Westchester County, NY and
Fairfield, CT, July 10-12, 2017
When I schedule my trips,
whenever possible I schedule them when Pat is taking a trip or playing in a
golf tournament. Every July she makes the
rounds of woman’s invitational events in the Boston area and I go “a
wandering”. So this week it was Pat to
Kittansett in Marion, MA and Paul to Westchester and Fairfield.
My itinerary worked well and
I was able to have a course to play Monday afternoon…Meadow Brook Club in
Jericho, NY on Long Island.
Meadow Brook Club, July 10,
2017: I had played MB once before, almost exactly
five years before on 7/12/12 during a one week jaunt playing Fishers Island
(with John C. of Melbourne, AU), The Creek, Quaker Ridge, and MB. I had heard wonderful things about MB several
decades earlier and frankly I was disappointed with what I found. It was extremely over treed…a situation
exacerbated by some very very sharp doglegs especially on the back nine. When the current MB course opened it was described
(in Sports Illustrated in October 1955) by none other than Herb Warren
Wind (considered to be the best US golf writer and observer who ever lived…Herb
was the one to “name” Amen Corner at Augusta National) as follows:
To my tastes, it is the finest golf course that has been built
in this country since Bob Jones and Dr. Alister Mackenzie produced the Augusta
National back in 1931. While the course is still much too young for the turf to
have taken on body and for the whole 18 to have taken on a final aspect, Meadow
Brook has struck me from my first visit on as a "born classic" destined
to be mentioned in the same exalted breath with Muirfield, Hoylake, Pinehurst
No. 2, Pine Valley and the other acknowledged touchstones of architectural
greatness.
What was so interesting about
this was that Herb was a “links course” affectionato of the highest order (for
you none golfers…links tracks generally have no trees).
But first some brief history
about the club. Founded in 1881 as the
Meadow Brook Hound Club it was focused on equestrian activities and The
Hunt. In 1894 a 9 hole course was created
in Hempstead but was abandoned in 1905 and the golfing members played their
golf at Piping Rock Club and Nassau CC.
By 1916, the club restored the original 9, added 9 more holes to make it
a full 18 and completed a full renovation under the guidance of Devereux
Emmett….one of the premier architects of the time (think Congressional CC,
Hartford GC, Engineers CC, Garden City GC, Nassau CC, Pelham CC (see more later
in this post), St. George’s G&CC, and Wee Burn CC).
However, in the early 1950’s
the club’s property was taken over by NYS (Robert Moses) to make way for the
Meadowbrook Parkway (I remember driving along this parkway in the 1950’s and
1960’s dozens of times heading to Jones Beach on hot summer days). In 1953 the club purchased the Burrill estate
and hired Dick Wilson to built a new championship course on this estate…and
this is the course that HWW was referring to (except he would not have ended a
sentence with a preposition). In 1967
the club closed down their polo fields (at one point MB had 8 polo fields!) and
closed two holes…selling a major chunk of land or requiring a redo part of the
course…that redo was overseen by Joe Lee or Joe Finger (per different sources). In 2006 Tripp Davis oversaw some minor
renovations and then Brian Silva oversaw the work performed over the last 12
months (with Bradley Klein consulting).
Now back to the course. About a year after I played it, Pat and I
were at a wedding outside of Baltimore and I was talking to a gentleman who was
interested in my efforts (really hard work as you must understand) as a Golf
Digest Rater. In particular he inquired
if I had played Piping Rock, The Creek, or Meadowbrook. I advised that I had played all three and
then was asked my opinion. Naturally, my
fat mouth spouted forth and declared The Creek glorious from #6 on, Piping too
far in my past to really recall very well (I did play it last summer after its
renovation and loved it), and declared MB to be tired, over treed, and too hard
to enjoy (or something to that effect). The
gentleman swallowed hard but did not reveal that he was the incoming president
of MB (he also is married to the cousin of my younger step-son’s
father-in-law). Last year he reached out
to me to advise that my comments got him thinking and after taking another look
at MB, decided I may have had a point, even if not eloquently stated. He further said they had retained Brian Silva
to do a renovation, which was complete and wanted me to come see the
outcome. Well I can report that lots of
good resulted from my fat mouth!!
