Golf on Long Island

Closer Look: Bethpage Yellow #12

by Phil Carlucci

"Not many people realize that Tillie did design a driveable par-4 for Bethpage, but not for the Black Course.  He put it on the original Blue Course." -- Phil Young, golf historian and author

When Bethpage Black hosted the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009, many golfers who hadn't already known of famed course architect A.W. Tillinghast -- "Tillie," for short -- found it difficult to escape the written or televised references to the man's work at Bethpage State Park.  In the 1930s, with the formerly private Lenox Hills Country Club now the new park's beautiful public Green Course, Tillinghast transformed Bethpage into a golfer's paradise by designing the Red Course, the Blue Course and, though debate exists about the extent of his participation, the Black Course.

Today, rounds go by on the Alfred Tull-designed Yellow Course with very few players understanding its history.  Several holes, most notably the 10th through 14th, are pieces of the original Blue Course, and one of them is "the only named golf hole at Bethpage," according to Phil Young, local golf historian and author of Golf for the People: Bethpage and the Black.

Yellow #12 is one of Tillinghast's "Reef" holes, a risk/reward design he typically used for long par-3s ("one-shot holes," as he wrote in a 1926 edition of The American Golfer).  The key feature is a diagonal ridge or hazard protecting the green from aggressive tee shots, with a safe haven short of the reef for more careful players.  Bethpage's version -- once the original Blue's fifth hole -- is possibly the only Reef par-4 Tillinghast ever created.

ABOVE RIGHT: A wide view of the hole.  The bunker left and mounding right pinch the fairway into a narrow opening around 190-200 yards from the tee.  LEFT: Pull or hook a drive and you might find the left-side bunker, the only hazard remaining on Tillie's Reef.  Use the spruce in the distance as a guide to the green.  BELOW RIGHT: The right side of the opening is bordered by mounds. 

What exists today near the southern edge of the park is merely a stripped-down edition of a design eroded by time and circumstances.  It is a short 312-yard par-4, and to many a safe haven all its own before the supremely difficult par-4 13th just ahead.  There is a bunker left and a bailout area right that reaches around a line of mounded rough like a raised arm.  But what's a bailout area without any danger?

Tillinghast designed the Reef with his family's maritime history in mind, according to Young.  "Picture a reef," Young says, "as a treacherous, rocky formation protecting the approach to a harbor, and typically there's only one safe way to get through it.  This is what Tillinghast envisioned when he created the hole."  The original design at Bethpage shows large bunkers both left and right of the main fairway, and a sharp downslope on the far side of the reef's left.  Rough-covered mounds hindered shots to the right.  There was even an irrigation pond short of the bunker on the left that "adds a mental hazard to the drive," as written in a 1935 edition of the Farmingdale Post.  "The long player must carry mounds 190 yards from the tee."

All of these features combined to protect a narrow opening in the central fairway.  Unlike Tillinghast's other reefs, this one did not completely bisect the hole.  Players could get through the opening without going over the reef, but there were sandy, sloped, blind, buried and even wet prices to pay for inaccuracy.

This chapter in the hole's history, however, is very brief.  Some of the original features were likely lost during World War II, Young says, when the Black and Blue courses were completely shut down and left to nature.  "Both had to be rebuilt in order to open for play in the fall of 1945," Young says.  A 1953 aerial shows no evidence of an irrigation pond.  Later in the '50s, work began on a new fifth course -- the Yellow -- which would incorporate some holes from Tillinghast's Blue layout.  Reef features were likely smoothed down and filled in during this time as Blue #5 took on a new, tamer identity as Yellow #12.

ABOVE LEFT: The view from the bailout area is obscured by mounds, and a short-side trap is completely out of sight.  RIGHT: You'll be fighting this trap with a blindfold on if you go for the green from the bailout area.  BELOW LEFT: Looking back at what was once a more treacherous Tillinghast Reef complex.

