The "Original" Clubhouse
In 1909 Charles Hudson of Pinehurst and New Suffolk and Stuart Moore, of Cutchogue and Brooklyn first proposed the founding of a small country club in the hamlet of Cutchogue on Long Island with a golf course, tennis courts and a club house.
Moores Lane
In 1911 a membership corporation with capital of $25,000 was formed and a 10-year lease obtained on some 80 acres compromising the original farm of Calvin Moore facing King's Highway (Route 25) and a part of "Fort Neck Farm" on Moore's Lane. Both properties were owned by Stuart Moore. On this fertile land, surrounded by potato fields and offering occasional views of Downs and West Creeks as well as Great Peconic Bay, the famous architect Donald Ross of Pinehurst laid out a nine-hole links of 3,000 yards. When today's members drive off the first seven plus the 17th and 18th tees, they are playing the original holes.
Donald Ross, Course Architect
Work began under John Fanning in the fall of 1911. All this did not happen as easily as is reads. The new club owned almost no machinery, and had to appeal to local farmers to help maintain the course with their agricultural equipment. Originally a windmill was planned to provide water for the greens, in the end a prosaic 4-horse power pump did the job. During the dry summer months, fairways turned into hard packed dirt and crabgrass. (It took at least a five iron to break out of the rough.) The same tees served both genders, and a box of sand and a bucket of water provided for do-it-yourself teeing up. There were few trees of any size on the course except those by the third green, the fourth tee and the sixth hole. The historic Calvin Moore farmhouse, adapted and enlarged by architect John Petit and built by Edgar Tuthill of Peconic, formed the core of the new clubhouse.
A separate building "The Locker House" housed the pro shop, a bedroom for the pro, and, after overcoming protests from members of the Temperance Movement, a bar. The automobile shed, also separate, had room for 12 automobiles or carriages, a caddy room and a tool shop. Buildings, grounds, landscaping and tennis courts were ready for the Grand Opening on July 4th, 1912; the 9-hole golf links a month later, on August 5th. Total Cost: $29,560.75. The Club opened with 58 members (in most cases, family included); closed its initial season with 76; opened the second season with 97, a new croquet court, and its first professional, Barney Kelly. Annual dues were $35, with an initiation fee of $25 for those who were not stockholders. "Transient" members could join on a seasonal, monthly, weekly or daily basis. From the start, this was a "Country" Club, with tennis and croquet as well as golf, and both men and women involved in play.