A replica of Long Island's very own Lido Golf Club is currently under construction with renowned designer Tom Doak at the helm, and will open to members and public guests sometime in 2023 near the Sand Valley Golf Resort in Wisconsin.
Why does the bustling Town of Hempstead municipal layout need a tribute course built halfway across the country, you ask? Well, it doesn't. The 1950s-era Robert Trent Jones course abutting Reynolds Channel that draws thousands of Long Islanders each year will remain unique to the barrier island and Lido Beach.
Doak's course near the Sand Valley resort will bring back to life the original Lido Club, the famed C.B. Macdonald course that was built from sandy scratch near the end of World War I, vanished in the early days of World War II, and now lives on in the hearts and minds of golf architecture and history enthusiasts.
Old Lido -- whose only living remnant is the majestic Lido Towers condo complex that dominates the beach skyline -- has such a following among golf writers and historians that years of chatter about restoration somewhere, anywhere, have breathed the project into existence in central Wisconsin. The Fried Egg covered the details of the project earlier this week, including a podcast with Doak on both the new course and the original.
So how did Lido jump from the pages of internet forum fodder, grainy photos and newspaper clippings onto the ground in a scenic spot next door to one of America's modern destination golf resorts? It took more than the course's historical charm and romance. First, Lido was considered by several writers of the early 1900s to be one of the finest American courses ever built, so its recreation, Doak says in the Fried Egg podcast, was worthy of consideration on its strategic merits.
But much of the legwork and inspiration came from an unlikely source. Peter Flory, a Chicago-area golfer with a deep interest in lost golf courses and a fluency in virtual-golf software, took those archived photos and clippings and got to work -- hundreds of hours worth. Previously, Flory told Golf On Long Island in 2018, he had dabbled in recreating lost courses in his area at Olympia Fields and Mill Road Farm.
Lido, though, offered a different challenge. Over the course of the next two-plus years, Flory posted incredibly detailed renderings of all 18 Lido holes on the Golf Club Atlas forums, where golf historians and designers, including Doak, discussed and scrutinized his virtual fairways, hazards and greens. Using aerials, models, ground-level snapshots and news descriptions, Flory was able to digitally resurrect Lido's slopes and undulations, in some cases using details like shadow lengths and angles in old photos to estimate the precise dimensions of mounds, bunkers and other features.
[PICTURED RIGHT: A 1933 Brooklyn Daily Eagle sketch of Macdonald's #4 "Channel" hole, one of the course's most notable designs -- and the inspiration for today's double-fairway 16th.]
Flory's work drew the attention of Michael and Chris Keiser of Sand Valley, who used the digital imagery to gauge interest from future members. When it opens in 2023, The Lido -- renderings and descriptions available on its newly launched website -- will be open to members and resort guests.
Back here on Long Island, the Lido muni lives on just to the east of its famous predecessor. The original Lido spread from channel to ocean on land that is now occupied by Long Beach High School and residential streets. For more historical context, take a look at these past Golf On Long Island features:
- 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)
- Original Lido Club featured on Golf Channel, golf history podcast
- Newsday slideshow features 11 places that were formerly golf courses
- Closer Look: Lido Golf Club #16
The Lido Club is also 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.
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