Nearly all players today stroll up to the 12th tee with a driver or fairway wood in hand, never stopping to consider any safer options.  The teeing area and green site have remained the same, and like in the original design, the fairway opening is still 190 to 200 yards away, a distance that many can now cover even with a mishit.  Unless a shot plops into the left bunker, the penalty for inaccuracy is not often severe.  Barring some overpowering sand phobia, there's no reason not to direct tee shots straight out toward the flag.  The reward for a well-executed shot is a 100-yard approach, or less, to a wide-open green.

If you miss right, your ball will probably settle into a comfortable spot in the bailout fairway, which now exists as a carpeted collection area for right-handed slices.  That's not to imply, of course, that the hole is a total pushover, or that it will offer up similar cushy benefits on the second shot.  From here, it is a mostly blind approach with a beefy short-side bunker creating a terrible angle to the pin.  In other words, it's exactly the type of shot Tillinghast wanted the safer player to encounter in his par-4 Reef design. 

Will the original features and daring line of play ever be restored on Yellow #12?  Though it would please plenty of golf course historians and architects, a restoration of the true risk/reward features of the hole will probably not take place in the near future. 

In the meantime, smart players will cash in on the high-reward/low-risk design that exists today.  The brutal 13th just ahead is not nearly as generous.

Phil Young is an A.W. Tillinghast historian and the author of several local golf books, including "Golf for the People: Bethpage and the Black" and "Golf's Finest Hour: The Open at Bethpage Black."  Read more about Young and his work at Golden Age Research.  You can also hear Phil's radio interviews with Anthony Scorcia at the Scorcia On Par website.  Scorcia On Par is a weekly radio show broadcast throughout the playing season on WGBB 1240 AM.  Also be sure to visit and support the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University, where archives of Long Island's local and regional newspapers are available for research.

For more on the Yellow Course, check out the course flyover.

Closer Look: Stonebridge Golf Links #7

About 30 minutes after you determine the best method of attack on Stonebridge Golf Links' redan par-3 -- the subject of a previous Closer Look post -- it's time to draw up a gameplan on another demanding one-shotter.  This hole, Stonebridge's "Biarritz" seventh, is a design that will be new to many players when they first visit this 18-hole tribute to celebrated designers C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor and Charles Banks.

Biarritz greens have their roots in Europe, and a handful live on today on this side of the pond.  Public golfers might not encounter them very often.  They generally have three defining characteristics: an elevated green, strips of sand running vertically along the sides and, most notably, a depression or swale cutting across the green complex.  Combined with typically long hole distances, these ingredients form a strong line of defense that can be lenient with underclubbed shots but merciless on off-line approaches.

Stonebridge's biarritz measures 194 yards.  A hole that demands an accurate tee shot forces you to pull off precision with your longer clubs in hand.  (Note: The scorecard lists the back-tee distance at 234 yards, but I don't recall a teebox in use from that length.)  Perfectly struck shots will find the elevated green, followed by a birdie putt over one of Stonebridge's flatter surfaces. 

But for most players, a 4-iron or hybrid to a 50-foot-wide target is a tall order, which is what makes the biarritz such a challenge.  Once a tee shot sails wide of the green, the player must continue on in recovery mode.  Any miss to either side will run down or plop directly into long strands of sand that run the length of the putting surface.  One poor blast from well below the green -- either left short to trickle back down to your feet, or slapped long and into the opposite trap -- sets you on a bumpy road to Double Bogey Town.

[TOP: View from the back of the green.  RIGHT: Thin bunkers will collect off-line shots and require an uphill escape. There's a good chance you'll need to take an awkward stance over balls near the lip since the traps are so narrow.  LEFT: From the apron, a two-putt would put a strut in your step.]

The most unique characteristic of the biarritz is the swale.  In this case, it's a 10-yard-long depression that separates the green from a raised apron in front (think your throat separating your chest from your face -- with a nostril as the hole location).  Here, the grass on the apron and in the swale are shaved down close to green height, making the apron both a short bailout area and an extension of the putting surface.  One way to challenge the hole is to play short with a more manageable club, then putt down the swale and back up onto the green.  Not exactly the type of putt you can practice before the round, so don't go this route banking on a two-putt.

