Friar's Head

Wow! I'm a big fan of Coore Crenshaw designs, and this is right up there as one of their best. Set amongst spectacular Long Island dunescapes, this super exclusive club has a limited number of members (250 was the number I heard mentioned), drawn from moneyed New Yorkers, many from Wall Street. It also has probably the best clubhouse and practise facilities I've eve seen. The name comes from a large sand dune forming part of the property, which from a distance looks like a Friars Head and was used by shipping as a marker in previous centuries. The club is so exclusive, there are no signs at the entrance, just a mailbox, which features as the rather cool logo on members only clothing. There are no yardages on the tee markers or indeed the scorecard. Tees and greens are large and the course length can be varied considerably - there is also an assumption that your (obligatory) caddie will guide you round and tell you everything you need to know. There is not a weak hole on the course - uphill, downhill, right hand dog legs, left hand dog legs, it really does ask you to hit every shot. It's hard to pick any standouts the holes are so good, but of particular note are the left dog leg long par 4 6th hole, tempting you to bite off more carry than you should, the uphill par 3 9th, to a narrow severely sloping green set into a ledge, right hand dogleg par 4 13th where there appear to be almost no fairway to hit from the tee, par 4 15th in a valley out towards the sea and 18th, a sweeping left hand dog leg par 4 to an elevated green set on a ledge framed by the spectacular clubhouse. I've been lucky enough to play almost 200 courses in the US including around 30 of the top 50, and Friars Head is comfortably in my top 5, it's that good. If you're lucky enough to get a chance to play it, cancel anything else that may be in your diary, and jump at the chance. It's one of golf's truly special experiences.

Een van de mooie banen op Long Island die in de wereld top 100 staan. Wij hadden moeite om de baan te vinden. Ligt mooi geintegreerd in een natuurlijke omgeving van bos, duin en heide. Knap werk van architecten Coore & Crenshaw. Ik was telkens verrast door een verkeerde inschatting van afstanden. Perfecte greens met gevaarlijke bunkers. Private club.

Sometimes a course just captures your imagination and Friars Head did that for me big time!

Friars Head is a private course on New York's Long Island and was designed by the team of Coore & Crenshaw. This very exclusive club opened in 2003 and epitomises everything I love in golf course architecture. To say the course is visually stunning is an understatement with part of the course running through big sand dunes and rest in a open field which has been so incredible well shaped that its hard to imagine it didn't always look like that. The course is characterised by large sandy waste areas and bunkers that are left unkept, wide fairways that play firm & fast which complement the perfect fescue fairways. This all combines to deliver a wonderfully strategic golf course that keeps you thinking all round long. There're just to many good holes to mention them all.

The club is a real throw back with no distances on the score card an active caddie program and expects rounds to be completed in 3 hours or less. The imposing clubhouse fits in well with the course and has the most powerful showers I have ever seen.

An absolute privilege to play!