A.W. Tillinghast: Master of Golf's Golden Age

Albert Warren Tillinghast did not invent strategic golf design, but he wrote some of its loudest sentences. Born in Philadelphia in 1874 to a wealthy rubber and leather family, he spent his twenties as a self-styled dandy who happened to play scratch golf. By the time he died in 1942, he had stamped his name on the courses that would host more U.S. Opens than any architect of his generation.

Stymie tracks 65 open Tillinghast courses across 16 states, with the bulk concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Five of them sit inside Golf Digest's current Top 100. The earliest dates we have on his work stretch back to the 1890s, and his last designs were finished after his death in the mid 1950s. For an architect who built almost everything in a 25 year window, that range tells you how durable the bones are.

The Philadelphia Outsider Who Studied at St Andrews

Tillinghast traveled to Scotland in 1895, fell in with Old Tom Morris at St Andrews, and came home with two convictions that shaped everything he built. First, that hazards should make a player think rather than just punish a miss. Second, that greens were the entire point of a golf hole, and everything tee to fairway existed to set up the approach.

His break came in 1909 when a friend asked him to lay out Shawnee Inn in Pennsylvania. He was 35 years old and had never designed a course. The result attracted enough attention that within a decade he was the most sought after architect in the eastern United States. San Francisco Golf Club opened in 1915, currently ranked 33rd in America, and is widely considered one of the most authentic Tillinghast layouts still standing.

The Major Championship Resume

The list of Tillinghast courses that have hosted U.S. Opens reads like a tour of American championship golf. Winged Foot's West Course, Baltusrol's Lower, Bethpage Black, San Francisco Golf Club, and Quaker Ridge all came from his drafting table.

The five Tillinghast designs ranked in Golf Digest's Top 100:

• San Francisco Golf Club (San Francisco, CA), ranked 33
• Lower Course at Baltusrol Golf Club (Springfield, NJ), ranked 42
• Somerset Hills Country Club (Bernardsville, NJ), ranked 56
• Quaker Ridge Golf Club (Scarsdale, NY), ranked 75
• Upper Course at Baltusrol Golf Club (Springfield, NJ), ranked 84

Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, deserves its own line. The West Course alone has hosted six U.S. Opens, including Bryson DeChambeau's 2020 win at six under. Tillinghast told the founders he would give them "a man sized course," and the small, severely contoured greens have done exactly that for nearly a century.

Bethpage and the WPA Years

The Great Depression crushed Tillinghast's private practice along with most of his peers. In 1934 he took a job touring PGA member courses to recommend modifications, traveling more than 30,000 miles in two years. The same period produced his most democratic work: the public courses at Bethpage State Park on Long Island.

He designed three of the five tracks there in the mid 1930s, working with park superintendent Joseph Burbeck. The Black Course opened in 1936 and famously warns golfers at the first tee that it is recommended only for highly skilled players. It has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships. The Red Course and The Blue Course are still in regular public rotation, with greens fees that haven't changed the basic Tillinghast bargain: world class architecture, accessible to anyone willing to wake up early.

What Makes a Tillinghast Hole

His signature, if you can pin it to one element, was the green complex. Tillinghast greens roll, fall away, and turn at angles that punish the casual approach. He preferred bunkers cut into mounding rather than the flat, raked saucers that became fashionable later. His par 3s, in particular, often stand out: think of the 10th at Winged Foot West or the redan style 2nd at Somerset Hills.

He also pioneered what he called the "Reef" hole, a long par 4 with a diagonal cross hazard that forces players to choose how much to bite off from the tee. You can find variants of it scattered through the Tillinghast catalog, including at Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas, his most celebrated southwestern design.

The Quiet End

Tillinghast spent his fortune as fast as he made it. By 1937 he had liquidated his archive, moved to Beverly Hills, and tried unsuccessfully to open an antique shop. He died in 1942, largely forgotten by a golf industry that had moved on to new names. Restoration architects like Gil Hanse and Tom Doak spent the last 30 years bringing his original features back, and the courses are stronger for it.

If you want to walk a Tillinghast course on your own dime, the public Bethpage tracks and several semi private clubs in the northeast remain the best entry point. The 65 courses Stymie tracks span every era of his career and most of the country he worked in.

View all courses by A.W. Tillinghast