The 9-hole public course in the barrier island community of Shelter Island Heights, N.Y., at the eastern edge of Long Island, is affectionately known as “Goat Hill.” A year-long series of celebratory events will kick off with a benefit party that seeks to raise funds for a new program to help introduce golf to beginners, along with making improvements to the grounds and driving range.
Shelter Island Country Club’s 9-hole public golf course was founded in 1901, but the first round of golf on the Shelter Island Heights, N.Y. property that is affectionately known as “Goat Hill” wasn’t played until a year later, according to the Shelter Island Reporter of Mattituck, N.Y.
So it made sense to Mary Fran Gleason, chair of the club’s 120th Anniversary Committee, to celebrate that milestone for one of the oldest continually operating golf clubs on Long Island over the course of an entire year, according to the Reporter. That celebration will kick off with a benefit party on September 18th that will include hors d’oeuvres, raw bar, a raffle and door prizes, but will be limited to 120 participants.
Over the next 12 months, according to the Reporter, the club’s celebration will include parties, talks and a vintage golf tournament where participants will use hickory clubs.
The Shelter Island Heights Association created the club at the turn-of-the-previous-century so the young people of Shelter Island would have something to do, according to the Reporter. As the demographics of the island have shifted, “Goat Hill” has become a place where older people can also have something to do, and much of the fundraising in the anniversary year will be targeted toward the goal of bringing more first-time golfers into the sport.
Reaching the $120,000 fundraising goal will make it possible to initiate a new program to introduce golf to beginners, according to the Reporter—one that wouldn’t require hiring a pro and could be taught by any good golfer. Improvements to the grounds and driving range are also planned.
A healthy rivalry between Gardiner’s Bay Country Club, also on the island, and Shelter Island CC has long existed, according to the Reporter. Gardiner’s Bay was started about four years earlier than Goat Hill, but stopped operating for 10 years during World War II, and that decade-long hiatus allows Goat Hill to claim victory as the oldest golf course in continuous operation on Shelter Island.
In 1942, the Heights Association was ready to close Goat Hill, but Bill and Olive Congdon stepped in to run it during the war and for decades after, finally turning it over to George Blados in 1976, according to the Reporter. In the late 1970s, the Heights Association decided to sell the entire property, and the Town of Shelter Island Heights stepped in to buy it, and has run it as a public course, with a Board made of volunteers, since that time. The club also offers membership options.
The golf course is an authentic gem from the past, built to the landscape with shovels, horses and donkeys rather than bulldozers, according to the Reporter. PGA Hall of Famer George Lewis, who will be a featured speaker for the “Friday Night Dialogue” at the Shelter Island Library on September 17th to help kick off the anniversary celebration, has said that learning to play the venerable course requires “feeling” the landscape.
The course is situated on one of the highest points of the island, giving golfers exceptional views of Peconic Bay and Dering Harbor.
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