One of golf’s most graceful courses wins the Jazzy Award for Best Private course this year, a course where tradition, quiet dignity, and altruism are the order of the day. Far from any television towers, gallery stands, and the latest, greatest waterfall ever built on a golf course, but far closer to the egalitarian spirit of the game as envisioned by her stewards, fabled Garden City Golf Club, host the 98th Walter J. Travis Invitational, a major amateur tournament of national and historic significance was the best private course I played this year.
Over the years, it has built its rich tradition upon three foundations: first, the legacy of Walter Travis, Garden City Golf Club’s great amateur golfer and, later, a brilliant golf course architect, second, the brilliant golf course architecture of Garden City Golf Club which showcases the cunning routing of celebrated designer Devereux Emmet, as well as bunkering and green contouring by Travis himself and, finally, an unswerving devotion by the members to keeping the Travis Invitational Tournament the gold standard by which other amateur events in the country are judged. That’s the Travis Invitational: the Grand Old Man, the Grand Old Club, the Grand Old Amateur.
Over one hundred years have passed, but one of the great virtues of Garden City is that time seems to have stood still. Little has changed at the club. The members wisely resist trying to lure another major championship by putting the course to the rack or wasp-waisting her fairways so that they are thinner than Petra Nemcova. Instead, as true stewards, they guard and protect the course’s greatest attribute: its genius as a match play venue.
With Travis and Emmet for inspiration, together the club and tournament have aged like a fine wine. But then again, it’s easy to be altruistic at Garden City G.C.; one can’t help but feel invigorated playing a round of golf here: walking in the hallowed footsteps of golf’s ancient figures, playing across the vast open expanse of the Hempstead plain – an unparalleled feeling of isolation in the hustle-bustle of Greater New York City, true solace amidst the traffic of the world – and then finally turning for home and seeing the welcoming embrace of the clubhouse, her arms extended warmly, and above, the majestic grandeur of the old hotel standing sentinel over the entire tableau. Such is the scene playing to the eighteenth green. For over 100 years it has been one of the grandest endings in golf, both an echo of the past and a grand crescendo, the stuff of holy whispers.
Runner up: Oakland Hills. It was a close battle. Both courses are old school, indeed antique (in the old sense of the word, meaning “old and valued”). Both have rolling property, terrific greens, and terrific routings. But the rough at Oakland Hills hides so many great fairway contours and strategic angles, I had to give the nod to Garden City. That being said, play Oakland Hills yourself, and see how much it destroys your expectations. Like Augusta National, you can’t believe the size of the hills until you get there and see it for yourself. The greens are almost as good as Oakmont’s and are every bit as interesting as Winged Foot.
Past Winners:
2007: Oakmont C.C
2006: Winged Foot (West)
2005: Crystal Downs
