...Architecture Timeline and Courses by Country.
The past dozen years have seen a number of courses return to, or very near, their full glory, with Oakmont and NGLA being at the head of the class. Just as good a story, and maybe even a more dramatic transformation, has also occurred at another Macdonald course.
When I first saw Sleepy Hollow in 1985, the ground it occupied was the highlight, as opposed to any notable architectural features. Sadly, it floundered around for nearly twenty years, trying this architect and that, looking for its soul. Mercifully, in 2004, right before the course could have been lost for a very long time, the green committee under George Sanossian (and including our very own Corey Miller) reversed the general path that the Club was pursuing. Instead, they opted to hire Gil Hanse and George Bahto to unite all twenty-seven holes under the one design style of C.B. Macdonald (in 1930/31,Tillinghast knitted seven holes into Macdonald’s original course when the club expanded to twenty-seven holes).
The result of the work carried out by Hanse and the legendary Bahto is startling. In fact, I can’t recall a single course that has had this much life breathed back into it. The big picture success points are its tree removal program (with property and views this unique, why hide them?), bunker work featuring superior placement and properly recapturing the depth and scale that Macdonald frequently employed, the creation of a new hole with a Double Plateau green, and picking up length while REDUCING the green to tee walks (something I’ve never heard of happening - have you?).
Look at some of these photographs
and tell me if this isn’t the most interesting course tee to green in Westchester County? The topography, openness, and new bunkering patterns make its case. In terms of interior green contours, it might not (yet!) be in the top five in this golf rich area but there remains plenty of short game interest.
The Club, Gil and George deserve enormous credit and it is for this very purpose that GolfClubAtlas.com was founded in hopes of being able to chronicle/highlight such great success stories as the way forward. Hopefully, other area clubs fortunate to have courses by the Gods of the Golden Age are paying close attention to the work accomplished here.
In early 2008, we will proudly post a Feature Interview with George Sanossian, head of the green committee, to gain further insight into the process that ultimately yielded this wonderful resurrection of a new old Macdonald course.
Cheers,