Southampton GC completes renovation

Members at Southampton Golf Club never have felt out of place in one of the most prestigious golf neighborhoods in the world. Their course, without being as famous as the one next door or the others nearby, has its own rich heritage that started with its designer, the famed Seth Raynor.

That heritage has been polished up and put in play with a massive restoration that, club officials believe, Raynor would have been proud of.

Along with having done the layout, Raynor was one of the club's founders in 1925. He lived in Southampton and is buried in a cemetery not far from the front gate. "We feel like this is Raynor's home course," said Dave Greene, the greens chairman and a Raynor scholar. "If we didn't do a restoration, who the heck would?"

So, after carefully studying 1938 aerial photos and having put the project in the hands of architect Brian Silver, a modern Raynor specialist, Southampton Golf Club is new again, in a traditional way.

Greens have been expanded, the way Raynor planned them. Bunkers have been added or retouched with steep, grassy banks. Trees have been cut down to restore the original links look and make wind more of a factor. The product, leaders believe, is a refurbished gem.

"I'm one of those guys who likes what he sees at the moment, but who really can't wait to see how it looks three years from now," said club member Larry Cavolina, known for having directed the CBS telecast of the Doug Flutie "Hail Mary" game in 1984 and years of NFL games, who was tabbed by club president Butch Armusewicz to direct the restoration.

Armusewicz said there has been a 10-year project to upgrade everything on the grounds. The course was the final phase. "It needed a lot of work," he said. "The traps had to be redone anyway and all the trees were starting to infringe on everything. We couldn't get air flow."

Superintendent Jimmy Choinski said, "The restoration committee got together and said, 'Look, we had one hell of a golf course back then.' "

"Back then" was before a "modernization" program in 1970 that erased much of the Raynor signature. Bob Joyce, the pro emeritus who still plays the course just about daily (and recently shot 3-under-par 67), said that in the 1960s, clubs wanted to look more like Augusta and other leafy courses that were prevalent on TV. "Clubs said, 'We have to have trees, we have to have big bunkers,' " Joyce said.

Greene said the resulting design was "a mishmosh." He and others saw that as a disservice to Raynor, a civil engineer who got his start in golf in 1908 when he was hired by C.B. Macdonald to construct the National Golf Links of America, one of four courses on basically the same patch of land.

Southampton Golf Club is different from the National and fellow neighbors Sebonack and Shinnecock Hills (hit a big hook on No. 6 at Southampton and your ball lands on No. 12 at Shinnecock). Southampton's membership includes local people who run home improvement and landscaping businesses; people such as Armusewicz and Greene, who grew up caddying on the course.

Joyce said that during his days as pro, Southampton hosted more rounds per year than Shinnecock, National and East Hampton's Maidstone combined. "You look at the conditions here," he said, "and they are as good as any of the golf courses out here."

Greene, who also caddied at National as a kid, said, "We're not those clubs. They are classics. But we're here, too, and we have our own story to tell."