Tamarack Hosts Senior Am Qualifying

Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, CT, will host a strong field of senior golfers trying to qualify on August 27 for a spot in the 60th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.  The prestigious tournament for players 55 years of age and older will be contested at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, California, from September 13 to the 18th.   In all, some 51 golf clubs around the country were selected to host a qualifier, and August 27th is the final day to determine who will make the field.

Among the group of Tamarack registered players are Dick Siderowf, one of America’s most renowned amateurs and a member of Century Golf Club in Purchase, New York, and George Zahringer III, a member of Deepdale Golf Club on Long Island, who won the 2013 British Senior Amateur, the 2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur, multiple Long Island Amateurs, as well as four consecutive Met Amateur Championship titles.

Tamarack, which opened for play in 1929, is celebrating 85 years as one of the premier clubs in the region and one of only a handful of original Charles Banks designs.  Banks learned his craft from his association with legendary Golden Age architects Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald.  His first project was the Yale Golf Course, which opened in 1926.  Nicknamed “Steam Shovel Charley” because of his use of the new machine in moving massive amounts of earth to create elevated greens and deep greenside bunkers, Banks left an exquisite signature sandy footprint on Tamarack’s par-5 17th hole aptly named “Big Bertha.”

The superbly maintained layout boasts an incredible number of famous European classic hole designs including:  the stunning long “Biarritz” par-3 (the 12th); a “Redan” (the 7th); the “Eden” (the 3rd); a “Road Hole” (the 14th); the “Short” (the 15th) and a “Punchbowl” green on the 11th.  

Tamarack gained local fame as co-host of the popular Ike Championship during its formative years from 1953 to 1962.   The Ike was named in honor of former President Eisenhower, who personally approved the competition, and many of the top name amateurs of the day who were affiliated with Met area clubs competed for this prestigious title.  The name Tamarack refers to a species of pine indigenous to the region.

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

Tee It Up with the Pros

2013 ATBF Golf & Tennis Tournament participants

Looking for a chance to play with the pros? You can tee it up with some of the area's best players at the John Vanbiesbrouck Pro-Am to be held at Tamarack CC in Greenwich. Although this is the 26th year for this highly-successful event that raised money for a great cause, it's the first time the format will feature pros playing with ams. Should be great fun!

The Alan T Brown Foundation (ATBF) and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation team up for the annual golf - tennis tournament and banquet that raises money to support scientific and medical research to help people living with motor disabilities and paralysis.

Pairing teams of four amateurs with PGA pros from the tri-state area, the John Vanbiesbrouck Pro-Am will take place August 11, 2014. Pros will be competing for $10,000 purse and amateurs for bragging rights and fabulous prizes, with the day culminating in a cocktail reception and awards banquet.

Honorees for this year’s event will be Guest of Honor John Rosasco, Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Player Recruitment at the Madison Square Garden Company, and Jim Cesario, Spinal Cord Injury Program Outreach Coordinator at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, who will receive the Standing Tall Award.

There are still amateur and pro participation slots, along with corporate sponsorships available. For more information, call Chrissy Oliva directly at (212) 944-8727.

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

Tamarack Celebrates 85 Years

Tamarack CC Hole #1   photo courtesy of Frank Farina

What guy doesn't love backhoes and caterpillars and other earth-moving equipment? Combine that with an obsession with golf, and you've got to admire courses designed by Charles "Steamshovel" Banks. I've played several and enjoyed every breathtaking minute of them. Among the best is Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, CT, which opened for play in 1929 and is one of only a handful of original Banks designs.

Tamarack is enjoying something of a renaissance since the completion of a Master Plan implemented by architect Brian Silva that improved and enhanced the golf course’s playing conditions without altering Banks’ original design intent.  Silva’s work included the enlargement of Tamarack’s putting green surfaces (they typically shrink as courses age, mowing patterns change subtly--if not from the depredations of well-meaning greens committees), the leveling and increase in size of all tees with the inclusion of new forward and championship back tees on certain holes, and a comprehensive bunker restoration program.  All existing fairway bunkers were rebuilt and 24 additional bunkers were installed, while a small number of greenside bunkers were rejuvenated.

Architect Banks learned his craft working with legendary designers Seth Raynor and C.B. MacDonald. His first project was the Yale Golf Course, which opened in 1926.  When Raynor died the same year, he left some 30 unfinished projects which Banks gradually completed over the next five years. He earned his nickname by using the newfangled (in his day) steamshovel to move massive amounts of earth to create elevated greens and deep greenside bunkers. Banks left an exquisite signature sandy footprint on Tamarack’s par-5 17th hole aptly named “Big Bertha.”

Also, in continuing the MacDonald/Raynor tradition of adapting famous European hole
designs into their projects, Tamarack boasts an incredible number of these recognizable holes, including  the stunning long “Biarritz” par-3 (the 12th); a “Redan” (the 7th); the “Eden” (the 3rd) and the “Short” (the 15th).  Other famous features found at Tamarack are a “Punchbowl” green (the 11th), a “Double Plateau” (the 13th), “Alps” (the 6th), “Moat” (the 9th) and a “Road Hole” (the 14th).

As one of eight golf clubs in Greenwich, Tamarack long has been viewed as the club that was content to underplay its pedigree and stature as one of the area’s finest examples of classic golf course architecture.   “While the moniker ‘hidden gem’ may sound somewhat pedestrian today, it is true that Tamarack has been just that,” says president Jeff Young.  “We have a rich history that actually dates back to 1909 at another site, and the club is proud to have hosted some important Met area tournaments.”

Tamarack gained local fame as co-host of the popular Ike Championship during its formative years from 1953 to 1962. The Ike was named in honor of former President Eisenhower, who personally approved the competition, and many of the top name amateurs of the day who were affiliated with Met area clubs competed for this prestigious title.  

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