The Jericho, N.Y., property will close the course after a members’ tournament on August 7, with plans to reopen on April 1, 2017. In the meantime, five neighboring clubs will welcome Meadow Book golfers. The renovation will rebuild seven tees and all bunkers, soften severe doglegs and expand the driving range.
Members of Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y., have decided to close the course after a members’ tournament on August 7, during the height of the season, to give the layout a facelift. The facility is expected to reopen on April 1, 2017, the Melville, N.Y., Newsday reported.
“It’s a great place, a great piece of property, a great track. We’re going to make it a little better,” superintendent John Carlone said.
Carlone and longtime head pro Rick Meskell both said that the tone and flavor of Meadow Brook—a private club that opened in 1955 and became known to the public when it hosted a Senior PGA Tour event from the late 1980s into the early 2000s—will remain intact after seven new tees are built, all the bunkers rebuilt, severe doglegs softened and the driving range expanded, Newsday reported.
“I think people are going to come out after it’s done and say, ‘Boy, it was just that little bit of change that makes it better, that gets it over the top,’” Carlone said, adding that the course is being closed now so that the work can be done all at once, rather than forcing interruptions over two or more seasons. Meskell said that five neighboring private clubs “are being neighborly” in allowing Meadow Brook’s members to play their courses, Newsday reported.
The project will be the most ambitious since the club was forced to move from its original Westbury location 61 years ago to make way for Meadowbrook Parkway. A few of the present course’s characteristics were problematic from the start, or at least from a redesign in 1967. For instance, much of the fifth and 18th greens (Nos. 14 and 9, when the tour played there) are unusable because they are too steeply sloped for modern green speeds, Newsday reported.
Meskell said the idea to upgrade took root two years ago. The most noteworthy change will be the conversion of the difficult par-4 18th into a par 5 (with No. 12 switching from a 5 to a 4). But perhaps the most important part will not involve any of the holes, Newsday reported.
“The range needs updating. According to Tom Lister, our renovation committee chairman, it’s important for the club to keep up to date to compete for members,” Carlone said. “If they’re coming from the city and they just want to practice for an hour, we want them to come here.”
The club wants them to keep coming, and has signed up to host the Ike Championship in 2018 and the Met Open in the next decade, Newsday reported.
“From the championship tees, we’re going to be at 7,444 (yards),” Carlone said. “So we can host anything.”
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