By David Noland
On Friday, Aug. 14, Cornwall residents got a chance to see a rare sight at the transformed Storm King Golf Course: actual golfers. It was Town Day, a golf outing open to Cornwallians and other Orange County residents. As a 30-year member of the late lamented Storm King Golf Club, I was eager to experience first-hand the multi-million-dollar reinvention of our beloved 130-year-old course.
I plunked down $250 for the experience – three of four times the green fees of typical public-play courses, but comparable to similar corporate and charitable golf outings. (In fact, two days later I paid $250 for an outing to benefit the Tuskegee Airmen at Mansion Ridge, a high-end course in Harriman.)
On this day, my fee would benefit the Hudson Valley Golf Foundation, which plans to do future events here for adaptive golfers with physical or intellectual disabilities, wounded veterans, and other underserved groups. (And, we hope, more outings for local golfers.) In addition, companies, foundations and (wealthy) individuals will be able to use the course for full-day events. But the new SKGC will not be open for daily public play in the usual manner of public golf courses.
So, this was a rare chance for regular folks to play. With the clubhouse still a gutted shell, headquarters for Town Day were moved down to a big white tent near the new maintenance shed along Canterbury Creek. Golfers embarked at the gate on Hasbrouck Avenue, and our cars were whisked away by valets to the parking lot up by the clubhouse.
Ever the eager beaver, I was in the first foursome to tee off. And, standing there on the first tee, looking out over the empty rolling expanse of green, what I saw was like nothing I’ve seen in 65 years of playing golf.
Instead of nine distinct holes, the new Storm King Golf Course has 60 tees and a network of 22 massive double, triple, and quadruple greens that can be combined to create more than 100 possible holes. Course routings and holes can be changed from day to day – or even morning to afternoon – to provide a virtually endless variety of challenges and experiences. HVGF head David Gang calls it “Golf Re-imagined.”
The routing for our day’s first nine holes was a fairly conventional layout that generally followed the path of the original nine holes of the old course. But the playing experience was dramatically different. Rolling humps and hillocks spiced up the topography. A new lake lay in wait for errant shots. Two formerly leaf-hidden creeks burbled by in plain sight. And the fairways were astoundingly smooth, almost like putting greens. (I felt guilty taking divots out of them.) As for the greens themselves—could Augusta National’s be any better?
Partial credit for the superb fairways and greens goes to the fleet of 18 small Husqvarna robotic mowers, which make daily micro-cuts while crawling over the course virtually 24/7. The rest goes to Course Superintendent Ben Babbage and his crew, holdovers from the old club.
The fairways were broad, with few areas of rough. (Lost balls should not be a problem here.) But approach shots that go wildly askew may end up on the wrong lobe of a humongous triple green. One player in my group, after a sliced approach shot, found himself facing a putt that I estimated at about 200 feet. (He missed.)
The course is designed to be walking-only. (The exceptions are golfers over 65 and adaptive players.) Although eligible for a cart, I opted to walk and entrust my clubs to a remote-control electric bag cart. It was fun at first to guide the contraption along, but it had difficulty with all the humps and hillocks. At one point, on a steep uphill, it performed a wheelie and fell over backwards, spilling the clubs. Later on, it stopped dead for no apparent reason. I was rescued by an impromptu teen-age human caddie, Aidan Coburn, a summer course maintenance worker and player on the Cornwall High School golf team.
Along the way, we got to meet several of the adaptive golfers who will play in an HVGF event at Storm King next month. Matthew Gang, who has Down Syndrome, showed us the line to a hidden pin with an expertly struck wedge shot. Jordan Thomas, a strapping young man who lost both legs below the knee in a boating accident, demonstrated a 300-yard drive. (He also happens to hold the course record, a 68.)
The Back Nine
It wasn’t until the second nine holes that we got a true taste of the variable routing possibilities – both the good and the bad.
In the old days, if you played 18 holes, you had to play each of the nine holes twice, from slightly different tee positions. Kinda repetitive. On the new course, the “back nine” this day consisted of all completely new holes, each fun and interesting in different ways. I particularly enjoyed Hole No. 12, a long Par 3 from an elevated tee over a creek to a green nestled against another creek.
But there was a downside to the variable routing layout: the groups behind us, still on their “front nine”, were sometimes using the same fairways and greens as our “back nine.” At one point, we had to stop for about 20 minutes on Hole No. 11, waiting for a couple of following groups to finish Hole No. 3, which used the same fairway – but in the opposite direction. (Actually, I was grateful for the chance to loll in the shade for a while.) On another occasion, we had to wait about 10 minutes for a group on another hole to clear the common fairway. (Not so grateful; longing for a post-round beer.)
On several occasions on the back nine, we had to make long treks to the next tee. On one long steeply uphill schlepp, helpful staffers gave us rides on electric carts. We were thankful to have them, but it made for complicated logistics.
This first public run-through of Storm King’s multi-route system highlighted its quirks and limitations. “We learned some lessons, and have already made some changes to smooth things out for next time,” said David Gang. “It’s still a work in progress.”
But overall, I found the course to be exceptionally fun, interesting, and beautiful. And oh, those immaculate greens and fairways. I can only hope for another opportunity for regular folks to play there again one of these days.”