"America's Linksland: A Century of Long Island Golf" -- by William Quirin

Much will be made in the weeks leading up to the U.S. Open in June about Bethpage Black and its standing among the country's greatest courses, just as it was discussed in 2002, and again two years later when the Open was held at Shinnecock Hills.  But Bethpage and Shinnecock are just two pictures -- two very vivid pictures -- in the whole Long Island golf collage.  Long Island has a rich golf history that has made it one of the centers of the sport in this country.  Just open up Google Earth and fly over the Gold Coast and Five Towns areas of Nassau County, or look east over the Hamptons, to see golf's place in Long Island culture.  William Quirin, a Long Island resident, chronicles this history in "America's Linksland: A Century of Long Island Golf," a fantastic combination of history and photography that was published just prior to the 2002 U.S. Open. 

Though most of the Island's early golf history took place inside the gates of private clubs, there is still plenty to be said about the roots of the area's public golf.  As Quirin describes, Timber Point, today a 27-hole public facility owned by Suffolk County, was once one of the most exclusive and highly regarded private courses in the country.  Some of its original features still exist in modernized form, namely the famous "Gibraltar" hole.  Eisenhower Red was originally the centerpiece of the long-gone Salisbury Country Club, which in the 1920s came to be known as the "Sports Center of America" and featured five courses all within the confines of today's Eisenhower Park. 

The Depression and World War II delivered death blows to many of the Island's most prominent golf courses, and some that managed to survive were finished off later by the region's population boom.  New post-war families needed fresh roads to take them out into suburbia, and many of those roads were paved over fairways and through greens.  Ironically, the facility that will draw endless praise around the golf world come U.S. Open time, Bethpage, was born as a public works project during the Depression.

Golfers with an appreciation of local history will love the book.  Published in advance of the 2002 Open, its devotion to Bethpage Black (and the park's other courses) is timely once again.  Quirin presents a hole-by-hole overview of the Black, accompanied by the photography of L.C. Lambrecht, as well as the words of designer A.W. Tillinghast.