606/Golf-Treasure-On-This-Island.html |title=Golf Treasure On This Island |first=Tom |last=Clavin |work=Hamptons Online |date=May 24, 2007 |access-date=February 20, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720020318/http://www.hamptons.com/Adventure/Links-Life/1606/Golf-Treasure-On-This-Island.html |archive-date=July 20, 2011}}</ref> Like his mentor Charles B. Macdonald, Raynor patterned many of the holes after classic designs at other courses including the Alps, Biarritz, Cape, Double Plateau, Eden, Punchbowl, Redan and Short.<ref>{{cite web |last=Silva |first=Brian |title=Common Golf Hole Designs |website=Links Magazine |url=http://www.linksmagazine.com/best_of_golf/features/common_golf_hole_designs_golf_architecture_seth_raynor.aspx |access-date=February 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218210423/http://linksmagazine.com/best_of_golf/features/common_golf_hole_designs_golf_architecture_seth_raynor.aspx |archive-date=December 18, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/fishers-island-club |title=Fishers Island Club |work=Golf Course Atlas |access-date=February 20, 2010}}</ref>

The golf course was a key component of the development of {{convert|1600|acre|ha}} of land on the east end of Fishers Island into a new community for summer residents in the mid-1920s. Real estate developer Frederick S. Ruth was engaged by Fishers Island Farms, Inc. to explore the feasibility of creating the new development. He endorsed the proposal and recommended the hiring of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to plan the residential subdivision and Seth Raynor to design the golf course.<ref name="Strategic Plan">{{cite web |last=Scopaz |first=Valerie M. |date=September 2007 |url=https://issuu.com/fishersislandny/docs/hamlet_study_-_fi_strategic_plan_20 |title=Fishers Island Strategic Plan: 2007-2017 |page=8 |access-date=July 26, 2024 |via=Issuu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tclf.org/landscapes/fishers-island-club |title=Fishers Island Club |website=The Cultural Landscape Foundation |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Bartol 2009" /><ref name="2015 Exhibition" /> Ruth, Olmsted, and Raynor had all previously worked together on the design of a new residential community with a golf course in Mountain Lake, Florida.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tclf.org/olmstedonlongisland |title=Olmsted on Long Island |website=The Cultural Landscape Foundation |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Bartol 2016" /> The scale of the residential development envisioned in Olmsted's plan was never fully realized due to the effects of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.<ref name="Strategic Plan"/><ref name="2015 Exhibition" />

The club originally had a massive Norman Farmhouse-style clubhouse that was designed by architect Charles R. Wait of Boston.<ref name="2015 Exhibition">{{cite web |date=June 2015 |url=https://fergusonmuseum.org/2015/06/2015-special-exhibition-building-the-olmsted-plan/ |title=Special Exhibition: Building the Olmsted Plan |website=The Henry L. Ferguson Museum |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Bartol 2016">{{cite news |last=Bartol |first=Norma |date=July 14, 2016|url=https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Norma-Bartol-The-beginnings-of-the-Fishers-8378873.php |title=The beginnings of the Fishers Island golf course |work=Greenwich Time |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref> In 1933, the clubhouse served as a temporary home for students from the Ethel Walker School after a fire had destroyed two of the dormitories used by girls at the preparatory school in Connecticut.<ref name="Bartol 2016" /><ref>{{cite news |date=April 15, 1933 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/04/15/archives/walker-school-will-move-to-fishers-island-as-temporary-refuge-after.html |title=Walker School Will Move to Fisher's Island As Temporary Refuge After Incendiary Fires |work=The New York Times |access-date=July 27, 2024}}</ref> During World War II, the building was leased to the United States Navy and used as a training school.<ref name="Bartol 2009">{{cite news |last=Bartol |first=Norma |date=August 31, 2009 |url=https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/crashes-bailouts-and-syndicates-a-history-of-3102.php |title=Crashes, bailouts and syndicates: A history of Fishers Island |work=Greenwich Time |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref><ref name="2015 Exhibition" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Rafferty |first=Pierce |date=Spring 2011 |url=https://fergusonmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/newsletter2011.pdf |title=Island History: A World War II Mystery Solved |work=Henry L. Ferguson Museum Newsletter |volume=26 |number=1 |page=12 |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref> By 1963, the clubhouse was operating with an annual deficit of more than $50,000 and the club's Board of Governors decided to demolish the structure as a cost-cutting measure. It was intentionally destroyed by a fire set on September 19, 1963 after an attempt to blow up the structure using dynamite earlier that month proved to be unsuccessful.<ref name="Clavin" /><ref name="Bartol 2009" /><ref name="2015 Exhibition" /><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Robert H. |date=September 6, 1965 |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1965/09/06/island-of-the-discreet-shudder |title=Island Of The Discreet Shudder |magazine=Sports Illustrated |access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref>

The country club also has five tennis courts and a beach club.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ficlub.net/about-us |title=About Us |website=Fishers Island Club |access-date=July 25, 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == *{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Charles B. |last2=Rafferty |first2=Pierce |year=2002 |title=The Fishers Island Club and its Golf Links: The First Seventy-Five Years |publisher=Fishers Island Club, Inc. |isbn=978-0972191500}}

==External links== *[http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/fishers-island-club Fishers Island Club on Golf Club Atlas]

Category:Golf clubs and courses in New York (state) Category:Southold, New York Category:1926 establishments in New York (state) Category:Golf clubs and courses designed by Seth Raynor Category:Sports venues in Suffolk County, New York