North Fork’s founders—locals Charles Hudson and Stuart Moore—proposed a small country club in 1909. In 1911 members incorporated and leased roughly 80 acres spanning the Calvin Moore farm (fronting today’s Route 25) and part of Fort Neck Farm on Moore’s Lane. The club engaged Donald Ross to plan a nine-hole “links” of about 3,000 yards. Construction began that fall under John Fanning with minimal mechanization; farmers’ equipment helped maintain the turf. Clubhouse and grounds opened with ceremony on July 4, 1912, and the nine holes debuted on August 5. The club’s own course history identifies Ross’s original holes as today’s 1–7 and 17–18, meaning the present routing still threads the 1912 nine.
The course expanded to 18 holes a decade later. Multiple secondary sources—including a 2024 research note by Sanford Ferris Golf Design (SFGD), the firm that recently completed restoration work—attribute the second nine (added in 1922) to Devereux Emmet. That attribution comports with local golf-architecture discourse and period patterns on Long Island; however, primary documentation (plans, contracts, or contemporary newspaper reports) has not yet been produced publicly by the club or local archives. The SFGD account states that “evidence was found” for Emmet’s authorship during their historical study, but does not reproduce the evidence. Pending review of club minutes or period press, Emmet’s role and the exact 1922 construction sequence should be treated as well-supported but not fully verified. There is, likewise, no accessible evidence that Ross himself returned after the 1912 opening.
Unique Design Characteristics
Because 1–7 and 17–18 are the 1912 Ross holes, the clearest surviving examples of his work occur on this loop. The short two-shotter at 4 remains a classic risk-reward drive with a cross-bunker set diagonally into the landing area; the club describes the green as “very undulating,” a feature that, paired with the angled hazard, rewards a positional lay-up as much as a bold tee shot that flirts with sand. The 5th, playing along a rise with views to Downs Creek, feeds to a green tightly defended by well-placed bunkers, and punishes a miss left off the tee—still a hallmark of the original corridor. The 6th is a compact uphill par-3 to a back-to-front sloping target demanding precise spin control, and the 7th is a long, wind-exposed par-3 where prudent play short of the surface often yields the best up-and-in—both holes reflecting the course’s low-profile, seaside setting. At the finish, 17 (a straight, tight par-5) asks players to navigate split fairway bunkers on the lay-up before pitching to a rectangular green guarded on three sides, while 18 is a narrow par-4 with out-of-bounds hard right where the approach must carry a tight entry to another rectangular green buttressed by deep bunkers. These two greens have defined the closing stretch for more than a century and sit on holes identified as part of Ross’s original nine.
It is important to acknowledge that green perimeters and bunker forms have evolved over time. The club’s current course tour uses modern descriptors (e.g., “rectangular green”), and a 2024 restoration introduced grass-faced bunkers and increased fairway contour. Those choices have emphasized period-appropriate visuals without materially lengthening the course. Where specific morphologies (exact green pads, bunker edges) reflect 1912 construction versus later reshaping remains an active subject best resolved by comparing present contours to historic aerials or any extant construction notes.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s New York work, North Fork is notable as one of his few Long Island commissions, and the club styles itself as Long Island’s only Donald Ross-designed course—a claim consistent with regional listings of architects at neighboring clubs. In the chronology of Ross’s New York activity, North Fork’s 1912 opening places it among his earlier Empire State projects and shows how his small-green, wind-aware targets translated to a low-elevation maritime site. The club’s continued use of those original corridors, particularly on the opening seven and the home two, has given the course an unusual continuity in a region where many venues were rebuilt or replaced in the interwar period.
Tournament history at North Fork has centered on Metropolitan Golf Association qualifiers rather than major championships, in keeping with its scale and member focus. In recent seasons the club has hosted Ike Stroke Play sectional qualifying (June 13, 2022; May 19, 2025). These events underscore the course’s continued relevance as a fair but searching examination at modest yardage in coastal winds.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing integrity on the Ross nine is unusually high: the club itself confirms that today’s 1–7 and 17–18 are the original 1912 holes. Modern work has aimed more at recapturing period strategy than at wholesale rerouting. Beginning in 2015, SFGD researched historic changes and, by spring 2024, the club completed an eight-month restoration phase featuring new grass-faced bunkers, more contoured fairways, and (in earlier phases) a Ross green restoration program. Contractor George E. Ley Company handled construction. The club’s hole-by-hole descriptions now emphasize firm, back-to-front tilts and tight entries consistent with a course defended primarily at the green.
Alterations and losses. Early descriptions note “few trees of any size,” while today’s text repeatedly references tree-lined corridors and out-of-bounds flanking certain holes—evidence of later vegetative enclosure and property-line hardening. Several holes (e.g., 11, 15, 16) incorporate ponds and marsh edges; those features predominate on the 1922 Emmet side of the course (holes 8–16), based on modern descriptions and the club’s statement about the original nine. Because the club has not published original Ross drawings, the precise extent of original green pads and bunker shapes that survive in-situ cannot be established without primary materials or historic aerials. Turf today is listed as bent/Poa on both fairways and greens. Reported back-tee yardage varies among public sources; the club’s website provides hole-by-hole yardages, while GolfNow lists Blue tees at 6,315 yards (rating 70.4/slope 130) and other sets proportionally shorter.
What has been preserved vs. changed. Preserved elements include the routing of 1–7, 17–18, the scale of many small, back-to-front sloped greens, and the tactical role of cross and flanking bunkers on short two-shotters such as 4 and approach narrows such as 18. Changed or modernized elements include bunker styling (now grass-faced), wider fairway contouring, and a greens program that has sought to restore period perimeters while acknowledging contemporary standards for member play and maintenance. The second nine remains a separate authorship layer—credited to Emmet by recent research—whose water features and longer par-3s (e.g., 10, 14) add contrast to the Ross loop.
Primary documentation gaps. The club’s public site is unusually rich for an in-house history, but original plans, construction drawings, and correspondence from Ross are not posted. The Emmet attribution for the 1922 expansion presently rests on secondary statements (SFGD posts) and community research; corroboration from club minutes, contracts, or contemporary newspaper accounts (e.g., the County Review of 1921–22) would complete the record.
Sources & Notes
North Fork Country Club. “Golf – The Course / History & Course Tour.” Accessed September 2025. (Club’s official historical narrative; notes incorporation, 80-acre lease, Ross authorship of the nine, opening dates; identifies today’s 1–7, 17–18 as the original holes; detailed hole-by-hole descriptions used for feature references.)
Sanford Ferris Golf Design (John Sanford, David Ferris). Facebook/Instagram posts, 2023–24. (Report on research initiated in 2015; statement that evidence supports Devereux Emmet as designer of the 1922 second nine; notes scope of recent restoration including grass-faced bunkers and fairway contouring.) Secondary; no primary documents reproduced.
Metropolitan Golf Association. “After an eight-month restoration, North Fork Country Club reopened in the spring…” October 7, 2024 (X/Twitter post). (Summarizes the 2024 reopening and restoration themes.)
Metropolitan Golf Association. “67th Ike MGA Stroke Play Championship SQR – North Fork CC – 2022” and “Qualifying: 70th Ike MGA Stroke Play Championship – North Fork CC – May 19, 2025.” (Documents recent tournament activity at the club.)
GolfClubAtlas Forum. “North Fork CC on Long Island: was Donald Ross…?” (Thread discussing original nine and 1922 expansion; cites early County Review clippings; used here only to flag research leads and uncertainty pending primary verification.) Tertiary.