In 1898, Emmet's first golf course was the Garden City Golf Club. The Club quickly hosted the 1902 U.S. Open, but it wasn’t until he surveyed numerous British holes for his friend C.B. Macdonald, inpreparation for The National Golf Links of America, that Emmet thought of golf design as a business.

Since most of Emmet's designs were built during the era of hickory shafted clubs, they were originally rather short by today's standards (6000-6300 yards) and so many of them, including The Red at Eisenhower, have been modified and lengthened.