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The Catskills, the upstate mountain region favored for decades by New Yorkers, has been one of America's slowest-returning regions since the late-2000s recession. The resort destination made famous by the movie Dirty Dancing served countless golfers through the latter half of the 20th century, with the likes of Kutsher's, Nevele Grande, Grossinger's and the Concord Resort providing daytime recreation.
These resorts and golf courses have been shuttered for years, but The Monster, which was Concord Resort's golf course, has been re-imagined over the last couple of years, totally redesigned by Rees Jones and associate Bryce Swanson as an amenity for guests of the Resorts World Catskills property, which opened in 2018.
Set to open to the public on August 29 and with tee times available starting August 15, the new Monster Golf Club has been made less fearsome than its predecessor, with wider fairways and less onerous bunkering. The original course, laid out by architect Joe Finger, opened in 1963 and measured 7,650 yards from the back tees, making it one of the longest in the world at the time. Its brutish length may have initially been seen as a clever marketing gimmick, but over time the extra manpower required to maintain it had to have contributed to its decline. It closed, seemingly for good, in 2015.
The new version of the course is no pushover, but it stretches a more modest 7,327 yards, with six total sets of tees as short as 5,050 yards.
The Monster is not the only crazy-long golf course cut down to size recently. Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw are in the midst of a complete rebuild of the Pines Course at The International Golf Club in Bolton, Mass., which once stretched to 8,325 yards and was billed as the world's longest golf course. Coore & Crenshaw's course has no such ambitions; rather, they plan to make it an engaging course for club members and guests; no more, no less.
More golf course news and notes
NEW MASTER PLAN FOR RYDER CUP HOST - Hazeltine National Golf Club, the Minneapolis-area club that hosted the 2016 Ryder Cup and will host the 2029 edition, has hired Love Golf Design to develop a master plan for its Robert Trent Jones, Sr.-designed golf course. [LINK: Hazeltine National Golf Club]
MAUI GOLF COURSES CLOSED TO HELP WITH RECOVERY - The golf courses at Ka'anapali and Kapalua and the surrounding communities were spared by the horrific fires that devoured the beloved town of Lahaina, but the facilities remain closed in order to devote resources and people's attentions toward the relief effort underway. [LINK: Twitter]
MYRTLE BEACH RESORT OVERHAUL AHEAD - Sea Trail, a 54-hole resort on 2,000 acres in Sunset Beach, N.C., just north of Myrtle Beach, had deteriorated for years but its new owners plan considerable updates, including a new hotel and renovations to all three golf courses. [LINK: On The Green Magazine]
UNIQUE EVENT FILLING UP - Sweetens Cove, the popular 9-hole hangout in Tennessee, is partnering with McLemore, a club in the Georgia mountains, for a special two-site, two-person best-ball golf tournament called "Where the Valley Meets the Sky" September 2-4. [LINK: Tournament Site]
GOLF ADJACENT - Golfertainment concepts like Topgolf can make us forget that simple, humble driving ranges have incubated many a new golfer's love for the game. Rickie Fowler hasn't forgotten, though - he recently purchased the Murrieta Valley Golf Range, where he took his first swings. [LINK: Patch.com]
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