Though much of Devereux Emmet’s design has been altered so that the course would be a challenge to touring professional golfers, the course is still a solidly designed, affordable option for public golfers in greater New York City.
Born Salisbury Country Club in 1916, the red – nee the no. 4 course – was one of five Devereux Emmet layouts. it hosted the 1926 Met Open and PGA Championship is a heady, halcyon summer that proved to be the club’s most swingin’ heyday. The club fell into dark times and public ownership resulted in some changes to Emmets strategies in the 50s – 1,2 and 18 are completely redesigned, but significant portions of Emmet’s work remain.
In an interview, no less a personage then Ben Crenshaw – major champion turned great golf course architect – praised the Emmet features that remained:
“There are many terrific greens here: the par-3s at 13 at 16 have soft movements and subtle breaks” he explained in an almost reverential tone. “10 and 13 are also some of my favorites, the ledges and tiers are well molded. The course is well routed and the par-4s are long and difficult. They’ve lengthened the course, but it’s a great test of golf.”
He finished by explaining that while some of Devereux Emmet’s work has been changed over time, “it’s beautiful and still looks natural.”
The 2008 version features flat, straight fairways with little strategy – center line is really the play all day – but the green are typical Emmet – lots of subtle breaks. The out and back routing is to be praised as is the par-71 which disobeys the tired doctrine of symmetry. The Champions tour players ate it up and spit it out even with it being stretched to 7,000+ yards.
Best holes? The par-3 are all excellent. There’s a great “short” at 5, with the green surrounded by a sea of sand. @ is also great, with its semi-circle green testing distance control, a clever mound guarding the front center. For par-4s, there’s a cunning burn on 15 limiting bombers and the drive and pitch ninth has a kidney shaped green. 17 is a well designed par-4.5 masquerading as a par-5. 18 is a great par-4.5 masquerading as a par-4. The remainder of the par-4 were rather pedestrian for strategy, but pretty to play.
The conditioning is outstanding and the price of $80 is reasonable.
Loren Roberts, who won this year’s Champions Tour event there – the Commerce Bank Classic said, “the course made you think and be patient. They’ve done a nice job making it a fair test. if you drive the ball well you can make birdies and if you don’t the teeth will get you.”
Design: 4.5 – 5 stars (all ratings out of 7) They need to Oakmont the place – cut down all the damn trees. They should put back in any cross-bunkers Emmet had there originally. That’s one of his hallmarks.
Natural Setting: 4.5-5. It’s Nassau County.
Conditioning: 6-6.5 stars
value: 6 stars
Overall 5-5.5
