![\"Schenectady](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/06\/2012-10-19-225313-e1433346646267.jpg\")
<\/a>Schenectady Municipal Golf Course<\/p><\/div>\n
For starters, both deliver a thoroughly enjoyable playing experience. Both turn the standard notion attached to \u201cmuni\u201d \u2013 badly maintained and staffed by indifferent curmudgeons \u2013 squarely on its head. Each has a fascinating, if spectacularly divergent, backstory worthy of a book-length treatment. In chronological order of my visits:<\/p>\n
Schenectady Municipal pushes all the right buttons in the context of the golf industry\u2019s nearly obsessive-compulsive need to make the game more accessible and thereby increase participation. It\u2019s 6,570 yards, par 72, from the longest of three sets of tees and slopes out at 123, stroke rating 71.1.<\/p>\n
The layout is in remarkable condition, particularly given the amount of traffic it handles, not to mention an absolutely brutal winter here in the Northeast. There\u2019s good variety among the individual holes, most of which are circumscribed by imposing mature hardwoods.<\/p>\n
Changes in elevation are dramatic enough to enhance visual appeal, but the course is still an easily manageable walk. Locals get a break on green fees, which even on weekends don\u2019t exceed 50 bucks; our weekday rate was $29.<\/p>\n
Designed by Jim Thompson and opened in 1935, Schenectady Municipal is among the first courses to be built after the Great Depression. As such \u2013 in the days prior to the sophisticated earth-moving equipment of today \u2013 the construction was achieved exclusively using manual labor, part of the \u201cold style\u201d appeal of its natural contours.<\/p>\n
![\"Schenectady](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/06\/2012-10-19-214607-e1433349859296.jpg\")
<\/a>Schenectady Municipal Golf Course<\/p><\/div>\n
The story of Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, part of a city park located between two colossal suspension bridges \u2013 the Throgs Neck and the Whitestone, also with views of the Manhattan skyline \u2013 begins in the late 1970s, much of the detail hazy at this point.<\/p>\n
A Jack Nicklaus design<\/a>, it\u2019s 7,407 yards from the back tees, par 72, though there are several less-demanding tee boxes. It, too, is in great shape, though in this case the surprising thing is not copious usage, but rather that it\u2019s only been open since April 1st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n With capacious landing areas and gorgeous greens that are deceptively subtle rather than severely contoured, it\u2019s playable, though strong winds are endemic to the site and the fescue grasses lining the fairways will, when grown in, provide additional challenge.<\/p>\n (The course has yet to be slope- or stroke-rated, although at the media-day ceremonies, Donald Trump spoke of hosting a major championship at some point.)<\/p>\n Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the talk among said golf media has been not about the layout itself but about its appropriateness as a public amenity. Withering commentary<\/a> from my colleague, Tony Pioppi, in Superintendent<\/em>, for example, has called it \u201ca hell of a joke on the taxpayers and Average Joe and Jo golfers of NYC.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of what Pioppi and other critics contend seems impossible to dismiss. Said to have cost a whopping $269 million to build, Ferry Point will also be drastically out of line with what other munis in the city cost to play.<\/p>\n At the upper end of the scale, non-residents will pay $215 on weekends, cart ($35 per player) not included; at the low end, NYC-resident juniors will have to fork over $54 on weekdays, with no discount on weekends. For military personnel (on active duty) it\u2019s $87 on weekdays only. Caddies will be available for $115 per bag, tip included. Non-round practice on the range goes for $50.<\/p>\n Ferry Point offers some unusual perspectives. Photo courtesy The Trump Organization.<\/p><\/div>\n Whatever one thinks of the project, it ought to be interesting to see how it does in the long run. Certainly the city\u2019s populace of nine million includes a contingent of golfers who won\u2019t think twice about ponying up this kind of freight. The catch is that a substantial portion of the same crowd already enjoys memberships at the metropolitan area\u2019s many private clubs. Would you make Ferry Point your everyday track if you\u2019re already a member at a Winged Foot, a Baltusrol, a Bayonne?<\/p>\n Golf media are egregiously complicit in the disproportionate focus on upscale courses and resorts \u2013 yes, in large part because we\u2019re sponsored to visit them \u2013 often to the detriment of more accessible facilities that constitute a truer picture of American golf.<\/p>\n Unlike many golf-media brethren, the feeling here is that any<\/em> golf course is better than no golf course; and this holds true for Ferry Point, where the early alternative use was as a landfill. As for it being a vastly overpriced public works project, well, take a number: Yesterday\u2019s New York Times<\/em> edition included an article<\/a> headlined, \u201cPrice Tag on a Brooklyn Park Reaches $225 Million, and That\u2019s Only the Beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of putting words into Donald Trump\u2019s mouth is superfluous on numerous levels, the lone exception probably being as the set-up for a Saturday Night Live<\/em> skit. But if questioned about Ferry Point\u2019s possible incapacity to boost participation in golf generally, my hunch is he\u2019d likely say, So what? That\u2019s not the point of the project.<\/p>\n (During media day ceremonies, Trump opined that the game of golf is in great shape, and from his perspective, it no doubt is. Robert Trent Jones, Jr.<\/a>, the golf course architect, offered a similar analysis during a recent conversation with this reporter in Manhattan.)<\/p>\n In that context, Ferry Point is a significant addition to the assortment of public golf. As a \u201cgift to the people of the city of New York,\u201d not so much, especially, as Pioppi points out, because there are several quality existing layouts in town needing much-less-costly refurbishing.<\/p>\n Schenectady Municipal and Ferry Point both represent category-bending versions of the muni concept \u2013 in general a good thing. Considered together, though, they represent a game, as psychotherapists would say, in transition. It can drive a guy nuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Ferry](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2015\/06\/9B1A0538-e1433346760241.jpg\")
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