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Aiming to get Montauk Downs ranked again

Erik Boland

August 16, 2007

Kevin Smith recognized the long-shot nature of what he was proposing.

"Is it a pipe dream?" Smith, Montauk Downs' head professional the last 18 years, said. "Maybe, but I think the golf course is that good."

Smith's aim for Montauk Downs is to one day be recognized in Golf Digest's Top 100. It seems a stretch but in a forgotten piece of Long Island golf history, Montauk had been on such Top 100 lists before.

That was shortly after Robert Trent Jones was hired by the state in 1968 to redo Montauk's original 1927 design by the mostly unremembered English architect, Captain H.C. Tippett.

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Jones' son Rees - aka "The Open Doctor" - did most of the redesign work in 1968 and he is back at Montauk again.

Since 2003 Rees Jones, Inc. has been working pro bono on a renovation plan for Montauk. It is not an overhaul but more a tweaking of a course that experienced a slow deterioration after its glory days of the late '60s and early '70s.

"We're trying to recapture the original Robert Trent Jones style," Bryce Swanson, a senior designer at Rees Jones, Inc., said yesterday from the company's Montclair, N.J. office. "It's like going into an old house or repairing an old car. You just don't tear it apart."

Reached in Salt Lake City, Jones said Montauk had long been special to him.

"I was there at least once a week when I was working with my dad," said Jones, whose designs include the Bridge and Atlantic Golf Club in the Bridgehampton hills, as well as the renovation of Bethpage Black in advance of the 2002 U.S. Open. "It's always been very close to my heart and it's what got me going out to Long Island."

Jones, who owns a home in East Hampton, said the primary work that has and will be done are on the course's bunkers and tee boxes. An example is the recently completed par-3 12th - considered by many Montauk's signature hole - where two new tee boxes were added and the right and left-front bunkers have been extended.

"We're trying to put the character back into the bunkers, and we're adding a little distance on the tees so the course plays like it did when we originally designed it," Jones said.

The renovation work is being handled in-house by Montauk's talented staff, led by superintendent Charlie Reidlinger. You could say Reidlinger comes from good golf stock, working for Bethpage's Craig Currier before moving to Montauk in 2002. It is no surprise that the condition of the course has improved yearly under his watch.

"Compared to what it was in '02, I'm definitely happy with the progress we've made," Reidlinger said.

The progress has been deliberate: about two holes a year completed since 2003 and Smith said the entire job should be finished in another four years. The renovation is expected to cost in the range of $3 million to $4 million, a combination of public and private money. Since 2003 Montauk has hosted a fund-raising golf tournament/gala, with the yearly event raising, including $90,000 last weekend, $475,000.

"It's just a really unique situation with the public and private sector coming together for something like this," Smith said.

Unique has always been an accurate description of Montauk Downs, an "Eastern End" course in every sense as Rt. 27 ends not far past it. The layout is smack between the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, with winds from both often torturing players and guaranteeing the course never plays the same. Regardless of where it may rank down the road, Montauk is more than capable of hosting a local tournament, a more immediate goal than a ranking.

"We'd like the opportunity," Smith said. "We think the golf course is getting to the stage where it can start hosting something. People will be real impressed with what they see."

Today's tip

Practice with a purpose

"Most people practice poorly. If you are going to practice, do it the right way - with a purpose. Don't be one of those people who get a large bucket of balls and hit, hit, hit. Set goals and make sure each shot counts: