[Phil Benedict]

Is the longest 400-yard hole I've ever played.  And that's from the whites.  Severely uphill and into the wind.  I had 153 for my second and came up two clubs short with a six iron, which I hit about 170-yards on level ground.

Don't know the yardage but it must be 40-yards longer from the blues.  What a ball-buster finisher.

[JESII]

#14 at Merion would give it a run for its money...I haven't been to Sleepy Hollow.

[CJ Carder]

Is it more severely uphill than #8 at Spyglass?

[George_Bahto]

Phil the bunker on the left was added as was the first deep bunker on the right , second from the green  -the greenside right bunker was there but was completely reset.

This photo from the front tee - a new tee was added to the rear, back over the road (30 yards or so)



greenside right bunker



good finishing hole

[Dean Paolucci]

A spectacular finish to a truly fabulous golf course.  The view alone is worth the price of admission!  Another piece of extrordinary work by Bahto & Co.

[Matt_Ward]

Jim Sullivan:

I like the 14th at Merion / East a good deal but the 18th at SH is a bit beyond it -- design wise and demand wise. The tee shot has to be CARRIED because your roll potential is extremely limited because of the grade change there.

The approach is also what Phil B alluded to -- it requires at least 2--3 club adjustment and that doesn't factor in the prevailing south / southwest wind which is often in on the player(s).

Just a great concluding hole to a an 18-hole layout that doesn't have the name appeal as so many others but yet provides no less a fun and challenging time.

[Phil Benedict]

George, 

It was pretty easy for me to clear the left bunker from the whites, but it would definitely be in play from the blues.  Makes the hole that much tougher from the tips.

Matt,

Exactly right about getting no roll on the drive.  I hit a low cut that ended up 3 feet from its pitch mark. 

Generally I thought the difficulty of the course was the number of long narrow greens, of which this is one example.  A lateral miss on the approach always left a difficult up and down.  Unfortunately I had a lot of lateral misses.

Great fairway width though.  Loved that aspect of the course.

[Matt_Ward]

Phil:

SH is vastly under-appreciated by a national audience -- no doubt the quality of golf in Westchester is THAT good but often times the wind gets sucked out with the likes of WF and QR.

Just a fantastic course that blends it all together. If there is a better overall member's club than SH -- well -- there aren't that many in my mind -- from the ones I have played in my lifetime.

Those who don't want to be beaten up should avoid WF and make their plans to play SH for a time they will never forget.

[Phil Benedict]

The course in Westchester I'm inclined to compare it to is Whippoorwill, a Banks over rugged terrain.  Sleepy's par 3's are better, particularly the short which is all-world if you are allowed to count the view.  One of our foursome skulled one over the green; probably the longest shot he hit all day.

[Ben Sims]

I dig tough uphill two shotter on the inward half.  This hole looks like a fine piece of work by George and his bunch. 

It reminds me of the 11th at Pasatiempo, insofar as it plays long and tight on the approach.

[corey miller]

I have been in that Bahto bunker more than I care to admit.  In fact, I know I have two pars from the darn thing.  Though it does not look like it in the pictures it is about 165-205 from the various tees.

This hole plays extremely long.  What is hard to discern in the picture is the flat area on the left side of the fairway which will allow you use much less club into the green.

[George_Bahto]

..... funny story about the left off-fairway bunker on 18:

The placement of that bunker is a lot off line (if the fairway was somewhat level). There was just short rough grass up there but because of the fairway tilt, most people played the ball up in that area looking for a banking-ball back onto the fairway - balls played in the middle of the fairway usually banked to the right into a line of trees (trees now removed).

We were cutting bunkering into the adjoining first fairway and at one point I told the excavator operator to drive over to where we thought of putting in the bunker on 18 to see just how deep he could go before hitting ledge-rock, thinking I could just get a “scape” there, if anything at all.

He kept digging and digging - to everyone’s surprise - and finally got to some ledge.

It was so much deeper that I could imagine because digging into the ground at “Sleepy” is a thrill unto itself.

When we got the bunker in, because it was pretty far off centerline and quite short from the (then) regular tee, I figured hardly anyone would get in it, but it figured looked cool anyhow.

We worked in the area of parallel holes #1 and #18 for quite a few days and I couldn’t believe how many balls got in or near that new bunker on 18 - probably because of so many years of aiming up there.

I would like to commend the membership at Sleepy Hollow CC tree removal program!!! Job well done and still ongoing!!  They have opened up vistas not seen in many, many years and the “grand prize” is opening the grand panoramic views of the Hudson River.

The course is under the radar and if you get a chance to play the course - DO IT - it’s a fun course.

The “clubhouse?” ............ unbelievable.

[Phil Benedict]

George,

What was the thinking it converting the par 4 to a par 5 (not sure which hole because I didn't start on 1)?  The new hole is fine but there was nothing wrong with the old par 4 either.  Was it because the Punchbowl is too short to play as a par 5, so you needed to create another par 5?

[TX Golf]

I have never had the chance to play Sleepy Hollow but I can promise you that the 13th at Cal Club can give any 400 yard par 4 (from the normal tees) a run for its money... uphill, and into that cold fog and wind found in SF. You do not want to catch it on a foggy July afternoon.

Not to be the idiot here, but this is the Sleepy Hollow in NY... right?? Looks like an awesome course.

[Michael J. Moss]

It doesn't matter how many extra clubs the second shot requires, from my experience, the green doesn't exist. It's a mirage!

Great job overall by George!

WGA Caddie Scholarship Pro Am being played at Sleepy on May 28th. Great opportunity to see the renovation. probaly still room.

(George, sorry about the result of the Devil's game 7 - shock and dismay)

[George_Bahto]

Phil asked: "Was it because the Punchbowl is too short to play as a par 5, so you needed to create another par 5?

you're almost right

The original punchbowl 15th was "wrong" in this respect:

Macdonald/Raynor punchbowl holes were usually among the longest par-4s on their courses.

Their punchbowls were meant to be approached (on the second shot) with a long club. When you lengthen such a hole you generally end up with drive, fairway club and then a short iron (still blind to the green). This was not the intent or those architects.

The club (or someone else) had lengthened the 15th (punchbowl) and we pressed hard to return it to a really good par-4 instead of a "nothing" par-5.

The new hole, 12, as a par-5 then replaced the now "missing" 3-shot hole.

We were not a fan of the original par-4 12 which was a long narrow uphill hole. Yes, it was a hard par-4 but "hard" does not equate to "good."

[Mike_Cirba]

The 18th at Sleepy Hollow is now one of the best closers around, although as Jim Sullivan asserts, I'm not 100% sure if it plays as long as the 14th at Merion, which is ridiculously long despite modest card yardage.

Nevertheless, of the two holes, I like the one at Sleepy Hollow better, especially now with Gil and George's changes.

The great part of the hole is that unless you frontally challenge the huge bunker on the left, the player is left with a longer, and more intimidating second shot, where the intervening tree and additional bunkers create a minefield of lost hopes for finishing in anything but dismal style.

Also, most strategic trees I've seen on golf courses are left to fend for themselves, and once their gone, the hole is generally neutered and denuted.

In the case of 18 at Sleepy Hollow, the angle of the approach, the slope of the land, and the bunkering scheme employed ensures that the inevitable loss of that big tree on the right is also inevitably a non-issue to the strategic playability of the golf hole.

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