Creek Club Locust Valley NY

[Bill Brightly]

Hole 5 tee shot, uphill 407 yards.



View of green from side

[Mark McKeever]

Thanks for posting Bill!  It looks outstanding!

Mark

[Bill Brightly]

Hole #6 is called Sound View, but get ready for one of the coolest punchbowls you will ever see!

From the tee. (Be a man and take on the left-side fairway bunker, don't bail out right like I did...



Approach to green






Miss the green short right and you'll have this bunker shot:



Looking at the right side of the green from 16th green:

[Mark McKeever]

What a punchbowl!!!!

Mark

[Bill Brightly]

What a punchbowl!!!!

Mark

It is a GREAT punchbowl, a GREAT green. I three putted from back middle,  had to play about 15 feet of break and only played 10

I was going on about how it should be named Punchbowl on the card. After a repeating this my host reminded me that perhaps Macdonald gave it the name Sound View... (blush)

Does anyone know if CBM named the holes or the club?

[Bill Brightly]

Hole 7, Long. 523 yards, so it is easily reachable in two given the fast and firm conditions. However, the green has some wonderful tilt to it, so 2 putting is no simple task.

This is also when you see the genius of Macdonald's routing. Given a relatively narrow piece of land with limited coastline to use, he takes you away from the Sound for the first 5 holes, then gives you a glimpse of it in 6 and 7 before playing up against it on holes 9 through 14.

[Bill_McBride]

This is, regrettably, another CBM/Raynor "Eden" hole that seems to have misplaced its vital Strath bunker!   

Hole 4 is Eden. It is a solid uphill test and putts down the hill are treacherous (as they should be on a proper Eden...) Sorry for the poor photo quality, we were running out of daylight at this point in the round. (Shoutgun start.) However, I think you can see a strong resemblance to this hole and the Eden that Raynor would later build at Carmargo.

[Bill Brightly]

Good point, Bill. I wonder why Macdonald placed the bunker off to the side and not more in front. I believe he did the same thing at Sleepy Hollow and others. Perhaps he did not want to make the holes exact replicas?

[Bill Brightly]

Hole 8 is the Redan. Sorry for the photo quality, I was loosing light at this point in the round, my last hole of the shot gun start.

It is a very good Reverse Redan with excellent left to right slope. I guess you could take a point or two off because it plays slightly downhill.

[Bill Brightly]

The 9th Hole is called Inferno. (I need to find out why!) Very solid hole that requires you to NOT bail out right into the expansive waste area with your tee shot.









Look back from green to 9th fairway, with 12th green in the background. As a cool aside, the shot below went in the hole for an Eagle!!



View from 12th hole looking at 9th green complex

[Bill Brightly]

My photo skills are so poor...but I tried to show you one of the coolest old locker rooms you will ever see

[Chris Johnston]

I was lucky enough to get in a round this past weekend at the Creek Club in Locust Valley NY.  It was my second round there and to be honest I cannot understand why this course does not get more love.  I am a big fan of Macdonald and Raynor and have played many of their courses including a few that are very highly ranked.  I think Creek is just amazing.  Definitely behind National Golf Links and Fisher's Island but better than all the rest except maybe Chicago GC which is as different from Creek as can be.  The first 5 holes are really good but holes 6-18 are just fantastic and on land that is world class.  Holes 10 and 11 are almost literally in Long Island sound.  6 has one of the best greens I have ever seen.  Maybe the club wants it this way but I wonder why this course does not get more acclaim.  If anyone is in the area and can get out there I would strongly urge you to check it out.  

Ari - have played it and really enjoyed it.  Very underrated.  Don't know why.

[Bill_McBride]

Good point, Bill. I wonder why Macdonald placed the bunker off to the side and not more in front. I believe he did the same thing at Sleepy Hollow and others. Perhaps he did not want to make the holes exact replicas?

Or maybe he didn't have fond memories of being in Strath!   

[Bill Brightly]

Bill,

I took a look at my crummy photo of Macdonald's plans. The Eden is in the top left (near the flash reflection...) but I think I can see the Strath bunker shown much more in front of the green. Now it is a bit off to the side. I wonder if it was re-built and moved at some point?

