Long Island National To Go Private

Pub links players at Long Island National, Riverhead, NY, will have some choices to make when Donald Zucker closes on the bankrupt course in the near future. The new owner says he'll keep RT Jones, Jr. design open for daily fee play through the end of this season, but then plans to take it private. Since he'll be getting a list of every player who ever trod the course from the old owners, he expects to market memberships to them.

When the club goes private, "It will be strictly golf," Zucker says. "We hope to attract really good golfers since it's such a tough track." Tom Doak, who recently completed renovation of Zucker's other course, North Shore CC, will be called upon to tweak Long Island National soon after the closing, although Zucker doesn't expect to see major changes. He's still in the planning stages, but knows he will improve the locker rooms and practice areas and address some of the routing issues on the course itself.

The 6,838-yard track went into bankruptcy last year. Zucker said he expected to see competitors bidding for the premium property but was pleasantly surprised to be the sole bidder. He reportedly paid $6 million for it.

Zucker expects to operate the club at a profit, although he told me that's not his prime motivation for buying it. "One of the things you can do when you're successful," he said, "is the things you want to do. This is not a venture done to make money. My best hope for Long Island National is to break even on it." He added, though, that he hopes to be pleasantly surprised as he was with the response to his takeover of North Shore CC.

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

North Shore Sets New Model for Modern Country Clubs

Donald Zucker

Three years is the blink of an eye in the 99-year history of North Shore Country Club in Glen Head, NY, but that's all it took for real estate developer Donald Zucker and star architect Tom Doak to rejuvenate the Long Island institution. Zucker rescued the club from financial collapse in late 2009 by buying it from the members and immediately brought in Doak to renovate the short, tired course. Doak built on the original design concepts of Seth Raynor and CB Macdonald while Zucker aggressively moved to bring younger members into the club. The results of both may well serve as a model for club management in the modern era.

Zucker said he gave Doak just one instruction when it came to using the 165-acre property: "Give us a great finishing hole." In response, Doak scrapped two lackluster par fours in favor of a quirky 125-yard seventeenth hole with a radical green and a daunting 639-yard par five eighteenth.

Doak worked some similar magic with the two opening holes, setting the tone for the course early. North Shore may be on the short side at 6,543 yards from the tips, but its outrageous greens more than adequately protect par. The 71.8 rating and 136 slope give some indication of the level of play necessary to score low.

Several Raynor/Macdonald trademarks were restored during the renovation. Doak brought back the 236-yard fifth hole, a par 3 Biarritz, and punched up the punchbowl green on the 435-yard sixth. The bunkering was revived on several holes and numerous trees were eliminated to open up vistas, define shot lines, and improve turf conditions--a process that was carried further by last year's storms. The overall result is a tester that rewards creative shot placement off the tee and demands pinpoint accuracy around the greens.

Perhaps the biggest change Zucker brought to North Shore, however, is a serious commitment to getting youngsters into the game. "I wanted to have the most kid-friendly club on Long Island," he says. With seven kids and fourteen grandkids, the club owner has a good idea of what young families want in a country club. In addition to renovating the golf course, one of his first moves was to build a playground near the swimming pool. the club also boasts kid-friendly tennis, a fitness center, and memberships designed for affordability. The club runs golf and tennis camps for kids--both sold out this year. Zucker also says youngsters are encouraged to play the course, adding "If it's open, they should be playing on it."

General Manager Ben Ghesquiere says these efforts are playing off. The most recent twenty memberships signed, according to him, were for people under age 45. "Three of them are families with seventeen kids between them." He adds that the club actually has three full golf memberships bought by parents who don't play golf for their kids who do.

In an era when participation in the game seems to be declining and economic weakness threatens the survival of many tradition-bound clubs, it's absolutely refreshing to see how North Shore Country Club is leading us into a happier future.

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