Indian Hills (Northport, LI)

[blasbe1]

I had to opportunity to play this course for the first time yesterday.  I searched this board for discussion of the same but came up empty.  From what I can tell it's an Alfred Tull 1965 design.  

I was very impressed by the use of elevation changes (the property is very hilly) and the holes on the LI Sound (two short par 4s and shortish par 3) are challenging holes with a spectacular setting.  In fact, it reminded me of the Creek a little with a good variety of parkland golf leading to a few links style holes on the LI Sound.  Thus, I was suprised to find little said about this tract.  It is heavily wooded and trees appear to be overgrown in spots but also provide good seperation and protection in others.  I hit just about every club in the bag and the greens were exciting, although way too slow due to it being an outing.  

It seems to me that with a large scale tree removal program and perhaps some bunkering work, this tract could really be a standout (even with the stiff competition it faces on LI).  

Any thoughts about the design or history of the club would be most appreciated.      

[blasbe1]

No takers?

[mark chalfant]

   Jason,
I did an  MGA  rating here well over 10 years ago.  


For Long Island  I was not real impressed with this pleasant site. However,   I  remember the greens  were rather fun.

I think  Bill Mitchell may have designed IH.  I feel that the
architecture  at both  Huntington and  St. Georges is
quite a bit stronger out  in   Suffolk  County.  Sorry I
cant remember  more.

[John Paquette]

Jason,
I am the golf course superintendent at Indian Hills.  Glad that you enjoyed our course last Monday during the outing.  Your comment regarding green speed was correct.........we tend to mow the greens with a triplex on Monday rather than handmowers and it is set to cut at.130" rather than our normal .125" - we also had 3/4" of rain the night before so the greens were soft.  Our normal speed of 9.0 on the stimp is just what the members want and just what they get.

Course info: I have found no evidence of Alfred Tull being involved here, my research has found that Cornish had a hand in the original design and it was built by the previous owner C. Jurgins (who has also built Cherry Creek on Eastern LI).  The course opened in 1961.  Recently, 2002, Stephen Kay redesigned the "beach holes" 12 & 13, which were eroding into LI Sound.  

I have been here 9 years and believe me, if you think we have too many trees now, you should have seen it 9 years ago........needless to say many hundreds have been removed.

Town regs have made tree removal much more of an issue here and we will keep most of what we have.

Again glad you enjoyed IHCC, hope this info has shed some light on the issue.

-John

[blasbe1]

John:

Great insight, thank you.  With the undulation, 9 would be perfect speed.  While the "beach holes" certainly have the wow factor, I was really impressed with 17 and 18, two very strong finishing holes.  Although on 17 I hit a boomer down the left center and was still 120 yds from the green on the downslope.  I proceeded to catch one off the hossle and ended up making 5 from the right side pot bunker.  I thought that if the fairway was cut a little tighter it could have made it down the hill.  The rain was a major factor I'm sure, but is that fairway intended to permit big drives to roll down the hill?

I also thought that 8 was a great short 4 par, the way the lake off the tee appears to run right into the fairway is a great visual.  The 3rd shot on the par 5 5th is to one of if not the highest elevated greens I've ever played.  

IH is also the only course that I can recall where the clubhouse and practice area is completely separated from all 18 holes by a road.  I found this very interesting and wonder if this is the original layout?  Has anyone played other courses with a similar feature.    
 
As for the trees, if the town is a "green" town, there's always good old mother nature.  

                 

[Keith OHalloran]

I played Indian Hills yesterday, and wanted to see if anyone has some more information on the course. Specifically, I am interested in the par 4 second hole. The hole playes 374 yards with a creek to carry and a slight dog leg right. The hole has a Biarritz green. The green is kept (very nicely) in a perfect square. The swale is large, and fairly wide. No other green on the course is squared off, and I did not notice any other Template feel out there. Based on the history above, I wonder if it was part of the original design? Or maybe Kay made some adjustment when he worked on the beach holes?
Does anyone have information on the history of the hole?
Thanks