Of course, even the bailout area has traps -- literally.  The apron is also paralleled by the same type of bunker strips that border the green.  So while playing to this closer target may take the edge off the tee shot, the penalty for inaccuracy here is much worse.  An awkward diagonal bunker shot from below the hole will have to hurdle the sidehill and still clear the swale to get to the green.

[RIGHT: A miss into one of the front bunkers sets up a difficult diagonal sand shot.]

The biarritz at Stonebridge is unlike almost all par-3s the public golfer will encounter when traversing Long Island courses.  Most players will step up with their long irons and go for the gusto no matter the danger involved.  Some will explore the available options and the unique contours.  If you find yourself unencumbered by time constraints or trailing groups, take a few extra shots and see what works.  Send a runner through the slope and onto the green.  Sky a hybrid and try to keep it straight.  Practice out of the four narrow bunkers.  At least you'll be prepared for your next encounter.

For more on Stonebridge, check out the course flyover.

PREVIOUS CLOSER LOOKS:
Lido Golf Club #16 -- (8/25/2011)
Stonebridge Golf Links #4 -- (7/29/2011)
Great Rock Golf Club's new 12th green -- (6/6/2011)

Closer Look: Lido Golf Club #16

It's only natural for golfers with a competitive streak to shoot for personal benchmarks when they're out on the course and playing above their standard.  Breaking 80, touching 90, keeping it under 100 -- whatever the goal may be, usually somewhere around the turn, players in the midst of one of their finer rounds will start extrapolating.  Just match that front-nine 41 on the back and it's a record low.  Or something along those lines.

At the Lido Golf Club in Lido Beach, the back nine doesn't take too kindly to such simple math.  Lido's 16th and 17th (a story for another day) stand in the way of new lows as watery hurdles that force players to earn their pars and bogeys before continuing on to the more accommodating 18th.

The 16th, popularly known simply as the "Island" or "Double Island" par-5, is a living tribute to C.B. Macdonald's "Channel Hole" at the original Lido, a links course once considered a jewel of early 20th-century golf design and a marvel of engineering.  Though today's two-fairway hole is only a Robert Trent Jones replica of Macdonald's #4 (the original course was buried long ago), it maintains the same risk/reward theme -- a conservative route over some water, an aggressive route over a lot of water, and plenty of trouble in between.

From the tee, the view of the 487-/460-yard par-5 doesn't reveal any clues about the proper approach.  Visible up ahead are landing areas, a lapping lagoon and a faint glimpse of a flagstick in the distance.  Even Lido's repeat customers have a hard time deciphering #16's puzzle-piece fairways.  If you're a first- or second-timer on the course, hope for an experienced playing partner.  If you don't get one, just take your best swing and hope you don't hit it straight (it's the worst way to go).

[ABOVE RIGHT: #16 as seen from the tee.  The left route begins just beyond the bridge.  The right route is out of sight beyond the water. LEFT: The orientation of the first fairway becomes more clear once you reach the bridge (though by now it's too late to rethink your strategy).]

The two-pronged fairway -- shaped like the head of a wrench -- is the first stop.  From there, the next target is a second fairway laid out diagonally from the first and surrounded by water.  It ends at a channel-side green that can only be reached in two by a pair of expertly executed shots.

So which is the way to go?  A tee shot to the left side offers a greater margin for error and requires no threatening water carry.  You're more likely to stay dry on this side; the trade-off, however, is a less direct route that adds yardage to the hole.  Going to the right side requires a water carry of up to 200 yards, depending on the tees and your aim.  The reward is a slightly better chance of reaching the green in two, but the downside is a poor angle to the green and another long water carry on the second shot.

