The course in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y., which was given its name by Gene Sarazen in 1963 but has been closed since 2015, will reopen nine holes after a Rees Jones redesign this fall, with the second nine scheduled for a summer 2020 debut. A nearby $180 million-plus Kartrite Resort & Indoor Waterpark is set to open March 28.

The Monster Golf Course in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y. will roar again come fall, the Thompson (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record reported. That’s when the first nine holes of the storied former course, open from 1963 to 2015, will reopen next to Resorts World Catskills, with the back nine set for a summer 2020 reopening.

Casino parent Empire Resorts is funding the $21.2 million redevelopment of the golf course, according to the Times Herald-Record report. Empire Resorts leases the land for the casino and the Monster property from the real estate trust EPR Properties of Kansas City, Mo.

EPR will receive 5 percent of the Monster’s future revenues, money that can be used to improve the overall property, including EPR’s future $180 million-plus Kartrite Resort & Indoor Waterpark, set to open March 28, Empire Resorts told the Times Herald-Record.

Empire Resorts has yet to set golf fees, but the company said that it intends to make the Monster readily playable for the public and resort guests, the Times Herald-Record reported.

First designed by Houston architect Joe Finger, the original Monster took its name from golf legend and career grand slam winner Gene Sarazen, during a publicity golf outing to promote it just before its 1963 opening, the Times Herald-Record reported.

With the press in tow, and reporters asking about the property’s signature fourth hole, Sarazen replied, “This is a monster of a hole,” Mike Stoltz, the property’s former golf director, recalled for the Times Herald-Record.

The name stuck, scaring away duffers while luring legends like Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret and Jackie Burke Jr., the Times Herald-Record reported. Golf equipment took decades to catch up to the Monster’s 7,650-yard footprint, for years among America’s longest.

Sarazan, and Demaret, a three-time Masters winner, and Burke Jr., now 96 and a Masters and PGA Championship winner, also helped Finger design the original course, Stoltz said.

The Rees Jones Inc.-redesigned Monster will still play long at a championship length of 7,325 yards, the Times Herald-Record reported. But closer tee box options—5,270 yards (purple), 5,740 yards (orange), 6,430 yards (white), and 6,800 yards (blue)—will make it playable for all, according to Bryce Swanson, another course designer involved with the project.

“The course allows players to be challenged based on their ability, but it also gives players options to maneuver through it based on their abilities,” Swanson said. “Everything from the sense of the arrival, to the views and the vistas, will create quite a bit of the same feel.”

The new Monster will include 55 to 60 bunkers, some of which will be moved farther down fairways, while retaining five ponds and Kiamesha Creek as hazards, and co-opting part of the neighboring International course, according to the Times Herald-Record report.

The future Kartrite water park will occupy most of the former International course, which pioneered Catskills golf before its 2009 closure, the Times Herald-Record reported.

With the $925 million Resorts World Catskills casino complex now atop much of the former Monster’s front nine, the course’s first nine holes will be completely new. Other changes will include:
– The former first hole will become the new 10th, while being shortened to a par-4 from a par-5;
– The old 18th will become the 11th, while the previous green site for the 11th will become the new 12th’s tee box;
– The 12th green site will be moved to across Kiamesha Creek, removing the forced carry;
– A new short par-four 13th will play from 255 yards to 365 yards along the creek, near a new par-three 14th;
– The 15th will be the old 16th; the par-four 16th will be the old 17th; the 17th will be a brand new par-three; and the old 9th will become the new 18th;
– There will also be a new driving range, putting area and clubhouse.

“The legendary Monster Golf Club will be reimagined for today’s golfer,” Empire Resorts said in a statement. The course will be “fun and challenging,” and “will drive additional visitation to Resorts World Catskills,” the company said.

Dick O’Neill, 72, of Middletown, the former Monticello High School golf coach, agreed. “It’s going to be a huge draw,” O’Neill told the Times Herald-Record. “If it has fair playing fees, it’ll really do wonders for the area.

“It’ll challenge people now who are a little skeptical about gambling, to take a chance on going up to Sullivan County and seeing the beautiful casino property,” he added.

The new Monster “is going to renew some interest in golf in the area,” Stoltz agreed.

Sullivan County golf “is not setting the world on fire as far as people getting out there and teeing it up,” Stoltz noted. “Grossinger’s course is closed, and the Kutsher’s course is just surviving.”