Taconic Golf Club - Restoratoin Master Plan

[Chris_Blakely]

Taconic Golf Club's website has the complete Master Plan presented by Gil Hanse on 5/14/2006 up.  The link below has all 18 hole diagrams with the proposed changes to each hole.  The site also hasa nice summary that lists the goals for each area of the course: tees, greens, bunkering, trees, etc.  The restoraiton will focus on restoring lost bunkers, expansdin ones that have shrunk over time, removing trees and recapturing  lost green area.

If you copy and paste the link below, you can see the Plan.

http://www.taconicgolf.com/CourseMasterPlan/MasterPlanWelcome.html

[Joe Hancock]

I don't have any experience at this course, but it's still fun to read through Gil's goals and ideas to improve the place.

Thanks for the link.

Joe

[Gary Daughters]

I'm interested in Stiles/van Kleek.  They seem to be the dark horses of the "golden era."

Who, besides Bob Labbance, knows much about them?

[Brad Tufts]

They are mainly respsonsible for my course, along with input from longtime Essex pro Skip Wogan.  Stiles (I think Van Kleek was the "Southern" associate) built 9 new holes (NLE) at my home course of Tedesco, and modernized the original 18.  

I believe Taconic is one of, if not the, best course in their portfolio.

Is Bob Labbance writing a book on them.  I thought someone was.

Also, I have played 30-40 rounds at Taconic from 99-03 (I played for Middlebury), and it's pretty awesome the way it is.  It seems to me the new bunkers will add some interest to the course, and the added yardage will make it more of a "championship" venue.  Are they angling for a tourney more intense than D3 nationals?  

[Mike Sweeney]

I am playing Taconic tomorrow. Just curious if any of the plan has been implemented by Gil Hanse?

Thanks

[Ian Andrew]

Mike,

There are old photos in the proshop and the superintendent has the original plan  - worth seeing.

Enjoy - its a great course - hopefully the trees have begun to come down to show of the college and the mountains.

[rjsimper]

Even if it hasn't (which I suspect is the case) you are still in for a treat.  Taconic is one of my favorite "non-spectacular" courses.  Solid from start to finish, it's one of the fairest tests of golf you will find.  If you play well, you will score well...and if you're off, well...good luck if you find yourself above the hole!

[Steve Curry]

Anyone that has the chance should try to get up to Williamstown and see the amazing work that is going on at this gem.

Cheers,
Steve

[Nick Church]

Very cool... thanks for sharing.

The drawings are always a highlight for me.

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Mike:

Contrary to other reports, Taconic is in the midst of a full-scale restoration. You'll get  a dose of the entire process. Hundreds of trees have been cut down and the bunker work runs the gamut. Many have been  redone, some are being redone, some have been added and others have not yet been touched.

The most interesting bunker I saw is the giant one that borders 8 and 11 (I think greens.) It was never implemented and that might be because a LARGE boulder was found in what should have been in the middle of the massive sand hazard. It has now been removed and the bunker is being built to the Stiles plans.

Bob Labbance and Kevin Mendik have written a wonderful book on Stiles.

Anthony

[Chuck Brown]

Does Taconic serve as Williams College's home course in NCAA events?  (Does Williams have a golf team in the Ivy League?  Is there an Ivy League for golf?  One of the great old records in collegiate sport is the consecutive cahmpionships won by Yale...)  Is there any pressure there to build to Div. IA NCAA-player distances, a la the Ohio State Scarlet Course?

[Jay Flemma]

Yes it does.  I got my ass kicked there for two days as a senior.  Came in dead effing last in a NESCAC tournament fall of '88.

[Chuck Brown]

Jay you beat me to correcting my own post.  Link to the Williams College FIGHTIN' EPHS!  (Who would not, of course, play in the Ivy League... d'oh!)

http://www.williams.edu/athletics/sport.php?sport=11

[Jay Flemma]

That's OK, Chuck, I sometimes have trouble remembering the dregs of our conference, like, oh I don't know...TUFTS!

