Lido Golf Club

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Third hole (Eden), Lido Golf Club

The Lido Golf Club was a golf course in Long Beach, Nassau County, Long Island, New York.

Construction[]

The Lido was designed by Charles B. Macdonald, with contributions from other designers, and constructed in 1915.[1] Construction required that "thousands of pounds of sand" be pumped out of the bay to reclaim what had been a marsh. The advantage was that "the exact contours required by the course architects" could be achieved. Turf bricks were cut from nearby property to lay the greens.[2] The course was open by the summer of 1917.[3]

More than 2,000,0000 [sic] cubic yards were pumped in from Long Beach channel by five hydraulic dredges. Hills forty feet high and undulations corresponding were thus constructed. Forty thousand cubic yards of meadow muck were lifted and placed as a soil for all the fairways, greens and tees. Among the incidentals more than 2,500 tons of lime, 6,000 tons of fertilizers, and 35,000 tons of top soil. The entire rough was planted by hand with beach grass, each in squares eighteen inches apart. Nearly a million plants were required. They hold the sand in place and at the same time afford an excellent hazard. An irrigation system provides for every foot of the expanse.[4]

Description[]

In 1921, Walter Hagen listed the Lido as one of golf's "Big Three" courses, along with the National Links, and Pine Valley.[5] An assessment after completion described the course as "the greatest test in the world, with the possible exception of Pine Valley."

On two holes at high tide the surf scatters spray over the greens, while the ocean seems scarcely more than a drive, a brassey and approach from any of the tees. The course proper covers 115 acres, over seven of which flows the lagoon, an artificial lake dredged twelve feet deep with made-land in the centre constituting the island hole.… The home hole was built after the design of the best of more than one hundred plans submitted in a prize contest conducted in England for the best two-shot stretch.[4]

Course[]

Regular course
Hole Name Yards Par Hole Name Yards Par
1 First 361 4 10 Alps 389 4
2 Plateau 398 4 11 Lagoon 393 4
3 Eden 160 3 12 Punch Bowl 412 4
4 Channel 505 5 13 Knoll 283 4
5 Cape 354 4 14 Short 129 3
6 Dog's Leg 477 5 15 Strategy 387 4
7 Hog's Back 455 5 16 Redan 189 3
8 Ocean 220 3 17 Long 548 5
9 Leven 334 4 18 Home 405 4
Out 3,264 37 In 3,152 35
Source:[4] Total 6,416 72

The Lido provided a championship, a regular, and a short course.

History[]

Unfortunately the course opening coincided with the United States' entry into World War I, and for the summer of 1918 management was forced to lower the annual dues from $200 to $60, and make the course easier to attract more amateur players.[2][6]

In 1942,[7] during World War II, the United States Navy acquired the property and destroyed the course to construct a navy base.[8] After the war, in 1953, a new course was built nearby, called the Lido, designed by Robert Trent Jones.[7] In 2021, Michael and Chris Kieser, operators of the Sand Valley golf club in Wisconsin undertook to construct a replica of the Lido in the Wisconsin sand barrens. This course is expected to be completed in 2023.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ "Golf Architect Lays Out New Course". The Miami Herald. February 1915. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Demand for Facilities so Great that many Nine-hole Stretches will be opened". New York Tribune. December 19, 1915. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  3. ^ "List of Country Clubs with Links". New York Tribune. July 25, 1917. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "Long Beach Scene of Big Golf Events". Times Union. April 13, 1922. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  5. ^ Hagen, Walter (January 4, 1921). "On the High Cost of Golf: Expenses of Play have Increased beyond all Reason". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  6. ^ ""Easifying of Lido Links". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 26, 1918. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Lido Hotel to Rebuild 18-Hole Golf Course Lost to Vets' Housing". Newsday. September 3, 1953. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Lusk, Jason (January 18, 2021). "Photos: Famed Lido Golf Club to be reincarnated at Sand Valley in Wisconsin". Golfweek. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
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