Last hurrahs don’t often get the crowds cheering. Alfred
Hitchcock signed off with Family Plot, Stanley Kubrick with Eyes Wide Shut.
Sure, Ted Williams homered in his final at-bat, but most Hall of Famers finish
with pop-ups.
Robert Trent Jones Sr. capped an unparalleled career in
course design with Anglebrook Golf Club. His final canvas was 240 bucolic acres
in Somers, New York, a
seldom-seen corner of that most fertile golf soil, Westchester County.
It would be tempting but facile to say that Anglebrook, which
opened in May 1998, comprises all Jones learned in designing over 500 courses
worldwide. Surely it does—we’re all the sum of our experiences—and surely it
does not. Artistic endeavors, after all, demand choices, not regurgitation.
Nearly every choice made here seems well judged.
Given the serene beauty of the country-style clubhouse,
itself designed by the noted postmodern architect Robert A.M. Sterm, you might
expect to be eased into the 7,001-yard, par-72 layout. You would be wrong. Three
of Anglebrook’s five hardest holes are found among the opening quartet, starting
with the 454-yard 1st. It’s as if Jones, who died in June 2000, were saying,
“No, I have not mellowed, I will not go gently.”
The 602-yard 4th is that rare thing—a par 5 that genuinely
deserves to be the No. 1-handicap hole. Starting, as will many later holes, from
a glorious perch, No. 4 features a tee box some 200 feet above the fairway. The
ensuing lay-up is exceedingly difficult. It needs both length and draw to find
the fairway and even get a peek at the bi-level green sitting across a chasm of
wetlands—the first of many such rough-hewn areas running through the property.
Par feels like birdie here; I suspect few know what birdie feels like.
Yet even this demanding early stretch offers hints that
playability will be the governing principle. The fairways are vast, as are the
greens, although with their jackrabbit speed and numerous pockets and tiers,
they are far less forgiving of middling or ill-conceived shots.
Having captured your full attention—“The old man’s still got
it!” you’ll whisper—Jones shifts to a more paternal tone that will hold sway
over the rest of the round. Anglebrook is also a rarity for its modulated use of
often-severe terrain. Too many courses this hilly tend to feel extreme, causing
us to walk off the 18th mildly seasick.
You can drink in drop-dead-gorgeous panoramic views, like the
one found on the 430-yard 14th hole, knowing there will also be moderately
sloped tee shots and approaches on shorter par 4s, such as the 335-yard 15th.
Jones well knew that dessert tastes better when part of a well-rounded meal, and
Anglebrook is just that.
The view from the 18th tee box would be odd even if not for
the inarguably fair 17 holes preceding it. Sitting like a giant pockmark
smack-dab in the middle of the fairway—exactly where the perfect drive would
seem to want to land—is a nasty, yawning bunker. There is precious little room
to its left (wetlands) or right (trees), and a short drive leaves an approach of
well over 200 yards that in any case needs to thread a claustrophobic gap
between trees to a narrow entrance to an elevated green. All of which begs the
question: What is that thing doing there?
Sadly, Jones isn’t around to ask anymore. But at the risk of
presumptuousness, I’d venture the following: In the end, golf dwells in the
realm of the impossible—designers just help determine how impossible. As a final
statement, then, by forcefully reminding us that golf will not be conquered and
that we should content ourselves in battling it as best we can, the unorthodox
18th at Anglebrook contains more than a little wit and pathos.
Par: 72
Yardage: 7,001
Year founded: 1998
Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr.
