Piping Rock stands test of time, top pros

One thing golfers did not lack when they warmed up at the Met PGA Championship this week was elbow room. The driving range at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley is 280 yards wide, having inherited all the space from what used to be two polo fields.

That was a significant conversion a few decades back - and basically the only one at the club since it opened in 1912. For the final round Wednesday of the season's last local major, the course's layout was pretty much just the way it looked in a 1915 drawing of Charles Blair Macdonald's design.

"It's identical," Richard Spear, the course superintendent, said when he looked at the schematic from the old New York Telegram.

Sure, the course has been lengthened by about 400 yards over the years - much of it during a Pete Dye project in the 1980s. Generally, though, Piping Rock is a solid rock that has stood the test of time. You probably wouldn't want to hit a golf ball that was made in 1912, and your shot probably wouldn't go very far if you used a vintage 1912 club. But the vintage course has held up just fine. It was a test back then and it was a test this week.

"It's unique, it really is. It's a gem out here," said Mark Brown, the head pro at Tam O'Shanter in Brookville, who won the Met PGA at 6-under par. He shot 4-under- par 67 Wednesday, including an eagle on the par-5 sixth and birdies on two of the final three holes.

Macdonald is in the World Golf Hall of Fame for his creations, the most famous of which is National Golf Links of America in Southampton. Piping Rock is one of his most enduring and endearing among golfers. Tom Nieporte, who was Piping Rock's head pro from 1962 until he left for Winged Foot in 1978, said, as he looked toward the expansive range Tuesday, "When you first walk down here, if you've been away for 20 years, you think nothing has changed."

Most everything in golf has changed, especially the equipment technology that has made shots travel much farther than they used to. Still, Piping Rock is relevant for modern local pros. Nieporte thought for a good while when he was asked to explain why, then he said, "There are a couple of approaches where you can't see where to hit your second shot. That makes it difficult to break 70 for the great players," said the former pro who lives in Bayville and still plays Piping Rock a few days a week.

Players in the field this week cited the slick, sloping greens. "And the wind today made a big difference," Brown said, adding that he was putting well.

Current Piping Rock pro Sean Quinlivan of Ballybunion, Ireland, said, "With the great designers, there's such a premium on iron play, and there is a premium on iron play here. You get some speed on the greens and some breeze and it's just so difficult to place the golf ball well from the fairways. Par is a good score."

Par is more important at Piping Rock than any number on the calendar. Wasn't it just Wednesday that high society types got all dressed up to watch horse races around the old polo fields? Wasn't it the other day that Nieporte was the last club pro to win a PGA Tour event (the 1967 Bob Hope), or that his successor, Jim Albus, won the Senior Tournament Players Championship?

It really was just the other day that Nieporte was shooting the breeze with Mike Gilmore, who followed his path from Piping Rock to Winged Foot. They both know the old stories, such as Macdonald fuming about being forced to route the course around polo fields. It turns out he took the right route.