My Quest to Check Off Golf's Best Experiences
The Golf Bucket List
Very cool walking bridge connecting high points.
#12, Par 4, 419 Yards
"The tee shot must avoid the woods lining the right side of the fairway. The second shot is to a green positioned on top of a knoll. An approach shot that is to the right of the green is generally lost in the woods. There seem to be a wide variety of difficult pitch/chip shots that challenge the player on this classic golf hole."
The big mogul in front of the green makes up for an otherwise bland and straightaway hole. We're back on the west side of Whippoorwill Road on this one.
#14, Par 4, 440 Yards
"This par four measuring 466 yards from the blue tees is the #2 handicap hole. The tee shot immediately forces a decision whether to play straight away or to head left to the wider section of the fairway. If played to the right the tee shot must travel at least 250 yards or face an approach from a steep downhill lie to the elevated green."
A fabulous classic-style strategic hole appears at this rolling long par four. From the tee, a safer/easier shot to the right will leave a longer approach to the green that will likely also be blind. From the right side, it's a longer and tougher carry, but a successful shot will be rewarded by a open view of the green and a shorter approach. A shot aimed at the right fairway needs to be aimed out to the right of the flagstick. Excellent architecture.
Whippoorwill Club
Armonk, New York
https://www.whippoorwillclub.org/
Checked off the Bucket List June 30, 2016
#17, Par 3, 154 Yards
"Hole 17 is a classic "Redan" hole featuring a flat approach to half the green and deep bunkers waiting to catch an errant tee shot to this 158-yard par three. Although a far-left pin position may look inviting, the safer shot is to the middle of this tricky green, take two putts and 'Get out of Dodge!'"
The description above is troubling, because this isn't a Redan at all. In fact, the last one-shotter at Whippoorwill is the Eden template hole. The width, shallowness, and slope of the green, coupled with the front bunkers make it a worth representation.
#9, Par 4, 379 Yards
"The par 4 ninth runs plays uphill from tee to green, playing at least 35 yards longer than its distance. From the blue tees, a 240 yard carry shot will reach the right fairway plateau. If the prevailing wind is in your face you may want to consider hitting to the lower tier on the left, leaving a blind approach shot that plays a club or two extra. A bottom right pin position on the green may look inviting but is fraught with peril. A wayward shot to this pin can find the deep bunker in front, playable but in the woods on the left, or from the valley over the green. As you walk off the green make sure to look back down the hole as on a clear day you may see New York City, which is about 35 miles away."
This one plays uphill...REALLY uphill. Being a low-ball hitter with a driver, an uphill hole makes it tough for me to hit it very far, which makes holes like these even tougher. This stretch of #8 and #9 is very similar to the duo of #9 and #10 at Yale...a Biarritz followed by a hole that goes straight uphill.
#11, Par 3, 193 Yards
"Should the tee shot clear the pond it must still avoid the deep sand traps on the left front and right side of the green. From the right trap it is nearly impossible even to stop the ball on this steeply sloped back to front green let alone put it near the pin!"
This is Whippoorwill's version of the Redan, but it's not the best Redan out there. The kick-plate on the right doesn't really kick it far enough to play the hole that way. However, even though it doesn't quite play like it could, it's still a pretty decent hole.
#10, Par 4, 406 Yards
"The back nine begins on the elevated tee of the par four 10th Hole. The blue tees overlooking fairway and green invite a "grip it and rip it" drive as only a shot hooked to the left presents problems. The approach will generally call for a mid-iron to a green protected by out- of- bounds right, a deep bunker front right and a tough bunker on the left hillside."
At the tenth, we head back to the east side of Whippoorwill Road for a couple holes. The hole is all right in front of you, and with two well executed shots, you can get off to a good start on the second nine.
#4, Par 3, 157 Yards
"Hole 4 being substantially downhill, it plays about one club shorter then its distance. It is the 17th handicap hole. It was recently rebuilt to its original “fort” hole configuration, which means that it is essentially a significantly elevated hole that is protected by bunkers on all sides. If you can, avoid the deep bunker on the left as it represents an extreme challenge for even the most skilled sand player to get up and down. However, if your tee shot does find the green, your work may just be starting due to the green’s numerous slopes and subtle breaks. As with many of the greens, any putt above the hole will prove daunting."
