For a number of years, Knollwood's golf course was unique among major American courses - because of its short length. With a golf course measuring just 5300 yards, Knollwood was the last of America's major clubs to enter the era of the rubber-cored ball, and expand to a standard 6000 yards (or more). But few people really cared. They loved Knollwood's old-fashioned course, which proved that the lay of the land, rather than length, was the key factor defining the character of a golf course.

As already noted, there was talk as early as 1919 about expanding the course, and indeed the financing was in place by 1920. In 1921, Henry Evans, an active member of the Board for a number of years, offered the club the use of some of his land north of the course - provided that no trees were cut down. But no changes were made to the course at this time, aside from new greens for the first, fifth, and 18th holes, which were built in 1923.

After Evans died on August 29, 1924, member Harry Kelly, Jr., purchased his estate, including his mansion, which was called the "Knoll."Kelly acted partly in the interests of the club, realizing that the Evans property formed a buffer between the golf course and adjacent land, room for the club to grow when the time came. That it did, in 1925, when a crisis, fueled by declining membership, and an out-of-date course that did not help attract new members, forced a change.

At that time, Kelly sold to the club two separate tracts of land, totalling 38 acres, from the former Evans estate for $35,000, taking no profit on the transaction. The club immediately engaged noted golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast, to revise the course.

"Tillie" designed seven new holes (#6, #7, and #10 through #14) on the new land, and presented plans for a revision of the rest of the course whereby 18 holes would be open for play at all times. In particular, Tillinghast recommended eliminating the old 8th, 10th, 1th,12th,13th,17th,
and 18th holes, for the most part because of their lack of modern length. He particularly disliked the old 13th hole, which he called an "abomination."

Construction of the new holes began immediately, but work was delayed by persistent summer rains - and then a change of architects. By August, for some unexplained reason, Tillinghast was out of the picture and Seth Raynor and his assistant, Charles Banks were hired to finish the work. Raynor kept Tillinghast's new holes, which were ready for play in 1926, but had ideas of his own for the revision of the old property.

18th Signature hole. "One of the best finishing holes in the country."

The present 18th hole is attributed to Raynor. It was built over what had been a swamp, which proved no problem for Raynor, who had built the legendary Lido course on Long Island's south shore on land reclaimed from the sea. When the new Knollwood holes were given names, #18 was called"Raynor"in tribute to the architect, who thought the hole was the greatest he ever built. Raynor's opinion was confirmed in 1954 when a blue-ribbon panel of golf professionals, amateurs, and officials selected our 18th hole as part of an "All Met"course for the New York Herald-Tribune.

When completed, the new course included seventeen new greens - it appears that the ninth is the one remaining original. Many of the old fairways were used, though, some in the reverse direction. The cost of the revision, in addition to that of the land, was in excess of $60,000, including a new watering system. The club proposed to finance the new course by issuing 128 new property certificates, which were worth $180 at the time.

The new course played at 6314 yards, an increase of approximately 1000 yards, but just one stroke on par. It opened for play with a three-day tournament May 28-30, 1927. The highlight of the competition was a hole in one recorded by member Alexander McClean on the first day at the tough eighth hole.

Among those present for the opening-day festivities was 96-year-old Charles J. Gould, one of the few remaining charter members of the club. Noting the smooth, green fairways, Gould remarked, "I remember when we kept sheep to mow that grass."

Our l9th hole didn't come into existence until 1928, and credit for it has been given to both Raynor and Banks and Knollwood's own
professional/greenskeeper Fred Decker. In addition to providing an exciting venue for settling the day's wagers, the new hole also provided a way to conclude a 9-hole round near the clubhouse. It was not too long a walk down to the l9th tee from the eighth green.

Seth Raynor, designer of the Knollwood golf course, was a native of Manorville, Long Island, born in 1878. He was introduced to golf course
design at an early age. His father, David Raynor, a local engineer, surveyed the land that would become the Shinnecock Hills golf course in 1891, and young Seth carried the rods and chains for his father.

Seth Raynor went on to become a civil engineer/land scape architect, but it was not until 1908 that he set foot on another golf course - the National Golf Links of America adjacent to Shinnecock Hills in Southampton. He was contracted by Charles B. Macdonald to survey the land, and so impressed Macdonald that he was retained as construction supervisor. Raynor went on to assist Macdonald on such courses as Piping Rock, Sleepy Hollow, The Creek, Deepdale, Yale, Mid Ocean, and most notably at Lido, where they built a course acclaimed as one of the world's greatest on land reclaimed from the sea.

Raynor became a partner in the Macdonald organization in 1915, at which time he started building courses on his own (such as Country Club of Fairfield and Morris County) and, starting in 1925, with Charles Banks. Banks was born in Amenia, New York, in 1883, returned to Hotchkiss as an English instructor and track coach, serving in that capacity from 1906 through 1921. He then took charge of the school's endowment fund, and while serving as a member of the school's building committee in 1924 met Seth Raynor, who was building a nine-hole golf course for the school. Banks helped Raynor on that project, then upon its completion left academia to join Raynor full time.

Among their joint efforts were such outstanding courses as Fishers Island, Hackensack, and Essex County, but their partnership was short-lived. With business flourishing, and courses such as Cypress Point (and Knollwood) on the drawing board, Raynor died suddenly of pneumonia in January of 1926.

After Raynor's death, Banks completed the courses they had been working on togetherâ€"the firm lost the Cypress Point bid to Alister MacKenzie - and later designed several of his own, most notably Whippoorwill, Tamarack, The Knoll, Forsgate, Rock Spring, Montclair (#4 nine), and Castle Harbor in Bermuda. Banks suffered for a couple of years with an ailing heart, and finally succumbed to a heart attack in 1931 at age forty-eight.

During his short career, Banks earned the nickname "Steam shovel" for the massive earth-moving efforts that allowed him to create the huge elevated greens fortified by deep bunkers that have become his signature.Like Macdonald before them, Raynor and Banks liked to include on their courses replicas of famous golf holes from abroad or first seen at The National. Our eighth hole ("Redan") is such an example.

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