Your mistake is easily forgiven...Trinity, Amherst, and Williams are all considered "Little Ivies."

Go, Fight, Win, Trin!

[John Kavanaugh]

Yes it does.  I got my ass kicked there for two days as a senior.  Came in dead effing last in a NESCAC tournament fall of '88.

Who could forget when our own Ryan Simper rallied with 76 to finish top ten in 02 playing for Middlebury.

[Jay Flemma]

izzat so?  Ryan, please confirm.

...and when you go back for reunion, say hi to my cousin Jeannie who works there in admissions.

[John Kavanaugh]

Jay,

In case Ryan either misses this thread or is too modest to brag, here is the link.  You might note that he also made second team all conference.

http://www.nescac.com/sports/golf/2002-03/championship/champ_results_individual

[Jay Flemma]

Well how about that!  Go Ryan.  I see Brad Tufts's name on there too...izzat the same Brad Tufts that's on GCA?

uh...by the way...barney...THAT was from 2004!

[Ronald Montesano]

1.  Thanks, Anthony P., for putting to rest the malarkey about not having money, not this, not that.  I played and photographed the course in August, about a week before the plan went into action.  Rick Pohle, the pro and men's golf coach, gave me the lowdown.  The work should be completed by next June.

2.  One of my former team members is a senior captain at Williams this year.  He is a member of the fighting Ephmen and competed for them in the D-3 nationals last year.

3.  I laugh when I consider the quality of Taconic versus, say, the Ralph at Middlebury.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the Ralph during my six summers in Spanish School (alliteration, baby), but it is one quirky, homespun golf course.

4.  The bunker that Anthony mentions actually replaces the horseshoe bunker that fords two greens.  The one being lost is a great looking bunker, but the replacement is saharan in its enormity.

5.  Bob kept me abreast of the work on the Stiles book before publication (and before his passing).  He actually found a ton of correspondence from Stiles at South Shore in Hamburg, NY (just south of Buffalo.)  The owners had kept watch over the file religiously, all these years.  Funny, huh?

6.  Taconic used to be owned wholly by the college, but is now watched over by a separate board of governors.  It is the home course of the women's and men's teams.

7.  I am in awe of the transparency of the project.  Most courses hide the work that is being done, while Taconic put together a stunning presentation on its website.  Cheers to that!

8.  Those greens, THOSE GREENS!!!

9.  I think that the coolest addition will be the hill bunker on number two.  They are cutting one right into the ridge in the drive zone.  I'm already making plans to return next Summer to re-photograph the course.  If anyone wants to see the pics, I'll photobucket them or something.

[Ronald Montesano]

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f140/buffalogolfer/

I went ahead and uploaded a bunch of images.  Take a look.  Hope it works.

[Brad Tufts]

I will step in here and say that yes, I was Simper's teammate (my architecture hobby actually pointed him here, and Mitch St. Peter as well), and we have gone on about the Midd-Williams rivalry over the years on here, in relation to Taconic.  It was a treat to be able to play about half our tournaments at Taconic.  Williams was always our biggest rival, and we finally were able to top them our senior year, only to lose most of the team accolades officially due to an ineligible player (unfortunately our teammate never knew).  We both graced a couple all-conference teams in the NESCAC, the litte ivy conference.  Our top teams my years were Midd and Williams, Amherst, and Hamilton.  Outside of the NESCAC, the best teams around that we played were Skidmore, Babson, Salem State, NYU, WNEC, UMass-Dartmouth, etc...

Never thought I'd see Ralph Myhre discussed on here, but it was our home, its quirky, but I came to love it.  Rock hard in the fall, and soaking wet in the Spring, its a decent place to play.  Someday, the club will follow through with the Steve Durkee plans in the clubhouse and build a top-class layout to compete with the likes of Taconic (yeah right).

Oh, and as for that tournament scoreboard, I would've picked up that trophy if Brian Williams didn't transfer to Hamilton from an Ohio D-1 school to start shooting 69s at the Quag-Myhre....

