Nothing like it
Below are excerpts from articles that originally appeared in Golf Course Industry.
From template holes to pricey resorts adding similar amenities, the upper echelons of the industry frequently transfer proven and safe ideas between divergent locations.
Consider the current short course movement. Compact courses are being designed, constructed and branded to fit themes and dimensions on existing properties. Owners and operators are then banking on receiving carryover play from the “big course.” Somebody in Oregon or North Carolina builds first. Somebody in Florida, Wisconsin or California follows with a similar concept.
The Hickory Course at Hamilton Farm at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey, represents an anomaly in the high-end short course sector. For 21 years, it has surprisingly yet to attract a follower.
The private club sliced within one of the world’s private club meccas —the area encircling New York City simply known as “The Met” — might boast the biggest 18-hole short course in America. The par-3 puncher plays 3,080 yards from the back tees with four holes of 200 yards or longer, including the punishing 229-yard 17th.
The Hickory Course at Hamilton Farm opened in 2001, the same year as the regulation Highlands Course. Dana Fry and Dr. Michael Hurdzan designed both courses. Fry, a bold golf development thinker and now a partner in Fry/Straka Global Golf Design, still hasn’t seen anything like the Hickory Course in his jet-setting journeys.
“It’s not the typical par-3 where they are just all flip wedges,” says Fry, whose firm returned to Hamilton Farm last fall for a bunker renovation. “You’re hitting 3 wood to lob wedge. You’re really hitting every club in the bag and it simulates the type of shots that you have on the golf course, where you have to hit high cuts and draws, and some where you can roll it on and some where you can’t. It’s a real, real test of golf.
“There’s awesome par-3 courses now at places like Sand Valley and Bandon Dunes — and we did a really nice one at Shelter Harbor — but there’s nothing like the par-3 course at Hamilton Farm.”
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