This is a classic Macdonald/Raynor/Banks "Short" template hole, and it's a good one.
#16, Par 5, 551 Yards
"'Freddie’s Turn', the tee shot should be placed over the left side bunkers since the fairway slopes from left to right A tee shot with even a minimum of slice spin may well jump the out-of–bounds which extends the entire length of the right side of the fairway."
The longest hole on the course requires two big shots to get home in two. That's usually not my game, so it was a three-shot hole. The area in front of the tee box is maintained as native area, which makes for a beautiful look on the drive. I could see Alister MacKenzie, the master of camouflage giving a tip of the hat to the bunkering on the left side of this hole. The first three bunkers are a long ways away from the next set, but they appear to be in a straight line. Fairway bunkers need to be carried or otherwise negotiated on the second shot to have a safe pitch into the green, which slopes from left-to-right. The sun was starting to get low on this 54-hole day, so photographs were starting to get a little suspect.
#15, Par 4, 368 Yards
"The tee shot is blind, so the best play is towards the white marker pole, which stands behind the green marking its location. A well struck ball that carries 240 yards will benefit by rolling down the slope leaving only a sand wedge approach to this precarious sand-protected green."
The fourteenth was the last hole on the more tumbling west side of Whippoorwill Road. Now we're back on the east side, but the land is pretty decent over here too. An uphill climb is faced on this one, but it's one of the more straight-forward holes on the side, so a birdie can be made with good shots.
Whippoorwill Club is a great golf course on an incredible piece of land. Only a select few architects in the Golden Age could have pulled off such a construction job on a piece of land this challenging--Banks was absolutely up to the task as accomplished that task in spades. While Whippoorwill didn't necessarily bring out my excitement going in, that was due to my own ignorance and lack of appreciation for what I would see. This is truly a course that shouldn't be missed in the Westchester County area, and absolutely an underrated gem. I'm delighted that I had the chance to see it.
#3, Par 5, 477 Yards
"Hole 3 is a relatively short par five that is the 13th handicap hole. The tee shot invites you to cut the corner by attempting to hit over the two bunkers that protect the inside of this dog leg left hole. The bunkers require about a 240 yard shot to clear but is rewarded with a reachable uphill shot to a green that has sand very much in play and out-of-bounds for a shot that is wide and right. Once your ball is on the green you may be faced with one of the many interesting pin placements that invites three putts due to its slopes and two-tiered design."
This is the last hole on the east side of Whippoorwill road until the back nine. It definitely sets you up for a birdie if you keep your ball away from the trees. Not the most exciting terrain on the course, but it will get a lot more interesting once you cross the road!
When you've about to embark on an adventure to play nine courses in four days, it's human nature to have rounds that you're more excited about than others. That's even more the case when your itinerary includes these courses (in order of play): Newport, The Country Club, Sleepy Hollow, Maidstone, Winged Foot West, Winged Foot East, Yale, and Eastward Ho! It's that itinerary that Whippoorwill Club joined...fitting right between Winged Foot East and Yale. Due to its position in the itinerary and location geographically, we'd be playing Whippoorwill immediately after playing 36 holes at Winged Foot.
While I had heard of Whippoorwill, I didn't really know much about it going into the round. I knew it was by Chappaqua, which was where the Clintons moved after leaving the White House (their house is only 2.8 miles from the clubhouse). However, I have to admit that I didn't know who built Whippoorwill or what made it interesting. Add to that the fact that it would be the third round of the day, and it was the round I was least excited about when our itinerary was planned. While Whippoorwill doesn't exactly draw the attention of courses like The Country Club, Winged Foot, and Maidstone, it's no slouch, and was plenty deserving of its position on this trip. I'm extremely glad we played it. From the club's website (I can't say it any better than they did):
"Afterglow Farm was the Mackay family's name for their 500-acre estate occupying one of the highest points in the towns of New Castle and North Castle, Westchester County. It was sold in the mid-twenties to a group of some thirty men who proposed to develop it as a country club colony.
