Hempstead (N.Y.) Golf & Country Club has begun a multi-year restoration of its century-old A.W. Tillinghast golf course, with improvements planned through 2033.
What began as a need to replace the club’s aging bunkers has expanded into a broader master plan designed to improve playability, restore the course’s strategic character and strengthen its long-term stewardship.
A large-scale bunker renovation is scheduled for 2028 and 2029, with additional course improvements continuing over the following four years.
The plan will restore several elements of Tillinghast’s original design while adapting them for today’s game. On No. 13, the Great Hazard will be repositioned to create a more relevant strategic challenge for modern players. The closing stretch from Nos. 16 through 18 will also be enhanced to create more risk-and-reward decisions.
The club also plans to open sightlines from the clubhouse and better distinguish the character of the two nines, including the more expansive outward nine and tighter inward stretch.
The restoration will draw more heavily on the property’s setting within the historic Hempstead Plains. Native prairie elements will be incorporated alongside the course’s more formal architectural features, reconnecting the layout with the landscape that helped make the area an important center of early American golf-course design.
“The masterplan creates an exciting balance between preserving our architectural heritage and preparing Hempstead for its next 100 years,” Steven Perkowski, Superintendent at Hempstead Golf & Country Club, said in the media release. “Their vision respects what members cherish about the course while introducing improvements that will strengthen both playability and long-term stewardship.”
Zinkand Golf Design—led by golf course architect David Zinkand and drawing upon more than 25 years of experience designing, managing and shaping projects in the field—has been selected in partnership with Joel Weiman of Weiman Golf Design for the project.
