Courtesy of the club
Whippoorwill Club
Whippoorwill Club
150 Whippoorwill Rd
Armonk, NY 10504-1109
United States
Overview
Found on an incredibly undulating and varied piece of land, Whippoorwill Club is one of the finest courses in Westchester County. Originally a nine-hole Donald Ross design that sat on the clubhouse side of Whippoorwill Road, Charles Banks was given a piece of land on the other side where holes 4-9 and 12-14 currently reside. The modern course is chock full of interesting design features—from deep bunkers to green complexes that rival many of the other great courses in the area.
About
Awards
Ranking history:
Best in State: Ranked 28th, 2023-'24. Ranked 29th, 2021-'22. Ranked 32nd, 2025-'26.
Previous ranking: 28th.
2025-'26 ranking: 32nd.
Panelists
Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists
100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES
Shot Options
Character
Challenge
Layout Variety
Fun
Aesthetics
Conditioning
Reviews
Review
“Whippoorwill Club, Armonk, NY Character is the easiest category to score at Whippoorwill, and the highest. Donald Ross laid out the original course on the east side of Whippoorwill Road in the mid-1920s, but the identity of the place really comes from what happened next: Charles "Steamshovel" Banks acquired land across the road and rebuilt holes 4 through 9 and 12 through 14 on steep, tree-lined terrain on the second-highest point in Westchester County. Banks reportedly considered it his masterpiece, and it's easy to see why: this is a genuinely distinctive piece of architecture, not a competent Ross/Banks pastiche. The course as it plays today reflects a recent renovation led by Chris Cochran of Nicklaus Design, who has led similar work at courses including Royal Auckland, The Grange, and The Club at Carlton Woods. The stated intent, and the result on the ground, is a deliberate return to Banks' original style: template greens and low, flat, geometric bunkering, rather than a generic modernization. The output follows this intent to a tee. That bunkering is the single biggest driver of Shot Options on the course. It's genuinely excellent to look at, but the more important thing is what it does strategically: it defines angles and lines rather than just punishing distance, which means it works for long and short hitters alike rather than favoring one over the other. Several holes simply don't call for a driver at all, and the course is better for it. Shot Options here are about picking the correct line and club, not about how far a player can hit it, which is exactly the kind of test that ages well and rewards repeat play. Layout Variety is the strongest technical case for the course beyond the bunkering. The stretch of holes Banks built across the road is unusual in that none of them run parallel to one another, which is a real routing achievement on hilly, wooded ground, and it shows up in how different each hole feels in isolation: the short par-5 3rd doglegs left, the 6th funnels down through rock outcroppings, the 11th is a short downhill 3 whose green bends around a pond, and the 16th is a long par 5 with some of the best bunkering on the property. The 14th rewards a player willing to take on the right-side bunkers off the tee in exchange for a better angle on a long uphill second, and the funnel at 6 forces a real decision about how much fairway to give up for a safer angle in. Neither hole is a pure risk-reward set piece, but both ask a genuine question rather than a rhetorical one. Challenge leans on the terrain more than on length or hazards, and the course is honest about where its hardest test lives. The 7th is the clear standard-bearer: a downhill tee shot playing roughly 225 yards over a pond (the same pond that, per club lore, swallowed a steam shovel during construction), followed by a nearly 185-yard uphill approach to a bowled green that offers the only reprieve on the hole. The template greens spread through the round, including the Biarritz at the 8th playing anywhere from 160 to 215 yards, and the Redan-influenced 17th guarded by a deep front-left bunker, add a different, more targeted kind of Challenge that rewards precision over power. Aesthetics benefits directly from the same terrain that drives Layout Variety and Challenge. The 5th plays to a green pressed right against a marsh, the 4th has a distinctive "thumbprint" green complex, and the 13th pairs a downhill-then-uphill two-shotter with a dramatic bowl on the long right side of the green: genuinely pretty golf rather than scenery for its own sake. The 18th closes the round on a high note for both Aesthetics and Fun: a downhill tee shot into a meandering fairway, a blind approach to a green set well above the fairway's low point and flanked by two long, narrow bunkers, and the clubhouse flagpole framing the walk up to the green. Fun holds up well across the round because the course keeps changing what it's asking. Squared bunkers reappear as a visual motif at 14 and 15 without either hole playing like a repeat of the other, and the back nine in particular never settles into a predictable rhythm. Conditioning overall is very good, with firm, true greens that putt the way this style of architecture wants them to. The course still needs another season to fully grow in, though; the enlarged green sections show real wear in places, and with much of the greens and tees ringed by trees, sunlight is at a premium in several spots. I'd expect the summer months of 2027 to matter a great deal for how fully this settles in. Taken as a whole, this is a course whose reputation undersells it relative to some of its more decorated Westchester neighbors. Hole for hole, and especially in how directly both the terrain and the restored Banks bunkering shape the golf, Whippoorwill has as strong a case as almost anything else in the area."
