The Creek

The Creek was founded in the early 1920s by a group of enormously wealthy North Shore figures, reportedly including Vincent Astor, J.P. Morgan, and Clarence Mackay, and opened for play in 1923. Charles Blair Macdonald, himself a founding member, designed the course with Seth Raynor building it as one of their final collaborations. Set on dramatic clifftop and low-lying ground beside Long Island Sound in Locust Valley, the layout features classic template holes, including Redan and Alps versions. The seaside setting brought early trouble: low areas flooded badly in heavy rain, and with Raynor deceased and Macdonald at odds with the board, William Flynn was brought in to solve it. Flynn built a dike and used the fill to raise fairways and greens, preserving the course. That blend of Macdonald-Raynor template design and a spectacular Sound-side location has kept The Creek among Long Island's most admired private clubs.