Crab Meadow Golf Course celebrating 50 years in Northport

Rock Hill in Manorville isn't the only local golf course celebrating the 2015 season with 50 candles in its 18th green.  Northport's Crab Meadow Golf Course turns 50 this season as well, and part of its celebration includes a dress-like-the-'60s scramble later this month.

The Town of Huntington course remains a popular destination on Suffolk's north shore, due primarily to its mix of playability and scenery.  William Mitchell, designer of many of Suffolk County's municipal courses, laid out the course in 1965 beside Long Island Sound marshland.  Mitchell's course leads players up and down the Northport hills, at times providing long-range views over the marsh toward the Sound.  Course operator Integrity Golf took control of Crab Meadow earlier this year and immediately set out to upgrade the practice area, clubhouse and maintenance procedures.  Crab Meadow is Integrity's first property in the Northeast and was featured in the company magazine last month.

Mitchell is actually the second locally prominent golf designer to lead fairways to greens at Crab Meadow's Northport site.  The property's golf history reaches farther back to 1921, when Devereux Emmet, the man behind Bethpage Green, Eisenhower Red and many other Long Island courses past and present, laid out the little-known Northport Country Club.  According to Daniel Wexler's Lost Links, Northport CC featured more interplay with the adjacent marshland than Crab Meadow does today, including two par-3s with greens closely guarded by the water. 

Like many courses built during the 1920s golf boom, however, Northport was hit hard by the Depression and off the map by World War II.  Integrity's magazine piece indicates the original clubhouse burned down in 1949 and the course sat abandoned until Mitchell, with governmental push from Huntington town supervisor Robert Flynn, created the current course during a second Long Island golf boom in the 1960s.  Flynn's efforts to expand Huntington's recreational space also included the building of Dix Hills Park's nine-hole course, now celebrating its 50th year as well.

On Wednesday, October 21, Crab Meadow will host an anniversary scramble.  For $50, golfers can play Crab Meadow, eat lunch and dinner, and compete for prizes.   Players are also free to dress in 1960s-era garb for the event titled "One Day of Peace & Golf."  Call (631) 757-8800 to reserve a spot.

For more on the Town of Huntington courses, visit the Crab Meadow and Dix Hills Park flyovers.