The Meadow Brook Club is a private golf club in Jericho, New York, Long Island, New York, United States. From 1894 to 1954 it was part of a hunting club, which soon evolved into a major polo club. After the original grounds were expropriated for urban development, the club moved to its present location and became primarily a golf club. The Meadowbrook Polo Club is now a separate entity.OriginsThe club originated as the Meadow Brook Hunt Club, established in 1881 in Westbury, New York and home of the Meadow Brook Hounds. The hunt club had its headquarters in Westbury, but convened in different rural parts of Nassau County where the hounds and horses could run free. Future President Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the hunt club, which met at his home in Oyster Bay in 1886. The members sometimes hunted foxes, but often drag hunted, where the hounds followed a trail of anise scent.The Hunt Club gave birth to the Meadowbrook Polo Club, whose founders included the polo player and millionaire Thomas Hitchcock, Sr. (1862-1941). Hitchcock was one of the founders of the Meadow Brook steeplechase races in 1883, and in 1889 became master of the Meadow Brook Hunt. The club in Westbury had eight polo fields, and was the leading polo center in the United States. During the first half of the 20th century the polo club was often the site for national or international polo championships.First courseA nine-hole golf course was built for the Meadow Brook Club in 1894. It was located in Hempstead, New York. In 1895 the first national women's golf tournament was held at Meadow Brook. The winner was Lucy Barnes, wife of Charles S. Brown, with 132 strokes for the eighteen-hole match. The club became an early member of the United States Golf Association. On 31 March 1897 the Metropolitan Golf Association was formed at Delmonico's in New York City, at first called the Metropolitan League of Golf Clubs. Oliver W. Bird of Meadow Brook Golf Club was a member of the five-person formation committee.