Read More2026
Review
“Whippoorwill's layout is Westchester's answer to mountain golf. Here, Charles Banks built expansive greens and huge treacherous bunkers into the severe strip of land along Whippoorwill Road. Many of C.B. MacDonald's ideal holes are represented here, including a rare Hog's Back template. Restorative work by the Nicklaus company has revitalized the course with fairway expansions and bunker reconditioning."
Read More2026
Review
“Enormous greens, beautiful squared off bunkers and matching greens, fun elevation changes."
Read More2025
Review
“A wild ride through hilly terrain with plenty of eye-catching elements of classic design."
Read More2023
Review
“A successful green expansion has added a bunch of new pin locations all of over the course. What surprised me most about Whippoorwill was the brawny land movement and exhilarating shot making needed to navigate it. An absolute can't miss golf course."
Read More2023
Review
“Fantastic routing over rolling hilly terrain. Big bold green complexes with huge deep bunkering. Any fan of Raynor/Banks will love this under the radar gem."
Read More2023
Review
“The course starts with three nice but unspectacular holes and then turns into a wild roller-coaster ride with massive, undulating green complexes and claasic Banks deep bunkering. Strong routing and variety. Nice usage of rolling topography. Really strong par threes including an beautiful biarritz backed by a waterfall."
Read More2023
Review
“Aesthetically, this course is a treat. The front nine in particular with its links like holes surrounded by mature trees is not only pretty, but something one does not see elsewhere. The back nine, with fewer trees, actually looks more natural and is still attractive"
Read More2023
Review
“Bunkers are strategically placed in and around fairways to dictate shot direction or provide risk/reward opportunities, while most of those around greens are typical Banks bunkers: deep and penal. While on paper the course is relatively short, due to the terrain I found it to play considerably longer than the stated yardage. That said, there are some holes where big hitters will undoubtedly need to use hybrids or irons off the tee to keep the ball in play. The bottom line here is that this is a unique venue"
Read More2023
Review
“Underappreciated amongst the many giants in Westchester County, Whippoorwill is a memorable Charles Banks design located on hilly, rough terrain. The course starts gently with three pretty easy holes near the clubhouse before crossing the road and opening an unbelievable stretch from 4-9. These holes are rugged and extremely isolated and it's shocking that someone built them in the 1920s. The par 5 6th hole plays over a plateau and then downhill with different levels and rocky outcroppings culminating in a world-class green. It is one of the most memorable and best par fives you'll ever see and offers the golfer numerous options. The 7th and 9th holes play directly uphill on the approach and are quite unique in their own right while the 8th hole is a gorgeous Biarritz adjacent to a natural waterfall. While the back 9 is more traditional, there are still some standouts with the 14th in particular being an excellent 440 yard par 4 with two fairways. The conditioning at Whippoorwill also stands out, playing remarkably firm for a course that just received a lot of rain and is in the mountains. The fun and character here both run extremely high as well. New York is a very competitive golf state, but Whippoorwill holds its own and should be an extremely coveted teetime."
Read More2022
