First green with Sebonack Clubhouse in the background!

Walked and played Westhampton in the morning, drove the 16 miles, and played Sebonack in the afternoon riding in a cart with another great caddie Will!

The Welcome Statement below from the Sebonack website says it all! This is a historic haven of golf clubs out here on Long Island. Some with a climate and turf that duplicates that of St. Andrews, Scotland where golf originated over 500 years ago! The neighboring National Golf Links represents that history. With homage to the game of golf, its history, traditions, and its future, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak created a unique and meaningful golf course in XXX that fittingly takes its place in the continuum of golf past, present and future!

Entrance Gate to Sebonack!

The entrance through the gate with the light atop with expansive lawn views transitioning to the par-3 8^th hole over Cold Spring Pond and the uphill par-5 from tee to green to the magnificent high-ground Sebonack Clubhouse sets the stage for a great golfing experience!

The tee shot on the 355-yard par-4 first hole with a view of the Great Peconic Bay is the opening act! The hole takes you right down to the water and though short, it is difficult if you go long on your approach shot like I did! There are two greens, both on a cliff overlooking the water. I played the one straight away which is less difficult than the one tucked into a dog-leg-right!

Third fairway back towards the Clubhouse!

The second hole looks hard and is hard! After a bunkered tee shot I was forced to blast out. Then I hit an errant 8-iron right but managed to pitch up and made a 12-footer for bogey!

The golf course absorbs you into its beauty and challenges you with its difficulty. The links at National Golf Links go out and back to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the inward land side of Sebonack. This is links golf in America!

View from the 18th tee! Spectacular!

I made a bomb of about 75 feet on the par-3 4^th hole for a deuce and miraculously 2-putted for a birdie on the par-5 9th! Yes I played the White Tees at 6,342 yards, not the black at 7,512 yards! But I did shoot 40 on the first nine!

While the first nine holes heads inland it seems most all of the back nine holes are on the water or have a view of the water! It really is a spectacular piece of land! No birdies for me on the second nine!

My caddie Will was outstanding! He even provided the sunlit golden picture of the Sebonack clubhouse for this story! Many thanks to the PGA Director of Golf Jason McCarty and the Sebonack Golf Club for hosting Andy’s Golf & Travel Diary!

Truly a lifetime golfing experience to play Sebonack!

The Welcome Statement from the Sebonack Website:

What a great time I had with Will!

Situated on 300 acres in Southampton, NY, and neighboring the historic National Golf Links of America and Shinnecock Hills Golf Course, Sebonack has been carved out of land which seems to have been long-destined to become a golf course.

Sebonack features holes that offer panoramic views of Long Island’s Great Peconic Bay and Cold Spring Pond. The visual impact of the water vistas competes for the golfer’s eye with the rolling fairways, expansive bunkers and waste dunes, and undulating greens that present tricky swales and burrows. Meant to look as if manicured by time, Sebonack appears to have fashioned itself from the wild terrain.

Sunlit Sebonack Clubhouse! Photo Credit: Will Henry

Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak, two designers with dramatically different styles, have used the natural contours and features of the land to create a unique look. The result is that Sebonack looks quite different from its illustrious neighbors and provides a strong golfing challenge for players of all calibers.

Spectacular cart ride (much needed) in the afternoon with caddie Will at Sebonack Golf Club. Enjoying the Hamptons after a week at the PGA Championship! Taking a ride out to Montauk today!

(Andy Reistetter; 5/21/19; Expanded Facebook Post with 30 Pics)

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With Zeny after playing… still smiling… he is a great caddie… I think I tired him out a bit though!

Beautiful walk around Westhampton CC in the morning with caddie Zeny… one of Seth Raynor’s early designs in 1915… expertly restored by the 2016 Olympic Golf Course designer Gil Hanse in 2009… Redan at the 7th… Short at the 11th… Biarritz at the 17th… Raynor was born on Long Island in 1874 and died at the age of 52 in 1926… graduated from Princeton in 1898 and came back to Southhampton and started a landscaping and surveying business… Raynor’s big break and entry into the Golf World was to survey the The National Golf Links of America property for C.B. MacDonald in 1908… then MacDonald hired him to construct the golf course and several others including Old White at the Greenbrier… Raynor died in his prime of pneumonia in Palm Beach, Florida… other Seth Raynor masterpieces that I have played include Shore Acres in Chicago and Blue Mound Golf & Country Club outside Milwaukee… dream Raynor courses yet to be played include Chicago Golf Club, Fishers Island Club, and Yale University Golf Club!

With PGA Head Golf Professional Kirk Satterfield!

Thoughts and memories of my time at Westhampton Country Club… played the Monday after witnessing another Brooks Koepka win at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black… PGA Head Golf Professional Kirk Satterfield could not have been more welcoming… with kudos to my friend Ann Ligouri… fairly short even from the tips but make no mistake that this is an extreme test of golf given the Raynor/Hanse combined design and the wind nearly always present at this near Atlantic Ocean locale… Zeny was an awesome caddie, immediate friend, and wealth of course knowledge!

Bunkered long right on the Redan 7th… the rest of the story was actually pretty good but still a bogey 4!

Historic clubhouse and men’s locker room although modern and updated a bit, still exudes historic golf… first tee right outside the clubhouse and pro shop doors… there is a burn just in front of the green on the short par-4 first hole… reminded me of the Old Course at St. Andrews but unfortunately not the only water hazard at Westhampton as in St. Andrews… combination of sand bunkers with protective elevated mounding starts to emerge on the second hole… deep bunkering on the short 3rd… then a 4-5-4 combination before arriving at the Redan 7^th hole… cross the road to the 5th tee… make no mistake this Redan is as severe as they come… deep bunker long right which I experienced… back across the road after 8^th green… the par-4 9^th is a challenging hole with a risk-reward water hazard to navigate on the drive and bunkers to carry on the approach shot… memorable first nine, par-35 with two short holes and one long hole!

Deep, deep, deep bunker short right of the 15th green. I was short left of it! Thankfully!

The 10^th is another long par-4 with a water hazard short left of the green… the golf course is starting to feel like a bear when I reached the short par-3 11th… enveloped by Shore Road be sure to get a pic with a view of the water here… short does not mean easy, it means difficult in Seth Raynor’s vocabulary… avoid the water right on the drive on the 12th… the angle of approach to the big mounded green on the short par-4 13^th is key… watch out for water right (same as 12^th tee shot) of the par-5 14^th green… watch out for the deep, deep, deep bunker (staircase to enter provided) short right of the 15^th green… time to head eastward for the final 4-3-4 tricky punch of Westhampton… do not add up your scorecard yet… water carry on the 16^th is no issue, bunker left is… don’t go over this green… the short 206-yard par 3 Biarritz 17^th is spectacular… don’t get lost in the swale… somehow I managed a long 2-putt for par across the traverse… the home hole brings you gracefully back to the historic and grand Westhampton Clubhouse…

First a pause, tip of the hat and a tap on the heart to Westhampton members Thomas M. Brennan, Timothy J. Coughlin, Jeffrey E. LeVeen, and Joseph P. Shea who lost their lives on September 11, 2001…

Do not underestimate the difficulty of the deep green-side bunkers on the 18th… and don’t go long and knock one off the clubhouse like I witnessed a playing partner do at the home hole of the Old Course… which took a hook and a flyer!

Many thanks to Ann, Kirk, and Zeny from Andy’s Golf & Travel Diary for this historic round of golf at the historic Westhampton Country Club!

(Andy Reistetter; 5/21/19; Expanded Facebook Post with 30 Pics)

Referenced Source

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