In his Golf Beat column this week, Newsday's Mark Herrmann delves into the history of the Red Course at Eisenhower Park and how the East Meadow layout remains one of Long Island's finest golf treasures.
There is a big sign above the ticket office at Eisenhower Park: HOME OF THE 1926 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP. It is a lasting tribute to the fact that 85 years ago this week, the course in East Meadow was the center of the golf universe. Walter Hagen won his third consecutive PGA, a feat not done before or since.
A more profound tribute, though, is the steady parade of golfers coming in and out below that sign. All these decades later, the place is alive and open for business. The Red Course, which was called Salisbury Golf Club No. 4 in 1926, is closed for a few days, but that is merely a sign of life. The greens are being aerated, a standard procedure that pokes holes in the turf to let the soil breathe.
Eisenhower Red will reopen this weekend, a living, breathing testimony to the resilience of a quality course and Long Island golf in general. -- Mark Herrmann, Newsday, 9/29/2011
For more on the Red Course at Eisenhower Park, check out the Golf On Long Island flyover. And for a historical perspective, visit this June 2010 post on The Forgotten Greens of Eisenhower Red.
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