Rees Jones resurrects New York’s Monster
The Monster of the Catskills is back — somewhat. The Monster Golf Club at Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, New York, reopened on August 28 after a complete makeover from
Rees Jones and his associate Bryce Swanson. Once host to an LPGA major and long considered one of the toughest tracks in the country, the Monster is back, but in a materially altered form."Our vision for Resorts World Catskills always included the reinvigoration and restoration of this golf course, and we are proud to have delivered on this important commitment," said Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, which operates the resort.
The aptly named Monster opened in October 1964 as the fiendish creation of architect
Joe Finger. The course was the championship layout at The Concord, a prominent mountain resort located in the Catskills town of Kiamesha Lake. The course could be stretched to 7,780 yards, an almost absurd length in the day, and was strewn with hazards and design features that made it the toughest test in the region, if not the country. In 1968, the LPGA contested an event there, playing the layout at 6,900 yards, par 77. Only the winner broke par. One year later, Betsy Rawls won the LPGA Championship at the Monster, playing a revised par-73 course that measured 6,300 yards. Her 1-over-par 293 won her the trophy.
Over the years, the resort and its golf courses fell on hard times, but at long last, a rescue operation has salvaged the Monster. To be fair, most of the original Monster is gone, including the bulk of the front nine. Jones and Swanson utilized land mostly from the old Monster back nine to create holes one through three and 10 through 18. Their design of holes four through nine unfolded atop land that was once the resort’s International course, which closed in 2009.
Nevertheless, some similarities to the old Monster are evident. Jones and Swanson employed several previously existing corridors and green sites for the new holes. They also have emulated the old Monster in the size and configuration of the greens and bunkers and via the use of multiple ponds and Kiamesha Creek. At 7,650 yards, par 72, it’s a slightly more mellow monster than it was in the 1960s, but it’s sufficiently testing to live up to its name.
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