Rockaway Hunting Club
Location: Lawrence, NY
Architect: A.W. Tillinghast
Year: 1933
July 13, 2007
Friday the 13th is not the luckiest of days for some people, but for me I couldn’t have been happier on this one. I was at America’s oldest country club located on Long Island in Lawrence, NY. Rockaway Hunting Club was founded in 1878 and was mainly for fox hunting and steeplechase horse racing. At some point around the turn of the century they added a golf course that was later redesigned in 1933 by the famed course architect A.W. Tillinghast. Several other archtects have done work on the course since Tillinghast, but the overall design is still considered Tilly’s. The entire facility was top notch with grass tennis courts and a fantastic porch for dining.
I loved the driving range. As you can see in the below picture it was tucked away in a little cubby hole behind hedges where it was totally private and away from the bustle of the club. It was also nice and shady which makes it a great place to warm up for a July round.
The course itself had a great old time feel to it. We played from the tips which were only 6371 yards. This is a true classic design and not one of the modern gorillas courses playing 7200 from the back tees. The photo below was taken from the 1st green looking back at the clubhouse. The first several holes were fairly standard. I really liked the greens here. You could fly a high arching shot like a pitching wedge in and the greens hardly dented when your ball hit.
One of the interesting things about this course is that they had limited space to work with. Because of this there are several holes that cross over each other. There are 2 holes on the first 9 and 2 on the second 9 where play from the two holes nearly intersect each other. It really is a unique layout.
This photo below is of the green for #14 which is a 212 yard par 3 over water. With the wind it plays like about 220-230.
Eventually the course wrapped its way out to the Long Island Sound for a couple of holes along the water. The wind picked up and became more of a factor on those holes which certainly made things more interesting.
This was a fun course to play with a funky layout. Every couple of holes the feel of the course would change. I was never really sure if I was playing an inland wooded course or a seaside links course which made it a great day!
The Itinerant Golfer :: May.06.2008 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »