In 1921, South Fork Country Club began as the nine-hole Amagansett Golf Club, built by its founders on “several small farm parcels with wild, overgrown hedges and on the main road to Devon between the Springs and Fresh Pond Roads…with a magnificent view of the ocean,” according to The East Hampton Star. At first, there were good times. By 1925, the Club had added two clay tennis courts and a water system capable of handling eighteen holes (an expansion that did not come for seventy-five years). In 1932 a gracious Clubhouse arose on what is now a South Fork member’s property – commonly referred to as out-of-bounds on the ninth hole. But then there were bad times as the Great Depression deepened. The Amagansett Golf Club fell into disuse and World War II finished it off; land and Clubhouse were abandoned.
Before its reincarnation as South Fork Country Club, the land was returned to farming. Whitey Tiska, a Bridgehampton farmer and future South Fork member, bought the land in the 1950’s, plowed it and planted potatoes. In 1959 the Club members bought back the land from Mr. Tiska, and with their own hands built a new nine-hole golf course and Clubhouse. Two of the nine holes were set on sixteen acres leased on the west side of Old Stone Highway. When the club’s Board declined to buy those sixteen acres in 1972 the two holes were worked into the original Club property. With the help of several wonderful superintendents the Club saw a vast improvement in the quality of the course over the next thirty years with new sprinkler systems, equipment and modern turf management techniques. In 1994 the Board decided the time had come to expand the Club to eighteen holes. Their proposal to the membership fell short of the two-thirds required vote. However, two years later a revised proposal passed by a resounding majority. Fifty-five acres directly across Old Stone Highway from the original 9 holes were purchased. The new nine holes were not to be handmade by the members as in 1921. Gil Hanse was hired to design and build the new nine. Hanse, well-known for his architectural design of the golf course for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Streamsong Black in Bowling Green, Florida, created a complement to the farmland terrain. In 2000 the back nine was officially opened with a new Clubhouse following a year later. The original Clubhouse, one of the last reminders of the old days, was razed in 2008 and replaced with modern service buildings. The Clubhouse was refurbished with modern amenities in 2019. Also unveiled that same year is a new short game practice facility designed and constructed by Gil Hanse which is incorporated into the landscape of the original Club property.