Lido - 1919 beginning of the demise?
I recently found this article about Lido which dramatically illustrates problems at this great course that began just a year after it officially opened.
For some background for those who do not know the full story, the Lido course was conceived by an incredibly wealthy consortium of investors generally mostly out of New York City and Long Island.
Spearheading a sizeable group of investors headed by Roger Winthrop, president of Piping Rock, were Paul Kravath (Creek), Thomas Cuyler, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert Goelet, Charles Sabin, Henry Bull, W. Forbes Morgan, James Stillman, Harry Paine Whitney and Otto Kahn. Many of these men, and others who would later join them, were already members at the National, of Piping Rock, Nassau, Garden City and of Sleepy Hollow as well. This was the wealth of the northeast United States.
They convinced a skeptical Charles Blair Macdonald, who had backed off building more courses, to build a second course of his dreams on near submerged land, just over the dunes at Lido Beach.
He was reluctant because of the many problems with the site but after the investors, playing on his ego, knowing he had not used all his inspirational designs at NGLA, told him he could build whatever he wanted - a complete free hand.
He had Raynor to solve the technical problems, of course, and in due time he agreed.
Four years in the making, 2,000,000 cubic yards of fill later and at great cost, the course was completed and officially opened in 1918
Four years later, at great cost, the course was completed and officially opened in 1918.
But the timing of the project was incredibly bad.
The project began in 19194 - the year Germany began invading countries in Europe.
The Project was completed in 1918 - the year the Armistice was signed.
The investors along with the rest of America had turned their attention to the War effort.
Now the sad really part:
Lido Virtually Empty - Sept 1919
AMERICAN PRODIGALITY was never so well instanced than in the case of the Lido Golf Links. Here was one of the three greatest golf links in America, with such a scanty membership, that on some days not a half dozen would venture over the course which cost a million dollars, and in a way, was a triumph of engineering skill. That was what Peter Lees, the former greenkeeper of Lido said the other day.
“It almost made me weep when I was called to Lido early in the year. Can you imagine my chagrin at having to crop of hay off those putting greens and fairways? It was the first time ever in my life that I had to cut a putting green with a two horse grass mower. With some help I was able to get the course in fair whap but now it has grown up again and is ready for another cutting.”
It seems unlikely there will be any great amount of play of play at Lido until a hotel is built nearby.
Note: The Lido Club (hotel) was built in 1918