Missing Links in Sunday NY Post; Bahto, Young, Wexler quoted

[ChipOat]

For those of you that can get today's NY Post (Sunday, 8/22), page 74 is a good piece about all the great courses in the borough of Queens that are NLE.  Most of the material was probably taken from Dan Wexler's book (he's quoted), but so are George Bahto and Phil Young.

No idea if the writer, Brett Cyrgalis, was prompted by a GCA'er or if the idea was all his.  If you're interested, his e-mail address is BCyrgalis@nypost.com.

If you haven't already read Dan's book (or if you have), the list of architects is impressive - Tillinghast, Emmett, Raynor, MacKenzie.

Pretty intellectual stuff for the NY Post; would have expected to see this in the NY Times.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

It's online @ http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/golf/the_late_great_golf_courses_of_queens_M2FTy5T9ARfb8i2psh3DxO

[Keith OHalloran]

Brett is a registered user of the DG, maybe he will let you know.

[Adam Clayman]

Assume one of those courses survived until the year 2000. How much more valuable would that land have been? Not to mention the revenue stream from 50 years of golf.

Is the lesson one Briarwood taught us a few years back? That golf courses are works of art, and, if viewed properly, are worth much more than a quick land deal??

[Phil_the_Author]

Adam, the only reason Fresh Meadow lasted as long as it did was the Insurance Company that purchased the property from the Club before it went under during the Depresiion. This enabled them to play the course for a few more years before they would move and the Insdurance company would sell the land to developers...

[Joel_Stewart]

Not one mention of Lido, the grandaddy of them all?  Technically, wasn't that in Queens?

[Phil_the_Author]

Joel, no it wasn't. Lido has always been a part of Nassau County.

[PCCraig]

Great article. Makes me want to take out Dan W.'s Missing Links out tonight for another read-through.

Thanks for posting.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Adam,

It's sad to see (or know that) a course disappeared because of 'progress', but the value of the land and any revenue stream is  miniscule when compared to the value created by 'opening' up LI with an expressway.

[ChipOat]

Keith,

I sent him an e-mail; I'm now guessing his participation on GCA's DG is what prompted the article.  I wonder how long it took him to convince his editor to run it!

Chip

[BCyrgalis]

It took quite some time to convince my editor to run it (just ask Dan, George and Phil how long ago I talked to them for it).  The original idea was to run it the week after this (http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/golf/the_post_guide_to_links_in_the_city_yK7qHFaNsj3dEsPvuyaNcP), which is a story about all of the 13 current courses of NYC.  Needless to say, pushing for big spreads for non-news, non-Tiger golf stories can be rather difficult in the current newspaper market.  I have four or five other stories that have just about been completed -- it was all supposed to be part of a summer, "Local Loop" series -- so I'm still pushing to try and get those in for the upcoming weeks.

In terms of where the idea came from, I have to give a lot of credit to this website.  Nobody here directly prompted the idea, but it was here that I found out about Dan's book, which was a guide-post for all my research.  Of course, a million thanks to Dan, George and Phil for the cooperation.  This website is a treasure trove for reporters who are interested in stories like these, because the people that are active here are some of the most intelligent in their fields. 

And thanks a ton for posting it, Chip.  I'm very hesitant to be self-promoting on this website -- partly because I want to be humble, and partly because I know if I'm not, someone out there will make me.  Thanks again.