Newcastle, N.Y. - It takes a special occasion to upstage a former president, but that was the case when Hudson Hills Golf Course, designed by Mark Mungeam, celebrated its grand opening in late May.
Bill Clinton, a resident of neighboring Chappaqua, was on hand to cut the ribbon, but the layout itself - a daily-fee design on 150 acres of rolling terrain - was the star attraction. The last time a public course debuted in Westchester County, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was midway through his second term.
Westchester has always been a golf mecca - for the privileged. There are 59 private clubs here. So how were 150 acres made available for the county's first public golf course in 66 years?
"The main portion of the land we used for Hudson Hills used to be a golf course," said Mungeam, a partner with Uxbridge, Mass.-based Cornish, Silva and Mungeam. "It was a private club called Pine Ridge when it opened in the 1920s. Though the club changed its name many times, it became
Sunset Hills, then Pine Ridge again before it took the name 'Hudson Hills Golf Club' in mid-1960s."
The club closed down in 1982 when IBM purchased the property with plans to build a corporate research laboratory. Those plans never materialized. The county stepped in, bought the land back and retained Mungeam to design a brand new golf course.
"We appropriated the most recent name for this new project, but we've essentially designed a new golf course, a completely new routing," said Mungeam. "This isn't a restoration; it's a reincarnation."
Developed by the Westchester County Department of Public Works and operated (for the county) by Billy Casper Golf Management, Hudson Hills features some significant elevation changes, which Mungeam used to create a 6,935-yard, par-71 course with long views and dramatic shot values.
The par-4 13th has emerged as a player's favorite. Measuring more than 450 yards, it plays from an elevated tee and drops about 50 feet to the fairway below. An angled bunker in the left landing zone marks the strategy: Cozy up to it, or clear it, and the green - protected by a deep bunker front right - opens up to the approach shot.
"From a design standpoint, Hudson Hills is quite classical in nature," Mungeam says. "There are only 28 bunkers on the entire course. With this sort of terrain, the layout didn't need bunkers to make it a challenge - just in certain spots for strategy, like the 13th. The 2nd [a 515-yard par-5] is a good example of this restraint. A wetland cuts diagonally across the hole from right to left off the tee, but drives to the right will carom back into the fairway off a natural-grass bank. From there the fairway winds its way down to a green with wetlands nipping in from the right and a rock embankment behind. It's a thrilling risk-reward hole for big hitters and a fun three-shot hole for everyone else - and there's not a bunker on it."
The short 6th measures 130 yards but illustrates the interest Mungeam created on the putting surfaces at Hudson Hills. A pond guards the left side of this par 3.
"What I really like is the way this green sets up - with a swale running through the center," Mungeam says. "If you bail out away from the pond, you'll have a roller coaster two-putt. But if you challenge the water and succeed, you'll earn a flat putt for birdie.
"I'm pleased with all the par 3s at Hudson Hills. It's a strong group, each one a little different length and setting. There isn't one I wouldn't take to any of the private courses here in Westchester County and worry about it fitting in or making the grade."
Mungeam says he's particularly pleased with the playability at his latest effort.
"I was a little fearful that Hudson Hills, being a public facility, might play too hard - you never know for sure until you actually see people playing on it," he says. "But I'm very happy with the finished product; it's not overbearing at all, whereas better players will be asked to hit a lot of different shots and the course closes really strong. The two finishing holes are both par-4s that play 450 from the back. Seventeen is just brutal; uphill all the way. So be prepared for a tough finish."