The drive down from MA went
fairly smoothly and I arrived at the club around 11:30. The GM, Dennis Harrington. had arranged for
me to play and the Greens Superintendent, John Carlone was also there to meet
me (in fact John’s son, David caddied for me).
It was a hot day but I walked it as today was just 18 holes. MB is built on a great piece of land with
wonderful elevation changes throughout the property. I asked how many trees were removed and the
reply was “we never counted but it was a full 8.5 acres.”
I hit the ball well,
especially on the back and had a 44-37 = 81, playing from 6200 yards (from the
tips it now goes a hefty 7405 yards).
Had trouble with the bunkers even though the sand was perfect in
texture. Greens are huge, severely
sloping and quick, but David was superb at reading them. Front nine is simply glorious…big bold holes
with wonderful vistas and views of the clubhouse (the old mansion from the
estate). With the exception of the left
side of #7 (which could use a major haircut IMO) I thought a superb job was
done in removing trees, and adapting the greens to today’s speeds by flattening
out some slopes. Loved holes #3, 5, and
7-9…especially 5 and 8. The condition of
the front side fairways tees and greens was simply perfect…as the open spaces
allow air to circulate properly (grass is no different from you and I…it loves
fresh air and suffers in stagnant conditions).
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| approach on 456 yard par 4 3rd...dogleg left and uphill to green |
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| approach on drivable 350 yard par 4 5th...from drive in fairway |
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| Approach on 5th from left rough...no chance to hit green (to left of and behind mound) |
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| Turn on dogleg par 4 7th...me thinks most of tree on left should go |
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| 217 yd par 3 9th with clubhouse behind on top of hill (caddies do not love this hill) |
The back nine underwent the
most changes…especially moving of tees to soften dogleg angles. While the back nine is much improved, it is
still way over treed IMO. Interestingly,
while the turf conditions on the front were pristine and close to perfect. On
the back side, the thick stands of tees on both sides of many fairways continue
to restrict air flow and the turf, while excellent is not up to the standards
of the front side. Best holes on the
back were 15, 17 and 18. I think the back
has just as much potential as the front…time to get those saws working again.
In terms of Top 100’s, MB was
a regular on Golf Digest from 1966 through 1989. In the period 1969-77 it was always in the
#41-50 bracket, but slowly declined from 1979-1989. Golf Magazine place it at #81 in their
initial USA Top 100 list in 1991, but it never reappeared. Overall assessment…a huge improvement…more
potential there that needs to come out.
Hope the club continues these efforts.
After the round I headed back
up to Westchester County…in surprisingly little traffic (no complaints on that score). Next two days were 36/day.
Pelham Country Club, July 11,
2017: Weather forecast for both Tuesday and
Wednesday was even hotter and more humid than Monday, with threats of
thunderstorms. I was scheduled to play
Pelham at 9am, but figured if I arrived early, perhaps I could get off
quickly…which is exactly what happened.
But first some
background. I was at Pelham because it
hosted the 1923 PGA Championship decided at Match Play after two extras holes
in a dual between Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagan (considered by many to be the
most exciting PGA final ever). Sarazen
won and Hagen “got back” by winning the following four consecutive PGAS
Championships (1924-’27).
Pelham Country Club was
founded in 1921 and designed (as noted above) by Devereux Emmet, opening in
1922. Originally built on 180 acres, in
the 1950’s about a third of the club’s property was appropriated by New York
State for its NY Thruway (which later became part of I-95). As a result, the course has to be redesigned
on the remaining 119 acres and is now a relatively short 6388 yards from the
tips, and only six of its original holes remain. Mike deVries will be overseeing a renovation
next year and I would expect a very interesting, fun course to result from this
work. Meanwhile, I had a not well played
40-42 = 82 thanks to 6’s on the two holes (9 and 15) that rise to the top of
Mount Tom (highest point in Pelham)…but that is a story for another day…
After playing Meadow Brook on
some 300 acres the day before, playing Pelham on 119 acres (including pool,
tennis courts, clubhouse, etc.) squeezed on all sides by apartment buildings, a
Costco warehouse store, Amtrak (alongside I-95 running right through the middle
of the course), and flights on landing patterns into Laguardia…felt at times
like a very different game…but in many ways, just as much fun. The remaining Emmet holes are very special
and it is obvious that this was a great championship track before the Thruway was constructed.
