Kay debuts The Hamlet

Mount Sinai, N.Y. – Stephen Kay of Stephen Kay/Doug Smith Golf Course Design completed Long Island’s newest 18-hole championship daily fee golf course – The Hamlet at Willow Creek Golf and Country Club in Mt. Sinai.

“Stephen Kay creates courses with beauty, challenge and playability,” says Richard Spirio, senior vice president of the Holiday Organization, the development company for The Hamlet. “We’ve had nothing but accolades from players and homeowners right through. People have fallen in love with this course.

“This is the third time that we’ve collaborated with Stephen on a golf course project,” adds Spirio. “He designed our Hamlet Golf & Country Club in Commack, N.Y., and renovated our Hamlet Wind Watch Golf & Country Club in Hauppauge, N.Y. The quality of his work has been a major factor in our success with real estate sales at all three of these gated golf communities. In fact, we have only three lots left out of a total of 177 at Willow Creek. The golf course that Stephen created is certainly a prime reason for that.”

Located on Long Island in Mount Sinai, New York, The Hamlet’s course offers a split fairway, water hazards, a circulating man-made creek, waterfalls and an island green on the signature 16th hole. Parts of the 6,611-yard, par-71 course evoke themes from Las Vegas’ Shadow Creek. Mulitple sets of tees ranging from 5,000 to 6,600 yards makes The Hamlet a playable course for golfers of all abilities.

The course is located on former farmland, where potato crops once grew. To provide homeowners with optimum views of the rolling fairways and pristine greens, Kay carved the course out of the earth, removing 1.6 million cubic yards of excess material and lowering the level of the course by up to 15 feet.

The Hamlet’s first nine holes were opened in mid April of 2005. The remainder of the course opened to the public in July 1. For more information, visit www.hamletwillowcreek.com.

Kay designed such courses as Blue Heron Pines West in Galloway Township, N.J., Scotland Run in Williamstown, N.J., the Architects Club in Phillipsburg and The Links of North Dakota at Red Mike Resort. The latter was recognized by Golf Digest as one of the five best new courses in the nation for 1995 and ranked No. 53 among Golf Digest’s Top 100 Public Courses in 2005. It was also ranked No. 58 on Golfweek’s 2005 list of “America’s Best /Top 100 Modern Courses.”

In addition, Kay has completed more than 175 course restorations, including Winchester Country Club in Winchester, Mass., site of the 1996 Massachusetts Open, and Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford, Conn., home of the 1996 USGA Mid-Amateur Championship.