the penultimate day in the US at Garden City

Posted by Michael on 16 July 2010 | 2 Comments | Tags: Garden City, New York, C B Macdonald, Andy Leveen, Alex Barnet,

Welcome to a humdinger of a day at Garden City Golf Club.  The club where the golf is pure and the atmosphere is electric.  Even during the afternoon where everyone ought be watching the world cup final.

Blazer requirements in the clubhouse at all times and so we sat and read some books on golf looking dapper and reminisced of our last 61 days in the US of A whilst we waited for our host Mr Alex Barnet to arrive.

And that he did, in fine form and with none other than Mr Andy Leveen, one of these infamous brothers who seem to pop up everywhere.  Fortunately Mr Leveen was to be chasing our heels today in another four ball, where he subsequently crashed and burned amidst a sea of â??transfusionsâ?? on the golf course in a feeble attempt to replicate his fine scoring during the Westhampton Experience.  He did hit it close on the second though whilst we were standing on the 3rd tee and Iâ??m going to humor Mr Leveen and show yâ??all a photo of the short birdie putt he subsequently missed..

By the way I am rolling with some New York Times journalistic style today by my rather tongue-in-cheek use of Mr.  It has been bizarre to read about Mr Rooney shooting at goal, Mr Nelson and his stellar defending and so forth.. 

So between Mr Leveens fourball, hosted by a charismatic chap by the name of Bob, and us the staff were kept busy and there was a bit of a buzz around the bar heightened by a few guys, including us kiwiâ??s of course, eager to have their first look at the golf course.

A Corrs Light and a few practice swings later we had left behind the pre-match analysis for the world cup final and were onto the first tee with our caddy Nick who was to drive the cart around with all our bags piled on so we could stroll the property and take it this C B Macdonald course.  A Very Good gig for Nick today and Iâ??m now recommending caddying as a job to a few young people we bump into, particularly during College holidays..

I was up first on the opening hole, a 300 yard par four guarded by a large bunker which my tee shot just carried resulting in a wee two putt birdie start. Couple of holes later there was another on the very reachable par five 4^th hole, to use Mr Pattons prose â??take that Charlesâ??.

Mr Barnet was a fanstastic host today and the lad knows how to enjoy a day out at golf.  He is one of two junior members initiated into the club each year and has strong roots here having lived besides the property growing up. His locker still has the name of his grandfather, George, on it and the two of them used to play a lot of golf together. Now Mr Barnet runs a charity in memory of George by putting on events and raising money for Alzheimerâ??s.  That is when he is not busy working in the insurance industry in Manhatton (read: entertaining clients).  Another Top Man with a good gig here â?? weâ??re meeting more than a few of them recently and it is starting to give NYC a pretty strong pull for life post 2010.

Garden City golf course is pure (as you can see from the photo above!!) and one of the best on Long Island. Perfectly conditioned from tee to green, the course has very few trees in play and each hole being surrounded by long hay that you donâ??t want to go into.  The course has C B Macdonalds stamp all over it with burns, unique bunkering and subtle green complexes (like the 10^th where the green is merely an extension from the fairway and tilts away leaving a difficult approach shot and two putt from the front of the green). There are a few blind shots too, particularly if you get your angles wrong.  The wee agglomerations of bunkers sprout up here and there which are fiddly to say the least. With such tiny bunkers you donâ??t know what kind of lie youâ??re going to get making it all the easier to chunk it into the following one! It is unusually a par 73 with 4 par fives and only 3 short holes â?? a very unusual balance in the US, but I always enjoy the opportunities that arise with four par fives which increasingly seems to be a rarity.

Alex on the 2nd. A favourite hole amongst the pro's.

The par five 17th I snap hooked it so violently that I was nearly OOB a fairway + to the left. See the flag stick just below the steeple that signifies a bunker. This is another feature of the course.

Playing this inland links course is good preparation for Scotland and weâ??re transitioning from landing the ball by the pin to landing it 5 to 10 yards short, and often 5 to 10 yards left or right.  It makes the role of a caddy even more important as rather than simply aiming at the flagstick and swinging you need to realize that the perfect shot will actually bring your ball down somewhere entirely different. 

Mr Patton, Mr Barnet and myself played a split sixes match (which most Americas are unfamiliar with so I will explain briefly: 6 points up for grabs on each hole split in a variety of ways between the three players, for example: 4:2:0; 4:1:1; 3:3:0; or 2:2:2. 108 points up for grabs over the course of the round with a maximum if one person won every single hole outright of 72).  In the end, standing on the par three 18^th green (also unusual), with the practice putting green around us, we had a bizarre situation where we were all tied on 36 points each having all played exactly to our handicaps of 1, 4 and 9.  Mr Barnet could have / should have cleaned us up particularly with his freddy couples swing knocking it long and with a high draw down the fairway time after time.

After golf we saw the real club atmosphere â?? the self proclaimed party club although there are no women here just lads having a few beers so it is not that kind of party..  We sat around on the deck overlooking the 18th (and practice putting green) and shared stories about our adventure with more than a couple of locals and their guests.  We were even invited back to the famous New Years day party and the locals pointed out we could play 31^st December in NZ and then fly here in time for itâ?¦ I donâ??t think that will happen this year but you never know! Me being the sensible one and driving I eventually pulled Mr Patton from the table and we retreated back to George and Aimeeâ??s place to start our packing for Scotland..  Thanks Alex for hosting us and Mr Leveen for jacking it all up â?? another fond memory to leave the US with.