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| Pelham 217 yard par 3 2nd |
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| Pelham par 4 330 yard uphill 4th |
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| Pelham 4th hole on left and 430 yard par 4 6th on right |
After the round I chatted
with Pelham’s head pro, Mike Diffley, who also hails from Queens and played
golf for St. John’s University (about ½ mile from where I grew up). We traded lots of war stories about NY golf and
Queens muni tracks.
Pelham was never included on
any Top 100. It did end up being the 950th
course I ever played!
Brooklawn Country Club, July
11, 2017: Drive from Pelham to Fairfield CT was 48 miles
and took about 50 minutes. I remember
the US Senior Open being played at Brooklawn in 1987 (won by Gary Player), but
I had never seen it. It also hosted the
1979 US Woman’s Open.
The club was founded in 1895
and the following year a nine hole track was laid out ion the 60 acre parcel of
land the club had leased. Over the next
15 years the leased property expanded, was purchased, and an adjoining property
purchased to allow the club to expand the course to 18 holes by 1911. Then in the late 1920’s A. W. Tillinghast was
retained to revamp the course (up to then, Brooklawn had been designed by various
members as the club expanded). Tillie’s
plan, dated September 1929 preceded the stock market crash by about 50 days and
as a result not all of his planned bunkers were added until more recently. But the greens were redone and that is what
makes the course. They are well
contoured, subtle, and generally slope sharply from back to front. No question they are among the best Tillie
greens I have played. Their concave
sides mean do NOT get short sided!
Before Tillie’s work at
Brooklawn, a young man destined to be a major force in golf received his start
at Brooklawn. Mr. Eugenio Saraceni, a
sixth grade dropout was hired by Brooklawn’s head proessional. Saraceni, who later became known as Gene
Sarazen, became the first person to win each of the four professional majors as
he went on to won a total of seven majors, and was later made an honorary
member of Brooklawn.
The course has never been
included on a USA Top 100. While its
greens are superb, the land is dominated by a step hill running from southwest
to northeast that incorporates some 8 of its 18 holes and results in many
parallel fairways moving up and down this hill.
Ron Forse has done a superb job of bringing out many of the subtleties
of Tillie’s design. I thought the best
hole was #7, a 610 yard downhill dogleg left par 5 with a creek cutting across
the fairway about 40 yards short of the green.
I hit the ball fairly well
and managed a 40-40 = 80 (three putted 18!) for the afternoon round at
Brooklawn.
Deciding to see if I could
play early at both Pelham and Brooklawn had worked like a charm. I finished my round at about 2:45 (beating
any real threat of thunderstorms) and was able to get back to the hotel and
take a well deserved nap!
That evening I had dinner
with Jess and Tyler Gosselin. Tyler had
been First Assistant Professional at Brookline until earlier this year. Earlier this year he moved to Scarsdale Golf
Club where he is First Assistant Professional and will become Scarsdale’s head
pro upon Bill Smittle’s retirement late this year. Tyler became a good friend over his seven
years at Brookline and it was wonderful to see Both Tyler and Jess happy and
excited about their new world in Westchester.
We had dinner at an old haunt of mine…Rye Bar and Grill!
Sunningdale Country Club,
July 12, 2017: Sunningdale was founded in late 2013 and for
four years its members played their golf at a leased nine hole course in Mount
Vernon, NY. In 1916 a 149 acre site in
Scarsdale, NY was purchased and Seth Raynor hired to design and build a new
course. As a side note, this observer
believes Raynor to be the greatest architect who ever lived. Raynor, like his mentor C. B. Macdonald,
always incorporated “template holes” (adaptations of some of the great golf
holes of the British Isles) in his designs…often with blind shots as part of
the design. The members of Sunningdale,
obviously forgetting that wonderful Scottish expression “a golf shot is only
blind once”, never grew accustomed to these designs and within 5 years had
retained Walter Travis to renovate the course resulting in five new greens and
six new tees. Then in 19029 the club
wanted to add a swimming pool and brought in A. W. Tillinghast to make changes
in the layout to accommodate a pool. In
2006 Mike de Vries started the development of a long term plan for the course;
for sure these plans were delayed in part due to the financial crisis of 2008
and they were completed (at least for now) this spring.
