Glen Oaks New and Glen Oaks Old share exactly two things in common.......their members and perhaps the very best food in all of golf. The golf architecture did not survive....and that is probably a good thing!
The recently renovated Glen Oaks is undeniably an exercise in pursuing an all-too-needed renovation in the style of creating a course that would "stand-out" amidst the architecture deep Met section. Debate that as you will, but the New Glen Oaks certainly does "stand-out." The original roots of the course, a Joe Finger design done in 1972, was unmemorable and ultimately closer to a claustrophobic forest than not. I think it was later tinkered with by Stephen Kay, yielding little more than a unfuflling trim and only a prettier-than-not exercise path back to it's world-class buffet table.
The new Glen Oaks is unquestionably a better golf experience than not, and meticulously maintained by one of the country's better greenskeeper's, Craig Currier. The renovation, led by Currier and Joel Weiman of McDonald & Sons, deliberately mined the quasi-strategy, aesthetic imagery and presentation of ANGC. Extensive deforestation, laser-cut, flashed sand, larger and deeper bunkering was the order of the day. The place is quite proud to call itself the "Augusta of the North."
I played it 10 days ago and it would be easy to deride it for it's copy-cat architecture and stretches of repetitive strategic values (take on the bunkers at an angle), but the fact is it is indeed fun and a welcome addition to such an architectural and history-rich section. There are quite a number of very good and otherwise decent holes out there, and a few dogs as well. Quite a few "lines of charm" are less than complete and replaced instead by delineations of pristine fairway and excessively stiff rough. The overall aesthetic is very good, with sight lines yielding views over a half-dozen holes at a time, yet the water features (and their flowering fountains) scream real artificial cheesiness. Currier's obvious talent produces reasonably fast & firm conditioning, only limited by Mother Nature's NE summer humidity. No matter though, for the course does play fun and the promise of the "Pine Valley of Food" awaits you with zero disappointment.