The property lay on both sides of Whippoorwill Road at the northern end of what is now the golf course. The cobblestone and clapboard main house, since burned down, stood directly back of the present tenth tee. The cobblestone building just to the west, now used for the storage of equipment, was called the "Cabins," and here each of the Mackay sons had his own quarters. In the center of the building was a chapel with an adjoining room for a resident priest.
A clubhouse of fifty bedrooms (each with private bath), on the property's highest point would cost $275,000, including furniture, equipment and proper treatment of the grounds. The budget included $150,000 for roads, $40,000 for landscaping by Olmstead Brothers, $5,000 for mosquito control and $1,500 for livestock, presumably riding horses.
The founding group was intrigued by Ruth's proposal and embraced it. Another famous golf architect, Charles H. Banks, completely redesigned the course. Banks had recently designed many other courses in the area, including Tamarack, Hackensack (N.J.), Knoll Golf Club (N.J.) and Castle Harbour. He also worked with Charles Blair MacDonald on the Yale and Mid-Ocean courses and with Seth Reynor on the Fishers Island course. The rationale behind bringing Banks in to rebuild the course is unknown. However, all we need to know is that Banks left a truly remarkable golf course that is not only beautiful, but presents a great test of golf.
Charles Banks was not a formally schooled golf architect, but neither were many of his contemporaries. Most of those not trained were simply good players who used an innate sense of the game to create strategic interest within the site’s natural constraints. Today, Whippoorwill is considered to be one of the best of the courses based on the C.B. Macdonald/Raynor/Banks philosophy which incorporated highly regarded design traits that stemmed from the best early courses in Europe. These European courses were characterized by frequent use of geometric and often extreme course features.
Unlike some of the golf architects of his era, Banks was keenly focused on detail. He understood how even the smallest of details would impact the way the course set on the landscape and how such details would impact the strategic play of the course. As one of Banks’ first courses independent from the direction of Seth Raynor, Whippoorwill’s course includes features that are even bolder than those for which Raynor became famous. Many of these were likely the result of the extreme topography of the Whippoorwill site.
For example, the 11th hole is Whippoorwill’s Redan hole. The “Redan” is usually a par 3 on which the green is wider than it is deep, and angles diagonally away from the tee box. That is, the left side of the green is farther away from the tee box than the right side of the green. A Redan hole slopes right-to-left, and is often guarded by a deep bunker confronting the middle part of the green, or bunkers on the right and left fronts. The tee shot may play slightly uphill to a green surface that is partially or fully blind to the golfer.
All of the Redan holes are modeled after the original Redan at North Berwick Golf Links in Scotland. North Berwick's Redan made its debut in 1869. It has remained essentially unchanged since. Redan holes earn their reputations as "fortresses" by presenting a challenging test to the golfer. It's often an extremely tough shot to keep the ball on the putting surface of a Redan hole.
The 4th hole is an example of what would be called the "Short Hole" within the repertoire of Seth Raynor and Charles Banks. Intimidation is an important ingredient in this type of hole, with the bunkers surrounding the green looking like an island in a sea of sand.
Whippoorwill Club, Incorporated was organized in December, 1946.
In 2000 the new 20,000 square foot clubhouse was sited in the same location as the original clubhouse in order to afford dramatic views of the golf course. The new clubhouse was designed in the classic shingle style, with a wood shingle roof, wood siding, and painted wood trim that is reminiscent of turn of the century New England golf clubs. The new landscaping included the transplanting of several mature trees from various areas around the golf course. Construction was completed in April, 2001.
All of the improvements to the course and our facilities over the past few years have led to a better appreciation of Whippoorwill by the golf world. For years, Whippoorwill has been recognized by the Metropolitan Golf Association as the “hidden gem” of the area golf courses. Whippoorwill is also recognized nationally. Golfweek magazine and other publications perennially rank Whippoorwill in the top 100 of “classic” golf courses (built before 1960) in the country."
