Wiltwyck Lights Up The Catskills

There's almost nothing I like better than "discovering" a new golf course, especially when it's a gem like the Wiltwyck GC in Kingston, NY. With wonderful views of the Catskills and twisting fairways leading to devilish greens, Wiltwyck offers succor for the soul and challenge for golfer at every level.

photo courtesy of Wiltwyck GC

Wiltwyck is a Robert Trent Jones design that opened at its current location in 1954, although the club itself was founded in 1933 and was forced to move by the construction of the NYS Thruway. Stephen Kay updated the course in 2001, giving it a little more length and plenty more challenge around the greens. Kay didn't lose the Jones "feel" for the routing and shot values, though, so you really get the best of both worlds when you take it on.

The course measures 6,877 yards from the tips, with a stout 74.3 rating and 134 slope that seems a little light given how much trouble a bogey golfer can encounter on several holes. I played from the blues, which at 6,578 yards was enough golf course for me given the number of elevation changes and tough greens.  There are two other sets of tees, including a strong set of reds that measure 5,675.

Unlike many courses in the Hudson Valley, Wiltwyck doesn't ease you into the round with an easy opening hole. Instead, you're faced with a 407-yard (from the blues) test with a bunker cutting into the fairway on the left to devil those who draw the ball and a fairway that slopes right for the faders in the group. If you navigate those delights, you have a long uphill approach to a punchbowl green. Make a par here and you're off to the races.

The second hole, a 491-yard par five, has a typically convulted fairway that slopes left to right off the tee then switches to right to left once you get around the right dog leg. This is the shortest of the par fives on the course. All of them except the 553-yard seventh hole are reachable birdie opportunities for the better player. The seventh, the #1 handicap hole, demands extreme accuracy off the tee since the fairway is essentially crowned, punishing drivers hitting either left or right.

The par threes at Wiltwyck are on the short side by today's standards (144 to 190 yards) but require a well-handled putter to capitalize on their lack of length.

If there is a theme to the playing advice on the par fours, it's "drive straight." Unlike many courses in the area, Wiltwyck still has an over-abundance of trees. When you couple those mature green monsters with lateral hazards to the right of several landing areas and greens that require approaches from the correct angle to leave a make-able two-putt, most players will want to hit the straightest club in their bag, not necessarily the longest.

Golf services include a driving range and large practice green, clinics and lessons from Chad Maes, PGA, and his staff, and reciprocal privileges at most of the finest private clubs in the Hudson Valley. As a casual but well-appointed country club, Wiltwyck offers nice family amenities including a pool and tennis, not to mention dining facilities that equal anything in the region and attract functions ranging from intimate dinners to weddings for several hundred guests.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Golf Club Shines On Lake Mahopac

It's not exactly a secret course, but Mahopac Golf Club in Mahopac, NY, may well be one of the most under-appreciated golf opportunities in the Hudson Valley. The course is short but tough, with small, fast greens and vicious bunkering, not to mention gnarly rough and tight landing areas on most holes. The club has been around since 1898 and I think it's about time it got its due.

Actually, the course has its roots in a 1,291 yard six-hole course laid out on the eastern shore of Lake Mahopac by Thomas Bendelow in 1893. It moved to the north shore in 1900 as a nine-hole layout that was later built out by Devereux Emmet to a full 18 holes in 1913. Extensive renovations guided by Ken Dye took place a few years ago to produce today's 6,514-yard track. Par is 70, course rating 72.5, and the slope is 133 from the tips.

Tiny green at Mahopac Golf Club. Photo courtesy of the club.

Ask for advice in the pro shop, and the first words from head pro Terrence Hughes or assistant Billy Ashford will be "stay below the hole." In fact, they recommend landing your approach on the front (or even IN front) of nearly every green to avoid some really ugly downhill putting disasters-in-the-making.  Many of the greens--including the first four--actually slope from front to back, so great, great care is called for if you're in the mood to go pin hunting.

The total course yardage may not add up to today's supposedly necessary 7,000-plus yards, but there are more than enough long holes to keep your driver busy--and that may include one of the par threes!  There are five of them, with the shortest listed as 163 and the longest at 218 yards. That monster, the twelfth hole, plays solidly uphill and usually into the wind, though, so don't be ashamed to pull the big stick and hit it with conviction.

The par fives are challenges, too. Two of them, the 487-yard fifth and the 479-yard eighteenth, look like birdie push-overs. Both are heavily bunkered, however, and play uphill, so you can't take them for granted. The other par five, the seventh, is a brutal test at 601 yards with a fairway that slants big time right to left all the way to the hole. Even a center-aimed drive (and second and third shot) will likely end up in the left rough, which makes the hole play even longer.

Tricky 15th hole at Mahopac. Photo courtesy of the club.

Most of the par fours offer something to think about. There are a couple of long ones, including the 460-yard sixteenth, a classic dogleg (the 390-yard ninth), and a four-putt possibility at the 403-yard thirteenth hole, which has a steeply-sloped green with several nearly-impossible pin positions. Even the short 330-yard fifteenth hole calls for a strategically-placed 200-yard tee shot and an approach pitch that must navigate around, over, but probably not through a big tree guarding the left side of the green.

There's a lot to appreciate at Mahopac Golf Club. The scenery is spectacular, particularly in the fall, and there's both a range and a short-game area to tone up your scoring potential. Members also enjoy a generous slice of beach on Mahopac Lake.  The club has a fairly small but very active membership that competes in as many as 60 club events every year.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf