The Depression and World War II had a debilitating effect on golf course construction on Long Island. There was not a single new private golf course opened on Long Island between 1930 and 1955, the year the Pine Hollow County Club opened its gates in East Norwich.

The Pine Hollow concept must be credited to Jerry Wolk, a Queens lawyer, and Irving Fagenson, a New Jersey businessman, who headed a small syndicate that invested more that $1 million to purchase the 133-acre estate of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and convert it into a golfing utopia, a luxurious private club that they hoped to sell eventually to the membership for a substantial profit.

The 42-room French-Norman style Vanderbilt mansion was built in 1934 by Dorothy Schiff, daughter of financier Mortimer Schiff, and sold to Consuelo Vanderbilt, a great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1939. It was one of the first of the great estates to be fully air-conditioned, and also featured a swimming pool, tennis courts, formal gardens, marble fireplaces, sculptured gold bronze dolphins for sink faucets, and a direct phone line to Europe. The estate cost $750,000 to build, and welcomed such guests as Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, and the Duke of Windsor. When converted to a clubhouse, it included 19 private guest rooms that could be rented for the season.

The syndicate built a new two-story wing to house locker rooms, a dining room, grill room, and cocktail lounge. They also engaged New Englander William Mitchell to build a championship golf course, the first of several he would design on Long Island. More than 1000 trees and shrubs were transplanted to help frame the individual holes.

The club opened in April of 1955, and had a waiting list within a year. The original Pine Hollow membership included groups from Great Neck and Baldwin, former members at the defunct Sound View and Milburn clubs, respectively. The membership was 275 strong in 1960 when it was decided to purchase the club, fulfilling the syndicate's "raison d'etre." The club's first manager was Bill Chadwick, aka "The Big Whistle, " formerly one of the premier referees in the National Hockey League.

According to plan, the syndicate moved quickly to put the club's name in the headlines. In late June of 1958, Pine Hollow hosted the Pepsi-Boys Club Open, the first P.G.A. Tour event ever held on Long Island. It was won by Arnold Palmer.

For the past thirty years, Pine Hollow has hosted a Charity Pro-Am that has grown to become one of the largest of its kind in the Met section. It is conducted for the benefit of the United Jewish Appeal and an array of other charities each year. The tournament has raised as much as $80,000 in one season.

Pine Hollow has been undergoing a facelift in recent years. The main dining room and bar were a spectacular addition during 1991 - 1992, and the building underwent further renovation during 1994-1995. Out on the golf course, Gil Hanse, a local product from Southward Ho, has recently completed a stunning renovation of the course's bunkering.