Inwood CC (1901; Inwood, NY; Strong/Doak/others): a photo tour (all holes up)

[Joe Bausch]

(There doesn't seem to be many photos of Inwood on the site, hence I thought I would fire up this tour; if you don't like my photo tour style, don't click on the thread!)

After playing Huntington CC in the morning late in the summer, I went and played Inwood in the afternoon.  It felt like it was going to storm the entire afternoon but we got the round in.  Although you'll see it was pretty interesting cloud formations around!

Inwood may be most famous for being the site of Bobby Jones' first big victory, the 1923 US Open.

Tom Dunne wrote a nice piece on Inwood back in 2009:

http://www.out-and-back.net/?p=776

I posted hole diagrams from the course in 1923 from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in a thread from 2 years ago:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,44302.0.html

It was quite the contrast between the bunkering at Inwood and that of the Emmet at Huntington earlier in the day.  With the land at Inwood being fairly flat, nice bunkering is really appreciated.

The hole sequencing is also rather unique at Inwood, with three consecutive par 5's early in the round.



#1.  Slight dogleg right par 4 (345 yards).

A rather gentle opener to get you out of the gate.



Approach view (a bit of a tough summer left a couple of Inwood fairways a little beat up):



From just over the green:



#2.  Hard dogleg right par 4 (362 yards).



Approach shot view:



From just over the green:



And, yes, you are very close to JFK at Inwood:



#3.  Par 5 (514 yards).

One of my favorite holes at Inwood, mostly because of a fine green.

Blind tee shot:



2nd shot view:



Approach shot view:



From just over the green:



And on the way to the 4th tee you get a front row seat for the front of the clubhouse:



#4.  Slight dogleg left par 5 (539 yards).

Tee view:



2nd shot view:



From short of the green:



#5.  Another par 5!  512 yards.  This moves slightly to the right with a lateral right off tee.



My tee shot ended up in the left rough:



Approach shot view:



From just over the green:



#6.  Par 3 (171 yards).

Tee view:



From just over the green:



From left of the green (the back tee on the next hole):



#7.  Par 3 (219 yards).

Tee view:



View from over this green which on this day was much smaller in size than I assume normal.



#8.  Par 4 (415 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From just short of the green:



From long and left of the wonderfully contoured green:



#9.  Par 4 (419 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



More interesting bunkers:



From just over the green:



Back nine tomorrow.

[Mark McKeever]

Good idea to post these pictures up Joe.  I hope they did okay with the hurricaine because the course basically sits at sea level.

Lovely bunkering throughout the course which kept me interested despite very flat land.  Do we know if the course always had 3 par 5's in a row, or was there a routing change at some point a while back?


Mark

[Joe Bausch]

Do we know if the course always had 3 par 5's in a row, or was there a routing change at some point a while back?

Those consecutive par 5's (3-5) were there in 1923 for the US Open.

[Mark McKeever]

Pretty neat.  I can't think of another course with 3 par 5's in a row. 

Anyone?

Mark

[Jeff Shelman]

Mark,

There are three par 5s in a row at Town & Country Club in St. Paul. They are 15, 16 and 17. No. 18 there is actually a par 3, so you don't play a par 4 after 14.

[Matthew Essig]

Does it still look like that after Sandy?

[Tom_Doak]

I hope Inwood stayed above water, but it's more likely that they sustained serious damage.  A lot of the course is in single-digit elevations above sea level.  It could not have been good.  But I haven't heard anything from down here in New Zealand, and neither has Brian Slawnik who works with them now.

The third hole was the 18th in the original routing of the course ... it was the finishing hole for a PGA Championship prior to Jones' Open win, I think.  The course was different then, as the land for holes 12-15 wasn't used and there were some holes in what is now a residential area instead.  I believe holes 4 & 5 were the opening holes then, but not sure if they were both par-5's at that time.

[Connor Dougherty]

Based on the photos I saw of JFK, I would think that it had to sustain at least some damage. But we can certainly hope.

[Joe Bausch]

#10.  Par 3 (106 yards).