The wild card in all this: a straight tee shot could be lethal.  That's because the gap between the fairway sections is filled with water and within reach of drivers, fairway woods and possibly hybrids.  And you're not free of trouble even if center-line shots manage to stay dry.  A small sand trap keeps balls from rolling into the lagoon, but it sets up awkward sideways recovery shots to either prong of the fairway.

[ABOVE LEFT: The view from the left side, with the flag barely noticeable next to the smokestack. RIGHT: Another lengthy water carry separates the right side from the farther fairway and green. BELOW: With a devious grin, this sliver of sand awaits the dreaded straight drive.]

Another wild card -- the wind.  On a wide-open plot between Reynolds Channel and the Atlantic, Lido is one of the windiest courses on Long Island.  Wind speed and direction can alter your strategy completely from one day to the next.

Save for a watery 25-yard gap in between, the second fairway leads to the green almost as an extension of the first fairway's left side.  It is a narrow finger of land bordered on three sides by water.  Players approaching from the left will almost always use this farther fairway to set up a third shot at the green.  Lay up to your most comfortable distance -- once you're on the second fairway, the approach will be anywhere inside 130 yards. 

From the right, players can bypass this second fairway altogether if they're within reach of the green, but the risk is great.  An attack on the green requires a nearly full water carry.  A left-to-right ball flight into the green can cut off some of the risk; meanwhile, position too far right will add distance.  From a perfect spot at the edge of the fairway (about a 270-yard drive from the back), it's close to 180 to the center of the green.  This yardage increases quickly as position becomes less ideal.

One final factor that raises the degree of difficulty of the hole is the lack of yard markers.  Once you tee off on #16, you're on your own.  There is a 100-yard marker on the second fairway, but that's about all.  It's easy to get confused without prior experience.

The hole ends with another majestic view of the channel.  Three rear bunkers prevent long shots from taking a swim to Merrick.  Pulling the putter will be a relief.  The green rolls from back to front.

GOLI's Rob Dimino has played Lido more than any other course on the Island:

"Even after so many rounds on that course, I'm still a little uncertain about the best way to play the 16th.  What I've been doing lately is hitting 3-wood to the left side, which puts me in good position to lay up close to the 100-yard marker and leave a full wedge shot into the green.  Unless you are absolutely sure about your distances, there are just too many things that could go wrong up the right side.  You have to carry so much water, and it basically takes two perfect shots to reach the green.  You could always bail out short of the green on the second shot, but you could have done the same thing up the left side with less risk."

For more on the Lido Golf Club, check out the course flyover.

PREVIOUS CLOSER LOOKS:
Stonebridge Golf Links #4 -- (7/29/2011)

Closer Look: Stonebridge Golf Links #4

The fourth hole at Stonebridge Golf Links is the first of the course's very diverse, interesting par-3s.  It's also home to the course's namesake footbridge.  Sure, it's not quite as historic or glamorous as Augusta National's Hogan and Nelson bridges -- and you're typically crossing it only if your tee shot settled woefully left or short -- but the footpath has a bit of charm nonetheless.

Glistening in the Hauppauge sunshine, the stone bridge is the only landmark that's easy to discern on #4, a 198-/178-yard redan par-3 wedged tightly between two neighboring holes and the densely treed course perimeter.  Standing on the tee, players -- especially first-timers -- may need an extra moment or two to make sense of their surroundings.  Factoring in two large trees left of the green, a partially disguised water hazard running up near the foot of the green and the #5 tee (and tree line) to the right, the target appears tiny and inaccessible.  In reality, there is some breathing room deep, but very little margin for error overall.  Two invisible sand traps make that margin even smaller.

Named simply "Redan," (all Stonebridge holes are named to pay homage to famous Seth Raynor, C.B. Macdonald and Charles Banks designs) #4 is actually a reverse redan with some -- not all -- of the design's typical characteristics.  The putting surface is out of sight from the tee, but instead of running diagonally away from the player, the green is rounder in shape.  A raised slope on the green's left side propels balls toward the flatter right half. 