I was supposed to play
Sunningdale with David K., the head of the club’s Greens Committee who oversaw
deVries’ renovation. However, at the
last minute David had to cancel so I played Sunningdale alone that morning, first
off around 8:00am. While I had never
played Sunningdale before (so I cannot compare the “after” with the “before”), I
must say the “after” is outstanding. The
land is full of hills, knolls and all other sorts of movement…and the resulting
course makes great use of them. The
greens are very big and just as bold.
They all seem to have a multitude of pinnable positions. I played well shooting a 39-39 = 78 from 6140
yards, perhaps because in many cases I did not understand where the real
trouble is, and because I had a wonderful caddy, Chris, who guided me around
beautifully. The course is certainly
firm and fast and in great condition (note…there are a few areas that have been
re-sodded this spring that are still coming back, but I would expect these to
be in perfect condition by late August).
The greens roll perfectly and are true as can be. From then back Sunningdale is 6820 yards, a
bit on the short side for championship golf but much more than adequate for 99%
of club golfers…and most of all, great fun.
Fescue abounds and makes for stunning views this time of year but
generally does not come into play.
Sunningdale has never been
included on a USA Top 100 but I expect that to change over the next few
years. Also, it would be a wonderful
site for a US Woman’s Open or a US Senior Amateur.
Best holes include:
o #2, par 4 410 yards, turns
slightly left , slightly uphill off tee then slightly down to green; left side
of fairway is shorter route but left is guarded by a large tree that you want
to avoid; green is tough to hold and has a wonderful mound (Maxwell Roll??) in
its center that is very difficult to deal with if you must putt over it;
o #3, par 3 of 210 yards uphill
to a green that slopes and runs from back left to front right and has a false
front…by far the best of Sunningdale’s par 3’s
o #4, par 4 of only 340 yards
but uphill to green and turning slightly left (primarily due to short left
rough that occupies land where it looks like the left side of the fairway
“collapsed”…neat look and feel off the tee but this will not affect the bombers
of today;
o #5, par 4 355 yards, straight
and downhill off tee, with a three leaf clover green with each leaf very small
in size…protected by bunkers front and a closely cropped drop off in back…not
much to shoot at with approach but then again you should have a short wedge in
your hands;
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| Approach to Sunningdale's 5th green--tough to hit and hold |
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| 5th green from right...note three leaf clover shape with each leaf very small in size |
o #6, par 4 465 yards, flat and
straight, great hole and I will simply point our that I birdied this #1
handicap hole (sadly, the only birdie of the trip);
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| Sunningdale #6 is 465 yard par 4 |
o #11, par 4 305 yards downhill
and turning right…placement critical here and the well guarded green slopes
very very sharply back to front…be careful here;
o #14, par 4 460 yards and very
uphill turning left with a slight reverse camber…tee shot dominated by mound in
center of fairway 260 yards out from back tee, and the green slopes sharply
from back left to front right
o #16, par 5 575 yards fairway
turns a little left and is slightly uphill off tee, then downhill starting
about 270 off the tee, then uphill (and over a creek) to infinity green
with very very false front
for final 110 yards.
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| Long approach on par 5 16th |
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| Shorter approach on #16 |
I finished my play around
10:15, thanked the pro shop staff and the other staff members I had met and was
off to Wykagyl. It was heating up and
very humid and thunderstorms appeared to be likely so it would be great to get
off the first tee at Wykagyl as early as possible.
Wykagyl Country Club, July
12, 2017: I had played Wykagyl once before, in 1980,
and came away singularly unimpressed.
When I heard a few years ago that Coore-Crenshaw was renovating it, I
frankly wondered why. And then at a
dinner (with Pat, Jim G. of Sunningdale, and Ran Morrissett of GolfClubAtlas.com)
in late April of this year I was shocked when Ran extolled the virtues of
Wykagyl. But, I actually listened this
time (probably a shock to those of you who know me well, and most of all to
Pat) and am so so glad I did so!
Wykagyl’s was founded in 1898
and started with a nine hole course on leased land about 2-3 miles south of the
club’s present location. In 1904 the
property’s new landlord terminated the lease and the club leased a farm at its
present location. In 1907 the club
exercised its option to purchase that land.
