Bonnie-Briar Country Club

Bonnie-Briar County Club is an 18-hole golf course and country club located in the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. The course architect was A. W. Tillinghast, one of the most prolific architects in the history of golf, and designer of nearby Southern Westchester courses including Quaker Ridge Golf Club, Wykagyl Country Club and Winged Foot Golf Club. The course design made excellent use of Bonnie Briar's hilly and low wetland areas, surrounding a wooded interior. A.H. Tull, Geoffrey Cornish and Robert Trent also contributed to various aspects of the course layout, drainage, tees, greens and bunkers.[1]

After World War I, real estate activity in the Town of Mamaroneck surged and the number of families moving into the area brought about a need for country and beach clubs which were then few in number. The land had belonged to the Lyman Bill estate. Colonel E. Lyman Bill, a successful publisher and one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, had owned a large piece of property along the Mamaroneck and New Rochelle border, on which he had a private club with tennis courts and a rudimentary golf course.

The first and ninth fairways became the site of the first golf layout in the United States. The Colonel wanted to build a palatial residence on his estate, yet died before its completion. The Bonnie Briar Country Club was then organized in 1921 with the financial assistance of the Bill family. The first president was the Colonel's son, Edward Lyman Bill, who finished construction of the clubhouse.[2]

The course officially opened on July 15, 1923. In 1961, Judy Garland lived in a house at 1 Cornell Street in Scarsdale, which is right around the corner from Bonnie Briar Country Club.