A in-depth look at the Coore & Crenshaw retrovation of the Willie Park Jr designed Maidstone Club

Hindsight in the retrovation era is making clear how delicate a proposition it is for an architect to attempt to blend a course restoration with the appropriate updates to ensure a high level of quality and sustainability by modern standards. Thankfully, the modernization trend, in which a “name” designer would swoop in with their plans for improvements that were likely at odds with the original intent, seems to have died out. Today’s retrovation practitioners bring a combination of respect for the Golden Age greats, and the talent to realize their vision for changes in the dirt.

In a very few instances, a course can and should be truly restored. If the work of the original architect was unequivocally great, and all of the features are still intact, then it makes sense to simply turn back the clock. But what about courses that don’t meet that high standard for greatness? The masters themselves were often dissatisfied with their work. Macdonald sent Raynor back to Chicago Golf Club to blow up his own course. Ross incessantly tinkered with Pinehurst #2. Those architects who practiced for long periods evolved in their craft, often improving with practice. Would they want a substandard design element reintroduced merely for the sake of historical accuracy? Of course not.

This was the core of the question faced by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw as they walked through the retrovation of the Willie Park Jr. designed course at Maidstone Club. In terms of heritage, a beautiful site and a devoted membership, Maidstone possessed strong fundamentals, but its course was not in the same league as some of its neighbors on Eastern Long Island, in spite of being created by a man who is considered to be among the greatest architects of his era.

The Other First Family of Golf

The Morrises may have been golf royalty in St. Andrews, but they were not the only noteworthy family in the game during its formative years in Scotland. The Parks of Musselburgh would play an equally impactful role, contesting the high-profile challenge matches of the day, and also in the export of golf architecture as a profession to America.

Willie Park Jr., whose father Willie Sr. and Uncle Mungo were champion golfers, wore almost every hat imaginable in the game at the turn of the century. He was a professional, claiming the Open Championship in 1887 and 1889, as well as a clubmaker, greenkeeper, and author of two books on golf, The Game of Golf and The Art of Putting. He made exploratory trips to The States in the mid-1890s, but golf had not quite taken hold to the point that warranted a relocation yet.

In 1901, with the opening of Sunningdale Old and Huntercombe in the London heathlands, he firmly planted his flag among the early practitioners of golf course design, and is considered by some to be the first true genius of the craft. Given his expertise in the use of the flatstick, which was a more varied game within the game at the time, it is no surprise that big, bold greens were the hallmarks of Park’s courses. Park would ultimately be credited with more than 70 courses throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K., including gems like Olympia Fields and Maidstone.

The Retrovation

Although Maidstone has always been a darling among Long Islanders and the well-travelled golf cognoscenti, its standings in the national rankings had begun to slip by the time that Bill Coore arrived in 2012. The choice to push the course forward by looking back was an obvious one, but it was not without its challenges. It was originally laid out by William Tucker, then redesigned by club member C. Wheaton Vaugh, and redone again by Willie Park Jr. It continued to evolve over the decades that followed at the hands of tinkering members, as well as Mother Nature. Coore & Crenshaw associate Jeff Bradley shared his first impression before the work began: “We had a feeling that there were a lot of people who had dabbled with the course. It did not have a cohesive feel.”

The course in 1939 – Photo Credit: Simon Haines (@Hainesy76)

Further complicating the issue were the clubhouse fires that had burned up a fair bit of the historical materials that could have guided the retrovation. Adopting a collaborative approach that took input from General Manager Ken Koch, Superintendent John Genovesi, Head Pro Eden Foster, Green Chair Robert Macdonald, and shapers Jeff Bradley and Quinn Thompson, the team settled on a two-phase strategy. First, trees and vegetation would be removed to give the course a more expansive feel and open it to the wind that should naturally whip across the seaside site. Next, the grass lines and bunkers would be addressed. There was no need to make material changes to Park’s brilliant greens, but they were in need of expansion. Fairways and long rough were also pushed outward allowing more room for the ball to bounce and run. Coore laid out a new bunker scheme that included a mix of rehab, relocation and a few key additions. He then turned his shapers loose to unify the look of the course across its various zones of play.

Bradley and Thompson were chomping at the bit. They knew just how big an impact their facelift could make. “It was clear that you could make the course more vivid by getting the bunker faces up and marrying it to the coastal landscape,” recalled Bradley. The old, established turf allowed Genovesi to make quick progress by simply mowing. Dave Zinkand, who continues to make tweaks at the club on behalf of Coore & Crenshaw, described the effect: “The new mow lines make the greens pop and allow the ball to do things that it couldn’t do before.”

Photo Credit: Jon Cavalier

There is a special magic about Maidstone that captures the hearts of players fortunate enough to experience it. That feeling is shared by those who worked on its retrovation. “Maidstone was laying there. All we had to do was uncover it,” Bradley mused, with a clear tone of affection for the place and the people. “It is one of the projects I’m most proud of. I remember driving by the 18th after the work was done and seeing the course disappear into the ocean beyond. I thought to myself, ‘this is it’.” Prior to the team’s outstanding work, anyone who dubbed Maidstone their favorite on Long Island might be met with a raised eyebrow. Now, with the changes matured and Genovesi’s terrific firm and natural presentation, devotees who place the course on par with higher ranked neighbors like National Golf Links and Shinnecock are no longer unabashed homers, but rather quite reasonable connoisseurs.

The Course

Some courses, like Sand Hills and Prairie Dunes, are built on land that possesses a consistent feel. Others, such as Essex County Club, work their way through different zones of play, delivering an extra dimension of adventurous interest. Maidstone fits into the latter category as it moves from the clubhouse lawn, to the neighborhood, around the shores of Hook Pond, out to the Atlantic linksland, and then back again.

Map by Kevin Jackson (@outandingolf)

Beyond the diversity of its topography, Maidstone changes with the weather and the seasons. In the tour that follows, Jon Cavalier (@LinksGems) shows us the wide array of beautiful looks shown by the course throughout the years since the retrovation. Enjoy!

Click on any gallery image to enlarge

A round at Maidstone begins by stepping off the putting green directly on to the 1st tee. This par-4 plays down the front lawn of the clubhouse to a wide fairway connected to the opener on the East Course. The first of Park’s bold, pushed up greens is flanked by expanded bunkers.

Default Gallery Type Template

This is the default gallery type template, located in:
/srv/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/nextgen_gallery_display/templates/index.php.