[Bill_McBride]

Bill,

I took a look at my crummy photo of Macdonald's plans. The Eden is in the top left (near the flash reflection...) but I think I can see the Strath bunker shown much more in front of the green. Now it is a bit off to the side. I wonder if it was re-built and moved at some point?

Probably a green committee chair who got stuck in there too many times.   It is interesting how underwhelming CBM's Edens are.   Maybe it's because they don't share that big double green with #7 a la St Andrews.   The angles are just a bit off perhaps.   

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill,

If the 1st hole was longer, it would be one of the great opening holes in golf.

Unfortunately, it appears to be limited in terms of added length.

Instead of a wedge, a mid to long iron approach would be fantastic.

You have to wonder how the club permitted the reeds to run amuck.

[Sean_A]

Bill

Thanks for the photos.  The green complexes look to be fascinating - something I hadn't fully appreciated in looking at previous pix.  The redan-like puncbowl 6th looks to be a very unusual green complex.  How long is that approach for a guy who hits a drive 240?

Ciao

[Bill Brightly]

Sean,
I'd say you would have 150-160 left. (Maybe less, the tee shot is downhill so you'll get plenty of roll if you hit the fairway.
We played the regular tees, and I hit a good drive, about 250 yards, but was in the right rough, leaving a 140 yard 9 iron. I thought I hit a perfect shot left of the pin, but with the firm greens it rolled all the way to the back of the green

[David Cronheim]

I have the pleasure of playing the Creek for the first time tomorrow. I'll be playing with someone who has never played a CB Macdonald/Raynor course and I wanted to help explain a little bit about the various template holes to him. Does anyone know if there's a list anywhere of which holes are which templates? Obviously, some are pretty easy, particularly the par 3's or the punchbowl, etc., but not all of them are self-evident from the teeing ground. Any help would be appreciated. (PS - Bill great pictures)

[Patrick_Mucci]

# 1 is a Redan green on a par 4.

17.  Short
15  double plateau
11 Biarritz.
10 cape
8 reverse Redan
4 Eden
13 one hell of a hole

[Jon Spaulding]

Isn't 15 is the Double Plateau with the PN bunker?

#1 green is outstanding, if memory serves #8 at Yale has a similar feature.

[Robert Emmons]

Boys, I would go with GCGC first and Piping second among those choices...RHE

[David Cronheim]

It was a great day out at The Creek yesterday. I was very impressed by the course. I think the critiques were all fair, though I disagree that #5 should be included in the set of holes that people on this board seem to find somewhat lacking. The long skyline view off the tee shot was a great element that really built anticipation of what was over the next hill. I thought #5 was of the quality of the lower holes.
 
As others have mentioned #6 (Punchbowl) was truly exceptional. I think it is easily the best punchbowl I've ever sen and one of Raynor's best holes anywhere, the equal of #11 at Shoreacres, which heretofore was my single favorite Raynor hole.  #10 (Cape) is probably a better hole now than it was when it was built because it is driveable. #11 (the island Biarritz) is certainly the most memorable rendition of that hole I have ever seen. What makes the hole so hard is that the green sits at an angle to the tee, not directly on a line.

Of the non-templates, #9 and #16 struck me as the best - both play to beautiful elevated greens. All in all fantastic course, though for me 2 of the par 3s were not my favorites. #4 (Eden) is not a particularly memorable iteration. #17 (Short) is good and the newly restored long views out to the water are quite nice. However, the bunkers on the sides are not as deep as elsewhere. I did not get that "hit the green or else" type feeling there as I do at other Shorts. #8 (Reverse Redan) was fantastic. Best left to right redan I've seen.

[ChipOat]

I didn't read through the entire thread, so please forgive if my first point is redundant.

1) The name of the club is NOT "The Creek Club".  It is is simply "The Creek".

2)  The sixth hole is the single best golf hole I have ever played.

3)  Based on prior experience on other threads, whatever Pat Mucci says about The Creek, I agree.

[Bill Brightly]

Google Earth view of the Biarritz. I just checked with Bahto's booked and he writes that the swale had to be softened due to tidal issues.