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Ron:

One of the coolest holes has to be the 17th, an uphill par-3 with the green tilted right to left and a mound that allows the properly played shot to kick onto the putting surface. It dates back to the first nine holes on the site and is the lone hole from that era.

Anthony

[Ronald Montesano]

That may explain why I always make 4 there.  It is a mini-version of #2 in my book.  I love 13...you just don't get fairway bunkering like that anymore and the green is absolutely spiteful.

[Jay Flemma]

I will step in here and say that yes, I was Simper's teammate (my architecture hobby actually pointed him here, and Mitch St. Peter as well), and we have gone on about the Midd-Williams rivalry over the years on here, in relation to Taconic.  It was a treat to be able to play about half our tournaments at Taconic.  Williams was always our biggest rival, and we finally were able to top them our senior year, only to lose most of the team accolades officially due to an ineligible player (unfortunately our teammate never knew).  We both graced a couple all-conference teams in the NESCAC, the litte ivy conference.  Our top teams my years were Midd and Williams, Amherst, and Hamilton.  Outside of the NESCAC, the best teams around that we played were Skidmore, Babson, Salem State, NYU, WNEC, UMass-Dartmouth, etc...

Never thought I'd see Ralph Myhre discussed on here, but it was our home, its quirky, but I came to love it.  Rock hard in the fall, and soaking wet in the Spring, its a decent place to play.  Someday, the club will follow through with the Steve Durkee plans in the clubhouse and build a top-class layout to compete with the likes of Taconic (yeah right).

Oh, and as for that tournament scoreboard, I would've picked up that trophy if Brian Williams didn't transfer to Hamilton from an Ohio D-1 school to start shooting 69s at the Quag-Myhre....

Do you remember Trinity's home course?  The Godawful farmington woods?  Every hole supermodel thin and two double dog-leg par-3s?  One was a horseshoe, the other was the letter "s."  We won all our home matches because the course was so unplayable to everyone else who only saw it once, maybe twice a year.

Then we went on the road and went out all night before playing the next day...ugh...no wonder we lost at NESCACs that year.

What happened with that ineligible player?

[Brad Tufts]

Jay....never made it down to Trinity's golf course, we always had NESCACS either at Midd or at Taconic.

To rehash the pain, only three teams from each district made the national tourney, our district being western MA, VT, and upstate NY.  Skidmore and Williams generally took two spots, and our first three years we were always 4th or 5th come selection time.  Senior year, we played well enough to be ranked first over all of our rivals.  It was the culmination of four players who had played together every tournament for four years.  However, at Midd a student can begin school starting Feb. 1st, graduating 2/1 four years later.  Because golf is played both in Fall and Spring, our player played his first semester on campus, Spring '99, three full Fall/Spring years, then his last semester with us, Fall '02.  Unfortunately as we learned, he had played parts of 5 years, and was ineligible for his last semester.  He was also our #1 player, so his scores were vital in our totals.  While not so bad without him, we didn't have the scores without him.  Nothing happened really, we just forfeited several tournament wins, including NESCACS, and weren't allowed to go to nationals.  Ironically enough, there is little record of this anywhere, and the only place that still mentions the situation are the Williams golf press releases that credit them (correctly, although slightly comically) with the win in 02 when they came in second.  Not bitter at all anymore, I just wish the powers-at-be were aware of the rule, considering Midd wins national titles all the time in other sports where there has to be greater scrutiny in following NCAA guidelines.  My individual senior year had a chance to go to nationals, but that ended with an 84 in the wind in a tourney in Spring 03.

Anywho, luckily, some of the guys who I played with and others I have met since qualified for nationals in Spring 2007, really the highest a Midd team can achieve considering we will never be national title winners in D3 golf.  It would have been nice to experience that, but it was almost as good to see the guys make it fair and square.  NESCACS now have two components, a qualifying tournament that sends 4 teams to a NESCAC finals at a later date, and a championship round or two that has an autobid to nationals.  So, now there is much less of a "selection" component with several conference title autobids.