Lido Beach golf both past and present, as well as local, national and even international, is the subject of the most recent podcast just published this month by The Golfer's Journal and narrated by New York sports and golf writer Brett Cyrgalis.
If none of that seems to make much sense and the connection between South Shore muni golf and international golf design is a bit unclear, well, you have some interesting reading to do for Long Island golf history class.
The Golfer's Journal podcast focuses on the creation and disappearance of the short-lived Lido Golf Club -- considered to be one of the great architectural masterpieces in golf history -- and how it inspired three new Lidos, two of which are currently being built by renowned designers in Wisconsin and Thailand. It is a companion piece to Cyrgalis's recent Journal feature entitled "The Hard Truth About Lido," in which the writer not only recalls many rounds played on today's local Lido but also describes in vivid detail a walk through the nearby Lido Beach dunes where the original C.B. Macdonald course stood for just two-plus decades.
Cyrgalis talks Lido golf on the podcast with Gil Hanse and Brian Schneider. Hanse calls the original Lido a "mythical golf course, like Atlantis," one that he and Tom Doak often discussed when envisioning what they could possibly craft one day from a flat piece of land. His soon-to-open Ballyshear Golf Links in Thailand is "a tribute" to Lido, he says, complete with its distinctive Macdonald template holes, and slight variations to the original's dimensions and routing.
Meanwhile, at the Sand Valley Golf Resort in Wisconsin, Doak and Schneider of Renaissance Golf Design are in the midst of a full-scale Lido restoration. With the help of photography and digital recreations of the course, Renaissance is duplicating every undulation of the original down to the yard. "Macdonald is the architect of this project," Schneider says, "and we're trying as hard as we can to interpret his wishes and his design." The course is scheduled to open in 2023.
And of course, there's Lido, the Town of Hempstead muni. The course is a conundrum, and Cyrgalis explores it in greater detail in the magazine piece. For every sunny recollection of waterside scenery along Reynolds Channel there is a local golfer's lament about overwhelming wind, muddy conditions or declining facilities. Cyrgalis calls Lido "a joy in the winter" when the wind and hardened turf often make it play fast and firm like a true links, but admits that in the past "all I did was complain about goose shit and slow greens." And though the Lido logo includes the year 1914 -- the start date of the original's construction -- there is no link between modern Lido and the "white whale" of golf course history.
"It took a while before I cared enough to find out about the history," Cyrgalis writes. "The sign out front reads '1914,' but that is a lie."
The Lido podcast is available for streaming and download on The Golfer's Journal website. The magazine feature can be accessed with a Journal subscription. For more reading on Lido, see previous Golf On Long Island entries below:
- Lido Golf Club, famed Macdonald masterpiece, to be recreated in Wisconsin
- 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
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