The club’s architectural history reads like Nancy Pelosi’s plastic
surgery log. It was designed by Lawrence
Van Etten in 1905 and then remodeled as follows:
1920—Donald Ross
1923—Robert
White
1931—A. W. Tillinghast
1966—Hal Purdy
1990—Stephen Kay
1995—Arthur Hills
2006—Coore-Crenshaw
When I arrived, the club
looked fairly busy, but I found Mike (the starter) and he said I could go right
off. Lucky again…I was on the course by
11:15.
As soon as I stood on the first
tee I knew things were different than 1980.
Even though it was almost 90° and the humidity seemed even higher, the
course was in excellent condition…and the overall design is something to
behold. The property has lots of land
movement, rock outcroppings, fescue, etc…and in many ways reminded me of
Brookline. It was hot out there. During my play of the front nine, I started
to feel weak and woozy on holes 6-9, and realized I had not had lunch…and the
heat/humidity was getting to me.
Fortunately, a cup of fresh fruit and a Gatorade at the turn did the
trick…I felt markedly better within 45 seconds.
Ended up with a 43-42 = 85…not very good but I will chalk it up to the
heat/humidity.
From the tips the course is a
relatively short 6690 yards (par 72). It
will never again be a course where the pros will play, but frankly, golf today
is two games…one played by the game’s top professionals (and frankly top
amateurs as well), and another played by its regular players. Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s there were
plenty of regular players who could hit the ball as far as the tour players and
even the long tour players, but today’s world is very different. Very few amateurs today can afford (in terms
of $$, time, and access) the finest technologies and training support (swing
coaches, workout coaches, mental coaches, etc.) that are part of a tour
player’s entourage. Todays’ fine players
consistently hit their drives close to 300 yards and the longer players hit
them 325-350. Back 40 years ago those
numbers were 245 and 265-270. Regular
amateurs have not and cannot keep up.
The USGA keeps fighting a bifurcation of the rules of golf (two sets of
rules…one for premier competitions and one for the game most players play), but
the game is already bifurcated and golf courses are bifurcated. Premier players cannot play courses like
Wykagyl, and most single digits handicap players cannot play the courses used
on the PGA Tour (or Senior Tour for that matter).
But I digress. Getting back to Wykagyl, this is a course that
is both challenging for almost all players and fun to play and enjoy. The variety of holes creates the need to hit
every club in the bag, hit shots left to right, right to left, and straight,
and play low piercing as well as high trajectory shots. Many of its trees were cleared by
Coore-Crenshaw and the course now breathes (and hence, so does its turf). There are holes that are uphill, downhill,
uphill off the tee then downhill to the green, and downhill off the tee and
then uphill to the green…but no flat holes. There are holes that dogleg left, dogleg
right, turn slightly left and turn slightly right (and even two straight
holes). The player will encountered
every type of lie many times in a round, but very few flat lies…this is a golf
course, not a driving range! As you
finish #18, you feel like going back out to play it again!
Best holes are #3, 6, 7, 8,
9, 12, 13, 15 and 17. There simply are
no bad or ordinary holes. And the “flow”
of the course is brilliant. In terms of
Top 100 historically, it has never made a USA Top 100…but in 1966 and ’67 was
on the GD 200 Toughest, and in 2016 and ’17 been barely in the GW Top 100
Classic (was also in the GW 100 Classic from 2000-2005). What are raters thinking (or do we think?)?
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| Wykagyl par 3 4th 144 yards...yes very well guarded |
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| Approach on 397 yard 5th from right center of fairway |
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| Par 5 525 yard 6th hole...brilliant hole brought back to life. |
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| Par 4 446 yard 8th doglegs left around large mound in fairway |
Overall, I would certainly
put it in my USA Top 100, probably around #60-70. Not high enough to make my World #100, but
pretty damn good. What a joy…and
frankly, given how little chatter one hears about Wykagyl, another hidden gem
(or at least semi-hidden)!!
Trip Summary: Two things here. First, the amazing thing about this trip is
that I played 5 rounds at NY area clubs, a total of 90 holes, and the only time
I has anyone playing in front of me was on the 16th hole at
Brooklawn on 7/11…waited all of 30 seconds for a threesome to finish putting
out (they waved me through on the 17th tee). Simply amazing.
Secondly…comparing the
courses on this trip…in order:
--Wykagyl
--Sunningdale
--Meadow Brook
--Brooklawn
--Pelham
But it should be noted Meadow
Book has more potential than Sunningdale…question is, will it realize this
potential?
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