Our Town: ‘Another world’ at Glen Oaks Club

The Island Now

Glen Oaks Club, considered to be one of the elite golf clubs on Long Island, was founded in 1924.

It was an exclusive club in Queens using the Vanderbilt estate as clubhouse.

I got to know the place because my dad was buddies with Spencer Murphy, their head pro and one of the coolest guys on earth.   

I bought my first golf bag from him way back in the 1960s after slaving away for two weeks in my dad’s factory.

It was a green kangaroo skin beauty. Spencer also supplied me with those small British Dunlops which came individually wrapped.

That was a long time ago.  

In the late ‘60s, Glen Oaks Club relocated eight miles east to Old Westbury and the new layout was designed by Joe Finger, the architect of The Monster at the Concord Hotel.

Glen Oaks has always had a way of attracting the best and they have had Tim Schifflett running the golf operations for the last two decades.  

They also hired Craig Currier as superintendent. Mr. Currier has a work history which started at Augusta National, then Piping Rock Club and then Garden City Golf.

But he garnered international recognition when he managed to get Bethpage Black in shape to host two US Opens.

The Northern Trust Open , one of the premier events on the PGA tour is coming to Glen Oaks in 2017 so I thought it was about time to  reacquaint myself  with the place.  

Troy David, their 2014 club champion hosted me and I got a glimpse of what the pros are about to behold next year. In 2014  Joel Weiman redesigned the course and I had been told the course now has a brand new feel so I was very anxious to see it.  

Of course Old Westbury is a far cry from Queens.

You know you’re in for a treat the moment you head north on Post Avenue away from Jericho Turnpike.  

All those duck ponds, rolling estates and horse farms place you in another world.

When you get to the clubhouse, walk through the locker room and step onto the giant sized putting green the sight of the golf course below takes your breath away.  

My first thought was that the putting green reminded me of the one at Shinnecock, which is also situated on a hilltop overlooking the course.  

Then you see all those rolling hills, the perfectly manicured lush fairways and towering oak trees and you know this will be a rare treat.  

What impressed me most of all were those clean, huge-sized elegant looking bunkers.   

It reminded me of the bunkers at Royal Melbourne in Australia.  

Pristine, finely edged gathering bunkers that act like huge magnets to pull in every poorly hit golf shot.

Dr. MacKenzie was the designer of Royal Melbourne and he went on to design Cypress Point and Augusta National as well.  

MacKenzie is widely  considered to be one of the best golf course architects in the world and is famous for creating gigantic rolling greens and those sharp edged gathering bunkers.   

I would bet that when Craig Currier was working at Augusta he observed the look of those MacKenzie bunkers and has brought them to life at Glen Oaks.   

Over the past several years there has been a movement to make golf courses look more rugged and natural with a browned out and shaggy feel.   

Glen Oaks Club has decided to go  back to the future  with a full on manicured, lush green Augusta National type perfection  which is really what great American golf courses have been known for.

Glen Oaks Club  has 27 holes and 18 will be used at the Northern Trust Open.

I predict that when the world’s best players arrive at Glen Oaks Club next summer they too will be reminded of Augusta National with all those elevated tees, that special manicured look and the beautiful MacKenzie bunkering.  

And when they walk down the fairways, smell all the flowering trees, look at the horse farms in the distance they will realize how lucky they are to be tour players who get to exercise their craft in such breathtaking  beautiful.

I also predict that Glen Oaks, this quiet  hidden gem of Old Westbury is about to become a very famous place.     

From a small club in Queens they have climbed all the way to the top and now the world of golf is about to be introduced to something very special indeed.

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