Also from the website:
"The heritage and tradition of the Whippoorwill Club dates back to the mid 1920s when Donald Ross, a leading golf course architect, designed the course, which lay entirely on the east side of Whippoorwill Road. At that time Ross was at the pinnacle of his career and was certainly the most recognized architect of the day.
Everything changed in 1928, when Fred Ruth, developer of the Mid Ocean Club, hired Charles Banks, with whom he had worked at Mid Ocean, to redesign the Ross Course.
Whippoorwill took on its most unique characteristics when holes 4 through 9 were built on the west side of Whippoorwill Road. Steep terrain, tree lined fairways, and no parallel holes characterized this section of the course. The five most difficult holes on the course are 5, 7, 9, 12 and 14.
Banks is credited with the design and remodeling of more than thirty golf courses from 1921 until his death in 1931. It is said that he believed Whippoorwill to be his masterpiece.
Today, Whippoorwill stands as a testament to Charles Banks. Magnificent in its beauty and design, Whippoorwill is truly one of the great golf courses in the Northeast."
So, what stands today is a really fun course in the Macdonald/Raynor/Banks style, though this one was done by Banks without meaningful assistance from the others. Due to the difficult terrain the property includes, it was appropriate to bring in a person with proven construction and engineering skills, like Banks.
After arriving at the course, there was no need to loosen up, as we had just played 36 holes down the road. In fact, conserving energy would be more important this afternoon. While we walked Winged Foot, we'd be taking a cart at Whippoorwill. Otherwise, I'm sure we would have hoofed it...the hilly nature of the course would make for a challenging walk, but the greens and tees are close enough together to make it very doable. Like many of the other Macdonald/Raynor/Banks designs, the goal wasn't to build a course with ball-busting length. This par-71 course only plays to 6,636 yards from all the way back--the Blue Tees, which play to a rating and slope of 72.7 and 142. There are four sets of tees in front of the Blues, but we thought we'd give them a shot since they weren't horribly long. I'll quote the Blues below with hole descriptions from the Club's website in italics. I'll add my own comments below those:
#2, Par 4, 347 Yards
"Hole 2 is a great example of a tough short par 4. It is the 15th handicap hole. Being downhill from the tee you may be tempted to go for the green, but this presents a daunting tee shot that can easily find itself snagged by the trees that guard the right side of the fairway. You are almost always better to hit to the left of the fairway bunker which will require about a 200 yard shot. From there you will have a short approach shot. The green slopes fairly severely from back to front and any putt above the hole will be quick. The green itself is also physically very hard and an approach shot that is not struck crisply can bound off the green to the out-of-bounds just behind the green."
#18, Par 4, 437 Yards
"The home hole is a 432-yard beauty. The drive from the elevated tee should favor the right towards the fairway bunker 260 yards away. A shot to the left side of the fairway may not leave a reasonable approach. A good tee shot will leave a lengthy approach to the uphill green, again requiring one more club than its apparent distance."
The final hole returns to the clubhouse and is a real bear of a finisher. The lengthy, uphill approach to the green, and trouble on either side present a demanding final exam. Unfortunately, we were thinking survival as much as anything, as this was our 54th hole of the day. We were ready to be finished!
#8, Par 3, 196 Yards
"The par 3 eighth is a classic Biarritz hole playing from 155 to 220 yards. It has one of the prettiest views that you will experience at the Club and is considered one of Charles Bank’s masterpieces. It is a unique green with a significant and pinable swale in the middle. It is very similar to par threes that he constructed at Mid-Ocean and Yale Golf Club. Note the beautiful waterfall that presents a picturesque backdrop and is complimented by the four sand bunkers that protect the sides of this green. If the pin is on the back tier, the tee shot must carry all the way as the swale absorbs the energy from a slightly mishit shot. If you are lucky enough to find the green on your tee shot, you will be rewarded with a reasonable putt."
In my mind, one of the highlights of playing a Macdonald/Raynor/Banks course is seeing and playing the four template par three holes. I especially enjoy seeing different Biarritz holes at different courses, because the front tier and the swales tend to be a little different in each one. Some courses cut the front tier at green height, while some don't. Some courses have a deep enough swale to cut a pin, while others don't. The swale is definitely not as steep a drop as the gold standard Biarritz hole at Yale, but it's still plenty fun.