Here you play over the entrance road to the clubhouse:



From short and right of the green, with a real good pin this day:



From short and left of the green:



#11.  Par 4 (433 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From just over the green, one where a large portion of the green was being maintained as fringe on my visit.



#12.  Par 4 (456 yards).

It is about this time when Mark and I thought we were going to end up like the Bishop Pickering scene in Caddyshack.  The skies were rapidly darkening.

Tee view:



Approach view:



From just short of the green:



The weather was not being kind at this point so the pics suffered a bit.

#13.  Par 4 (341 yards).



Approach shot view:



Looking back from the next tee:



#14.  Par 3 (155 yards).

(the jets kept taking off in this weather!)



From short of the green:



From just over the green:



#15.  Slight dogleg right par 4 (463 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From just over the green:



#16.  Dogleg right par 4 (376 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From left of the green:



#17.  Par 4 (405 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From the back edge of the green (another that has some space to be recaptured):



A saving bunker here over the green:



#18.  Par 4 (408 yards).

Tee view:



Approach view:



From over the green:



One more shot of the clubhouse:



I did not get any pics of the inside of the clubhouse.  But Inwood has some wonderful old photos from big tourneys in the past.  A real treat.

[Jeff Spittel]

Now that's how you work with a flat piece of property. Wish there was anything that looked like that in SE Texas.

[Mark McKeever]

These pictures are a great representation of the golf course.  They did wonders with a very flat piece of land and the bunkering is beautiful. 

Mark

[Greg Taylor]

If anyone wants a first class recount of Jones' victory, plus pics from the turn of the century and a routing from 1915, America's Linksland, A Centuty of Long Island Golf is an excellent resource.

Great pics, love the 13th and 14th... great holes, looks better than when I played it, some time ago now.

Greg

[Joe Bausch]

If anyone wants a first class recount of Jones' victory, plus pics from the turn of the century and a routing from 1915, America's Linksland, A Centuty of Long Island Golf is an excellent resource.

Great pics, love the 13th and 14th... great holes, looks better than when I played it, some time ago now.

Greg

Thanks for the rec Greg.  Time to get the interlibrary loan request in!

[Tom_Doak]

We did hear from the superintendent at Inwood, Kevin Stanya, today regarding the condition of the course.  The word he chose to describe it was "destroyed".  As was the house he and his wife had just bought down the road, in Long Beach.  There are a lot of people feeling a lot of pain from this storm.

[jeffwarne]

We did hear from the superintendent at Inwood, Kevin Stanya, today regarding the condition of the course.  The word he chose to describe it was "destroyed".  As was the house he and his wife had just bought down the road, in Long Beach.  There are a lot of people feeling a lot of pain from this storm.

Truly sad news.(for Kevin personally and professionally, as well as all those associated with Inwood)

One of my favorite courses in the MET Section.
I can't imagine this will be easy for the club to recover from, for a variety of reasons.
I sure hope they find a way as it is a special course.

[Mark McKeever]

Thats terrible news Tom.  I hope somehow they can pull through.

Mark

[John Shimony]

Nice tour, Joe.  I like the use of the bunkers to dictate angles off the tee.  It's a real shame the course was damaged.   I hope they can recover.

[Robert Emmons]

Heard today they lost 3 pump houses under water and the whole maintenance facility...RHE

[Scott Sander]

Question for Tom Doak or anyone with knowledge:

Whether the following is the case with Inwood or not, I wouldn't presume to guess. 
But the situation made me wonder - I know that with extreme seasonal river flooding, vast deposits of silt/sediment/river bottom can completely fill and flatten what had previously been interesting land.  I saw many examples of that in Mid-Missouri in 1993.

When that happens to a golf course, can the freshly deposited material be, for lack of a better term, 'scraped away' to reveal what was there originally?  Is the time/manpower/monetary cost of that prohibitive?

[Mark McKeever]

Heard today they lost 3 pump houses under water and the whole maintenance facility...RHE

 I hope Yale lost some pump houses too...

Mark

[Jeff Evagues]

I work at the JFK Control Tower. When its slow (which isn't very often), I'll take the binoculars and try to follow a group playing one of the holes.

[Mark McKeever]

haha.  Thats awesome Jeff.  How does the course look post storm?

Mark