Unlike greens on a true firm-and-fast links course, Stonebridge's soft surfaces will accept and hold long, high-trajectory shots.  Here, players can attack the pin without much worry about careening through the green and into trouble.  The trade-off, however, is a demand for precise distance.  That may sound self-explanatory, but the cluttered view of the hole can be deceptive when it's time to pick a club.  Reeds lining the water hazard obscure the stream's uncomfortable proximity to the surface.  And trees way beyond the back of the green convince you that long is wrong, even though there is indeed room to miss.  All in all, even just a tad short means a plunge into a small, potentially awkward bunker or, worse, a dip in the water.  Shots off the right side could fly out of bounds.

[RIGHT: Only about 25 feet separate the front of the green from the water, and much of that space is occupied by a bunker unseen from the tee.  BELOW LEFT: The view from the apron.]

The more traditional short-left route, using the slope to guide the ball down to the bottom of the green, is a safer option, though some may lack the feel for this type of shot.  A low running tee shot toward the apron should skip through to the green, catch the slope and funnel down in the cup's direction.  Shorter hitters can also use the apron as a bailout area. 

Risks are present in this direction, of course.  The softness of the turf could be a detriment here, as it's difficult to gauge the bounce and roll to be expected over the feeder slope.  Also, missing the green entirely on the left side is major trouble.  You'll have to pitch blindly onto the green and back down the slope, with overhanging trees disrupting the matter.  A bunker looms deep left, too.

The safest miss is long.  Like the green, a clear patch of short backside rough is hidden from the teebox.  Getting up and down for par is always possible, and a decent chip on should net no worse than bogey.

[RIGHT: The view from behind the green.  Note the slope on the green's left half, and the significantly disruptive trees off the left side.]

Stonebridge's redan does exactly what a redan is designed to do -- make players weigh risks vs. rewards and execute a shot with precision.  Confident players who can drop a hybrid or long iron onto a small target -- while avoiding the looming hazards close by -- should pencil in a par or better when the flag goes back up.  Shorter hitters and those possessing a creative (and accurate) touch can get there too, with a little help from gravity.

For more on Stonebridge, check out the course flyover.

Observations: Great Rock Golf Club's new 12th green

The namesake rock at the Great Rock Golf Club in Wading River is hard to miss as it waits atop the summit of the course's steadily climbing 10th hole.  A recent discovery turned up another boulder that had taken up a much more secluded position on the course since Great Rock debuted back in 2001 -- buried underneath the old 12th green.  Considering its effect on putts during its ten seasons in hiding, this particular rock, in the eyes of most players, was far from great.

Great Rock's current staff unearthed the boulder when it began its regrading of the par-3 12th green this offseason.  Rather than remove the rock, previous owners built the green on top of it and thus created a putting surface that was so severely sloped that even the shortest putts built up enough velocity to careen off the side or roll back down to a player's feet. 

General manager Brian Curtin said the changes were made to create more playable hole locations.  Superintendent Dan Wolf, who worked with Curtin previously at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, completed the project in ten days.

"Dan did an amazing job," Curtin said.  "Subtle to the eye but totally different when played."

 

Golf On Long Island visited Great Rock last week to test out the new green for the first time.  Wolf raised the front and left edges of the surface to counteract the slide off the dramatic right-to-left slope.  Tee shots can now hold the green in a sort of collection area in the left-center portion of the surface.  But that's not to say the 12th has gotten any easier.  It remains one of Great Rock's most challenging putting tests.  Putts along the new seam have plenty of movement and require a careful read.  And the surface stays true to Great Rock's reputation as the place to be for speedy greens.  Balls still go for a ride when tapped from above the hole.  It's just that now the player has some control.

Curtin said feedback on the new green has been overwhelmingly positive since it opened.  "Dan is a great super and it will really show this season," he said.

To read more on Great Rock, check out the updated course flyover and previous observations.