I had the pleasure of playing the storied Timber Point yesterday for the first time in years.  

Based upon what I've learned in D. Wexler's Missing Links, there are 12 original Alison holes.  While the landscape has changed dramtically on those holes, losing many sandy wash areas and generally being over irrigated many are still impressive and the Blue nine with 6 Alison holes is still my favorite public nine holes on Long Island.  

The County recently put a few million into the course to raise many water logged fairways by as much as 3 feet in spots.  Timber Point remains a handsome piece of wind swept linksland.

I'll try to document each of the 12 original Alison holes as there are 6 on the current Red nine and 6 on the Blue nine.

Here are some to start things off:


A look across the wind swept land from Alison’s 12th tee to his 13th green.

 


The attractive and difficult one shot 12th when the wind is up, playing only 145 from the tips one must control the distance of their tee shot as Alison provided ample width.  This green originally sat on an island of sand and was a thing of beauty  (Gibralter looms in the distance, Alison’s 3 par 15th)
   



Where a spit of land used to exist is now a local marina:



Left of Alison’s 13th tee nature still abounds at TP:

 


Still majestic the clubhouse is visible from most of the property:



Looking backward from the tee on Gibralter:



The most impressive and daunting shot at TP

View from the back tee:



From the forward tee:





 

From short left of the green:



As we walked off the green on Alison’s 5 par 8th we caught a glimpse of yesteryear when TP was in its glory:

Gene:

Make sure you play the Blue and Red nines, Blue has Gibraltar and 5 other Alison originals.  While the sandy wash areas are mostly gone they've done great work raising the fairways so they drain and what used to be mush in many spots is good playable ground.  

The Red is the inland section with the other 6 originals, including Alison's par 5 4th and par 4 5th, the 5th is generally harder to make 4 on than the 4th!

Skip the white entirely, while it has a couple good holes it's the new and cramned 9 holes.


Regarding the Green course what was the club's original name as it was built by Emmet as a private club?  (hint there's a nice NYC hotel with the same name)

Just call ahead to make sure the Blue is in rotation.  
 

Jason

Thanks for those photos.  Like Gene, I've never been out to TImber Point because I thought there wasn't enought left that was worth visiting.  Looks like I was way off base. I'll get out there shortly.

Gene- up for a game sometime soon?

Dr,

Jason has posted the best of the worst. The holes along the water were always good and look even better now, but it does not change the fact that a 27 hole golf course sits on the old 18 hole land. However, it has probably been 15 years, so trust Jason for more input on the non-water holes. However if I had to choose a walk down memory lane day between Lido and Timber Point, TP would be the easy winner.

Jason,

You asked what the name of the original Bethpage golf course was.

When Benjamin Yoakum built the Lenox Hills Golf Club, he had in mind a community golf club for the use of those who bought homes in the Lenox Hills area that he was developing. With the way many golf course/housing projects have come into being in the last few decades, he was way ahead of his time.

Yoakum died one month and four days after the stock market crashed in 1929 (natural causes) and his family was left with a great deal of money, land, good stock and a great deal of worthless ones as well. They were also left a golf club - Lenox Hills.

Though a private club, he was the sole owner of the property. The family faced the decision of what to do with it as they both didn't want to operate it as well as desired to see as much funds from it as possible.

New York State, through the Long Island State Parks Commission, founded just a few years earlier to obtain large tracts of land for the newly organizing state park system, had already been talking to Yoakum about purchasing both the golf course and another 100 acres of property adjacent to it that he owned. They also had their eyes on another nearly 900 acres that bordered the Yoakum property. Eventuelly, in 1931, a lease was signed, and purchase was finally made in 1934.

As part of the 1931 lease, the golf course, much to the protests of the members of the club, was opened as a New York State public golf course with the new name of Bethpage Golf Club.

When plans were made to build the new courses, two new holes were created for the course (holes 1 & 18) so that all courses would start and finish from the planned new clubhouse, and the entire course itself was renovated.

As for Timber Point... a number of years ago when I was researching the history of Bethpage State Park, I came across a reference to a "Lot consisting of stack of papers, photographs, ephemera, drawings, blueprints for golf course(s), clubhouse, photographs and other items - Long Island State Parks Commission, 1930-1936..." in the New York State archives.

I traveled from Georgia to Albany excited at the prospect at possibly having found actual blueprints for the Bethpage project as that was the ONLY golf course building project done by the Long Island State Parks Commission during those years.

I was both deeply disappointed and absolutely stunned to find that the "golf course blueprints" were for the original TIMBER POINT GOLF CLUB!

They have notes in both pencil and ink on each page and so must have been the actual set of working drawings for the project!

The layout was amazing and brilliant and I would give anything to have been able to see how it turned out. I am convinced that it was one of the great courses ever built based upon those drawings.

They sit there quietly in an box simply marked "golf course drawings" despite my attempting to alert the curator as to their importance both in person at the time and with a follow-up letter.

At least TP is on the same exact site and 12 holes as originally routed are intact.

If I may ask, where did you get that info from?

Are there any original greens out there?

Geoffrey:

    Would love to tee it up with you at TP. Neil R. I'm sure would join us. However, Black closes after next weekend and it's been 5 years since I've walked those hallowed fairways, as a golfer that is.

Send IM, email or call on cell on Monday to make arrangements for both.

              Gene

Gene:

For three of us it was $67.  Two county residents were $18 a piece and I paid the high freight at $31!

A visit to Timber Point is simultaneously exhilerating and saddening.

There are some wonderful holes out there, and the skeletons of quite a few others.   All of the land that Alison used on his storied 18 holes is still there, but now it houses 27 mostly mediocre, cramped ones.

If William Mitchell wasn't already quite dead, he should be hung for his work there.  

If ever a course in NY cried out for a full restoration to a course that with proper care and feeding could be a world-famous course, TP is it.  

It's almost as if Lido was still there on its original property, but was now 27 holes with 15 of them built by Ed Ault.

Thanks for the pictures, Jason.   Sadly, it seems that it will never be financially or politically feasible for the now municipal course to be restored to its former glory, but it is nice to know that holes like Gibralter still exist, however poorly evolved.   You can see some great pictures of the original in Geoff Shackelford's "Golden Age of Golf Design" book, including showing what is now the 12th sitting in an island of sand.



 

Alison's 4 par 5th, playing the opposite direction as the 5 par 4th, the 5th usually plays into the wind and is harder to make 4 than the par 5, 4th!






 

I had a nice conference call conversation the other day with Shinnecock's long time head pro who is retiring this year. He grew up at The Creek where his dad was the head pro for years and I believe he said he went to Timber Point before going on to Shinnecock a long time ago. If I talk to him again I'll be sure to ask him what Timber Point was like in the old days.

Alison's 7th:

Even if the County could recapture Alison's bunkering on his holes that exist it would be an incredible improvement.  With the improved drainage on the Blue nine I think it's possible.

Alison's 8th, a 5 par: