Two East Coast Country Clubs Figure at the Center of ‘Red Oaks’

The most recognizable of the two sites is easily Edgewood. Located about 25 miles northwest of Manhattan on the border of New Jersey and New York (and, perhaps not so coincidentally, at the western end of Red Oak Dr.), the club was initially established by John Handwerg, Sr. as a 300-acre public golf course on what was then farmland in 1940. It did not become the privatized Edgewood Country Club until Handwerg sold it to a group of investors in the late 1950s.

The facility most recently changed hands in 2015, when it was acquired by the Woodmont Properties development company, at which point it was thoroughly modernized and renovated. Today, the locale – “one of Northern New Jersey’s most enjoyable resort-style country clubs,” as stated on the official website – boasts six Har-Tru tennis courts, a heated Olympic-size pool (one of the largest in the entire state!), a fitness center, an updated clubhouse and an award-winning golf course. 

As evidenced by Edgewood’s Facebook page, the property operates in real life much as it does onscreen, hosting regular family-friendly seasonal events including holiday BBQs, movie nights and sports tournaments. And, in a parallel to the storyline of “Red Oaks” third and final season, a portion of the 190-acre property was recently converted into an upscale 249-unit housing development known as The Fairways at Edgewood, downgrading the course from its original 27 holes to 18.

The pilot episode of “Red Oaks” was shot almost in its entirety at Edgewood, largely making use of the site’s Caddie Building to portray the fictional club’s front entrance as well as its valet area, where David’s best friend, Wheeler (Oliver Cooper), works.

The Caddie Building went on to appear as Red Oaks’ main entrance throughout the remainder of the show’s run, though some changes were made to its façade as part of the 2015 renovation, which took place between the filming of seasons one and two.

As such, when the series returned to the air in 2016, the Red Oaks exterior boasted a much different look. During the extensive renovation, the green awnings that once lined the Caddie Building were removed and the front door was reconfigured from a stuccoed single opening to the arched glass version flanked by two floor-to-ceiling windows currently in place today.

Though certainly modernized, production designer Chris L. Spellman made the new aesthetic work for the show’s remaining two seasons by bringing in retro furniture, vintage cars, numerous planter boxes and the familiar Red Oaks signage for shoots on the premises.

Edgewood’s tennis courts and the tiny pro shop that overlooks them were featured in the pilot, as well. The latter was covered with Red Oaks signage for the shoot and the adjacent patio filled in with gravel to give it more of an ‘80s feel. While the railroad tie staircase leading down to the courts was authentic to the site when the pilot was shot, it was a casualty of the 2015 remodel and is no longer intact. Despite the change, the area should still be instantly familiar to fans of the show.

Though Edgewood’s Caddie Building continued to be used as the Red Oaks entrance long past the pilot, all other filming involving the fictional facility shifted to Willow Ridge Country Club in Westchester County, New York beginning with episode two. The switch was made, according to Suzee’s Behind the Scenes, because the Empire State offered the producers much better tax incentives than New Jersey.

Spellman managed to blend the two sites so seamlessly onscreen, though, that I didn’t even realize different locations were used on the show until taking a much closer look at the episodes! To facilitate the continuity of the Red Oak Country Club scenes, a replica of Edgewood’s pro shop and the adjacent staircase (pictured above) were constructed on the grounds of Willow Ridge overlooking the tennis courts for episodes two through 26.

In a rather confusing move, both the Edgewood and Willow Ridge pools were featured in the “Red Oaks” pilot! Talk about playing fast and loose with a location! The former (pictured above) appeared in a scene at the end of the episode in which David speaks with his new love interest, Skye Getty (Alexandra Socha), after beating her father, Doug (Paul Reiser), at tennis. For the segment, Spellman dressed the space significantly with yellow and white umbrellas as well as a smattering of foliage to both elevate and antiquate its look.

The Willow Ridge pool (pictured above), which is surrounded by a dotting of Colonial-style outbuildings, was featured in an earlier scene in which David and his boss, tennis pro Nash Nasser (Ennis Esmer), encounter golf pro Skip (Nate Smith) while walking the Red Oaks grounds on David’s first day on the job. It is that pool that is then seen regularly throughout subsequent episodes.

The actual interior of Willow Ridge also appeared extensively in segments involving the inside of Red Oaks, though a stage set was built for the series’ many sauna scenes, according to Spellman.

And, in a fun twist, Willow Ridge’s front entrance even made a brief cameo on the show! In the season three episode titled “Paroled,” it portrayed the outside of Red Oaks’ rival club Windybush, where Nash tried to secure a job as a coaching assistant.

That same entrance is also where Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) famously attempted to crawl to his car while high on quaaludes in the 2013 drama “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Sadly, Willow Ridge’s future is a bit up in the air today. After suffering financial difficulties for close to a decade, the club shuttered in October 2020 and was acquired by the town of Harrison the following June. According to a Lohud article, the previous owners “auctioned off or gave away lockers, furniture, and all kitchen items including the ovens and stoves.” As such, the 120-acre facility is a virtual shell of its former self and currently sits vacant, though the city does have plans to re-open it as a semi-private facility for local residents. Here’s hoping the areas made famous by “Red Oaks” are left intact for future fans to enjoy for years to come.