The Met Golfer - June 2008

ment, the character of the course can vary radically from day to day.”

Staying True to Golf’s Roots

It is no mere coincidence that the name of Bakst’s golf development firm is Traditional Links. He embodies a passion for keeping many of golf’s traditions alive. Accordingly, you’ll find some things absent at Friar’s Head that are commonplace at just about every other golf course in the world.

No rakes, for example, will be found in the club’s bunkers. Players smooth their ball marks and footprints after hitting out, and if you have a less-than-ideal lie as a result, well, that’s why they call it a hazard. The club’s simple scorecard lists only the hole number and par—no yardage or handicap information is given—requiring players to rely heavily upon their caddies. And players encountering a sprinkler head in the fairway won’t get any helpful hints on distance to the green, either.

“That’s the way it was 40, 50, 60 years ago,” says Bakst, who notes that many courses in Scotland and England still refuse to put any kind of yardage markers in their fairways.

Raked bunkers, the thinking goes, don’t represent the course in its natural state. And as for the scorecards, Bakst suggests that many times they become so cluttered with information that there’s little room left for players to write down stroke and match information.

“All of these things, in addition to building a strong caddie program, are part of our efforts to be more like an early 20th century club, culturally and architecturally,” explains Bakst. “We even went so far as to consider not having par for each hole on the scorecard.” Eventually, though, the decision was made to include this information. Overall par at Friar’s Head is 71, and a team from the MGA measured its Course and Slope Ratings at 74. 1 and 144, respectively.

This dedication to tradition even extended to the Friar’s Head clubhouse, which will be completed this summer. To make the building look like it had been restored rather than newly built, Bakst repurposed the slate roof, granite stone facade, and various limestone elements of an estate in Bedford, N.Y., that was already in the process of being dismantled. “Our architect for the clubhouse told me, ‘The only way to build

old is to buy old,’” explains Bakst. But one detail that often gets retold about the clubhouse just isn’t true. “That we had all the old building materials ferried down the Sound to the club just didn’t happen,” says Bakst, laughing. “Although, I’ve heard that rumor so many times I’m thinking I should start saying we did it, because it is a great story.”

The Future

With its clubhouse and support facilities finally in place, Bakst says the time was right for Friar’s Head to host its first MGA championship. “We are a member of the MGA and it is important that we give back and be a good member of the community,” he says. While Bakst believes that golfers really come to appreciate his new course after multiple rounds, he’s ready for defending Met Am champion Greg Rohlf and the Met Area’s best amateur competitors—including him— to try it out. “If they’re like me, they’ll enjoy every hole out there,” he says, “because each one looks differently, acts differently, and plays differently.” ■