Metropolis CC in White Plains,NY ('22,Strong,Tillinghast, J.Finger,K.Dye,Forse)

[Steve_ Shaffer]

An historic club in an area of Westchester County loaded with clubs such as, Quaker Ridge, Fenway, Sunningdale, Winged Foot, Siwony...


Metropolis is a good case study given the number of renovations over the years:

https://www.metropoliscc.org/about/club-history

[Tim Martin]

I played in 2017 after the Ron Forse work so I can’t speak to what was there prior. It sits on a nice piece of ground with plenty of land movement and as such you don’t see an abundance of level lies throughout the round. The mix of holes delivers a compelling experience and I would like to go back to see how it plays some eight years later. As Steve mentioned it’s in an incredibly golf rich area in Westchester County, NY so it’s often overlooked. Finally there’s quite an impressive list of golf professionals that have hung their hat there including Paul “Little Poison” Runyan and Jackie Burke, Jr.

[Stewart Abramson]

The club website has flyovers with very good hole descriptions here: https://www.metropoliscc.org/golf/course


I took a few photos in 2008. It was one of the first courses I photographed so the pix are not very instructive other than by comparing to the flyovers you can see that virtually every bunker shown has been changed since then:


2008 Metropolis: https://www.flickr.com/photos/golfcoursepix/albums/72157631832834341/

[Jeff Schley]

I played Metropolis CC for the first time early August and was very impressed. As stated it is in a tough neighborhood with a large amount of blueblood private clubs. The greens were great, with almost every one having some kind of humps, bumps, tilt f to b and left to right or vice versa. Really impressed with their green movement, which requires the proper shot into the greens from a wide coridoor which I think they have generous landing areas.
Overall, great greens and conditioning, very much under the radar.

[V. Kmetz]

• Metropolis' most satisfying holes and spots -- 6,  (at one time) 9, 12, the 14th green, 15 -17 can stand with most any in its rich golfing neighborhood...
• And it once (60s - 80s?) had a more outstanding reputation amongst locals...and has a Herbert Strong legacy...and hosted its portion of Met events.

But somethings have always been the same...


#1-#5 may be the single most unfriendly start in Westchester, each featuring slicer's purgatory right, one with water on the left, two mirroring reverse camber uphill 30 degree dogleg right, which will reveal the Metropolitan Thesis for all - why do with two or three regular bunkers what you can do with 5 6 or 7 big ones? The number of common players who start +7 or worse by the time they get to the first enjoyable hole - #6 - must be well over 50%.  I've only visited Metropolis twenty times over the years, only once recently, and I've seen it happen three or four times to 0-3 hcps in Qualifiers and Amateur trophy events, as well a handful of times in my own and partners games... Not that I measure the course by the card and the pencil, but I'm speaking of this a s a direct result of the unnecessary complication Metropolis presents to what is already tough ground in hill and slope...larded with bunkers...and with really wicked greens, at speed...


...And with less charm than it used to have, the direct result of the once-judicious/now-addicted to "tree program" which has become a catchall for any super's expedience or lust in maintenance...want a tree down?... here's how you do it...

• say it is killing the grass
• say it was storm damage
• say it was coming down anyway soon
• say it was understood the committee or chairman had approved the removal
• say that it was blocking a view
• say it was the architect's suggestion - who's bread and car payments relies on his working relationship with you...

I wish the golf world was as easy to fill in one of 80+ bunkers - any which can be re-dug if its removal causes consternation  - as they are to take down a tree not in the great preponderance of play, and once gone, cannot be undone.

So that divergence was from speaking of #9, a once-charming par 3 aerial knock through a shady glen which continued with several mature trees towering over nooked target. Trees remain on the tee side which keeps a vestige of the private quiet older framing feel, but the green now raped of all but a craggy one or two 50 yards behind...is now a naked, less-interesting shot...a plain, brightly over-exposed pitch over a ditch.  Why does Metropolis have to be like Merion or The Country Club or LACC, why can't it do what it does and keep claim on the few parkland graces it does offer on a largely flawed (in its complications for the property) course?

The Back 9 is far superior to the front, as the routed terrain has more breadth and tends to "move" or "cradle" the ball into the sounder play spots...12 is the best hole on the course in every way...rigor, playing width...monumental look... variety of styles work...needs two good hits...slick but fair green, given the challenge of the hole...The par 3s 13 and 15 invite the golfer from the tee much more so than 4 and 9 from the other side...the 14th hole isn't so hot - fairly plain tee to green, but that green is a wicked terror and a fun strategic problem when you're on the make...The doubleback walk to 16 from 15 green is queer, but the hole is a good, fair, breadthsome honest half par deal for better players and an opportunity for all others...I think with only two bunkers, it must be Metropolis' least complexified hole... While some will roll their eyes, the range netting along the right side of the short 17th -a fun hole made so by a sporty green complex configuration - actually lends an old time charm/patina of make-do era when you didn't think the best thing to do for your golf course was get into a Top ____ list of a sort.... 18 suffers from the same thing as #9, it was never an outstanding hole, but the mature stand of four or five monumental trees that formed a gapped horseshoe around the green was a much more pleasing thing than the empty glaring plaza that awaits you now.

Metropolis - take a picture of #6 (from the back of the first tee) and then play the Back 9 twice.


EDIT:  This from their own hole description regarding a hole I hadn't even mentioned specifically:
"one of the longer par fours on the course and has been statistically the hardest when Metropolis hosts area championships. The fairway narrows starting around 200 yards from the green. A tee shot left or right is either in the woods, bunker or creek. Two good shots are required to reach this green. Accuracy is very important here. There is another bunker located approximately 50 yards in front of the green, which should be avoided at all costs."

...They should've said..."at all costs not heretofore not spent hitting imperfect shots, which likely caused you to pick up at 6, ask for a 7, could've made 8 and would've made 9 if the pro was watching... for mind you - accuracy was important as woods, trees and bunkers await right and/or left; you were warned"  Thank god, you're playing by yourself, what a shit show if you had to do it in front of or to the profit of others,

[Joe Bausch]

Let’s help VKs post with a link to a pretty good photo album I have from my 2017 visit:


http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Metropolis/index.html