#6, Par 5, 538 Yards
"The par 5 sixth has 3 different tiers that generally slope downhill to the green. Chose between a layup (230 from blue, 200 from white) or add an extra 40 yards to get to the 2nd plateau. Anything in between could leave a downhill, sidehill lie in heavy rough. The safe 2nd shot is to hit a layup to about the 120 yard mark from where you can attack the green. The alternate is to hit to the 3rd tier bringing the right side out-of-bounds into play. A 2nd tier tee shot leaves 240 yards that has to be played over the right side out-of-bounds to get to the green. If the pin is in the middle hollow of the green a good approach shot can get close. A front right or back shelf pin requires an accurate approach for a makeable birdie putt."
This was the hole where fatigue kicked in, and I got a little slap-happy. Unfortunately, the hole is too demanding to lose focus. Only one bunker on the hole but the land is crazy enough that no additional hazards are needed.
#7, Par 4, 425 Yards
"The par 4 seventh plays quite a bit longer than its yardage. The tee shot must carry the legendary pond where “Steam-shovel” Banks allegedly lost his steam-shovel during construction of this hole. You are best served by hitting your tee shot as close as you dare along the right edge of the left tree line, leaving an uphill shot that plays two clubs longer than its distance. Anything that is short of the green will roll back down the steep slope that fronts the green. The green itself is in a classic “punchbowl” configuration, where all of the sides slope in towards the green surface. The green itself has two well defined levels, with a pin on the top left shelf almost always presenting a test of your putting skills."
Wow, what a three-hole gauntlet in numbers five through seven. There is no let-up here, in fact it's arguably the hardest of the three. Seeing the exposed rock that surrounds this hole, one really has to appreciate the engineering feat to build this hole in the 1920's.
#5, Par 4, 455 Yards
"It is often said that the golf course starts at Hole 5, a difficult and long par four that is the number one handicap hole from the blue tees, where your tee shot needs to carry 250 yards to get over the hill and give you a reasonable second shot on this 453 yard hole. The woods on the left side are friendly and most times return a tee shot hit into them. However, the woods on the right are a lateral hazard from which good things rarely happen. So favor the left side. Even after a successful tee shot your approach has to clear a deep bunker on the left to this challenging green. Then once on the green, you may be surprised by its difficulty. It is probably the second most difficult green on the golf course due to its subtle breaks."
Clearly, this is the hardest hole on the course, so far. It's the first hole where you come to appreciate the roller coaster terrain that Whippoorwill possesses. Come away from this one with a par and you'll be better than most.
#13, Par 4, 320 Yards
"An aggressive try for the green on the tee shot rarely pays dividends; should the ball reach the green it will usually not come to rest there. The better strategy is to hit a 200-yard shot to the right of the bunker on the elbow of the slight dogleg left. From this position it is a short approach to the green."
After the bland land of the twelfth hole, we're back to jaw-dropping land forms on the thirteenth. The advice above about not going for the green from the tee and instead playing a safe drive followed by a precise pitch is probably a good tip. For me, it's too long to consider carrying it onto the green anyway, so there wasn't much of a decision to be made. A great looking hole.
#1, Par 4, 374 Yards
"Hole 1 is a dog leg right that gives you a great view of the Clubhouse. It is the 11th handicap hole and an excellent start to your round. The tee shot should be played to the left side of the fairway, which slopes significantly from left to right. The bunker on the right is very much in play and takes a drive of 260 yards to carry. The second shot is normally hit from a side hill lie to a green that is well protected by bunkers. However, in making your second shot you need to make sure that you do not hit your approach to the right of the green as this area slopes severely downhill to out-of-bounds. Once on the green, it has numerous slopes and can have surprisingly quick putts down grain."
I'm not a big enough hitter to try to carry the fairway bunkers, but many players probably can. Even without cutting the corner, this is a pretty easy opening hole, especially when the pin is up front, as it was the afternoon we played.