Amid its wall-to-wall PGA Championship coverage at Bethpage Black earlier this week, the Golf Channel aired a short but fascinating six-minute feature on a lesser-known Long Island golf powerhouse, one that's long gone but certainly not forgotten by followers of golf history.
The segment covered the original Lido Club (1914-1942) with insight provided by Connor Lewis of the Society of Golf Historians and golf architect Jim Urbina, both of whom have extensively researched the C.B. Macdonald classic, a course considered by many during its brief peak to be among the greatest golf courses ever built. Last year, Lewis walked the routing of the original club, tracing the locations of its famous holes that are now buried beneath Lido Beach homes and schools or part of Lido West Town Park. Lewis even teed up a few shots on the site of the oceanfront par-3 eighth, now a public beach. Lewis and Urbina walk through some of these locations in the segment.
Bringing all the black-and-white historical imagery to life are incredibly detailed computer renderings of the Lido produced by Peter Flory, a Michigan-based golfer with an appreciation for lost golf courses. His work on the Lido has spanned hundreds of hours recreating the course using available photos, models and aerial images. Much of his work to date has been published on the Golf Club Atlas discussion forum.
View the feature on the Golf Channel website.
This weekend, Lewis and Urbina went into deeper detail on Rod Morri's TalkinGolf History podcast:
In the podcast, Lewis, Urbina and Morri discuss the history of Lido as well as their exploration of the current site, efforts to recreate the course elsewhere, and the search for long-lost course photos taken by the family owners right before its WWII-era demise.
For additional info on the group's work, visit the Society of Golf Historians Twitter page.
And be sure to check out Golf On Long Island's previous coverage of the Lido Club:
A brief look back at the original Lido Golf Club in its "centennial" season
Street Names: The Ghosts of Long Island Golf's Past, Part 2 (Lido Club)
Newsday slideshow features 11 places that were formerly golf courses
Closer Look: Lido Golf Club #16
Also, the Lido Club is prominently featured in the photo-history book "Images of America: Long Island Golf" by GOLI's Phil Carlucci. Follow the preceding link for more info or click the book image at the top of the page.
Comments