Number 21: Garden City Golf Club

Ceiling: 90

Rating: 86.5

Trend over Time: 7

I have used the term “unique” more than once in this 25 golf courses of Christmas series. Well, Garden City GC or “Garden City Men’s Club” or just “The Men’s Club” may be as unique as just about anything in the country, the auxiliary names listed gleaning insight as to why. It’s men only (which I am not here to say I have anything against nor for) and that’s the vibe. Heavy New York vibes, highly masculine in culture, and a golf course that will charm any (man) lucky enough to have a spin around it. While I get why some-arguably ~50% of the world’s population at a minimum…-may have their issues with the place, I’m here to focus on the golf, and if you don’t see the brilliance there, that’s on you, mate.

Culture:

We’ll start with the fact that anywhere in the club house you *must wear a sport coat. Shorts are fine, the shoes don’t really matter, but a jacket is a non-negotiable. Going back to that word unique, I love the pieces of the game that have a feeling of novelty to them and make a day stand out from others. With that context, I think the jacket rule is awesome. This may come as a surprise to some, but the club feels as Irish as Ireland. The caddies, many of the members, the drinks (of which there is no shortage), and the traditions all the give the place an Irish vibe that is once again, unique.

Competition:

Garden City plays host to an annual mid am event known as The Travis which features a stroke then match play format. A favorite among the amateur 25 and up crowd. I have to venture so say that a “cocktail tour” event is the perfect way for GCGC to open its doors to the outside. In lockstep with many of the other courses discussed so far in this series, while Garden City isn’t necessarily long, it has plenty of juice to stand up to this crowd, and that said, I had the chance to play the course from the Travis tees this past summer and while its not 7500 yards be any means, it’s also not short. The back tees with a little wind and a few cheeky hole locations on greens running quickly, and you will see no part of a 65 or 66 out of guys who don’t get paid to play the game.

Architecture:

Devereux Emmet is credited with the original layout of the course in 1896 but Walter Travis gets the lion’s share of the credit for what we are left with today. It will come as no surprise that Tom Doak has overseen any ongoing work on the course in the last couple decades. The course and property are intimate, simple, and like any good dish show that simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. The bunkering is as creative and varied as it’s long island brethren and CB McDonald’s masterpiece. From deep greenside bunkers to strategy informing fairway bunkering all the way to inverted bunkers that are only seen at a handful of places I’m privy to, bunkering is certainly a highlight.

One of my favorite things about the property is that it’s uniformity in grade and presentation make it such that you don’t really know what you are getting from each new hole until you arrive to the tee. It almost feels like a Scottish links in that way. Even though the whole course is right there in front of you, the lack of vantage points and the long grass that is the glue for the whole golf course make it such that you can’t really see well enough from one hole to the next to know what is ahead of you. While I love anticipation of knowing what is to come, what is equally exciting is really having no idea. A far-fetched comparison given that many holes at Pine Valley are truly stand-alone entities, it had a similar feeling to me in that I had no idea what was to come. And that was a wonderful part of my day at Garden City. There can’t be many courses that start with a drivable 4 and end with a 3 over the water, so if nothing else it makes Garden City, dare I say, unique.

Cheers, HS