Despite the chilly, wet start to the 2011 golf season, Westchester County”™s six public courses are now in full swing.
“It”™s business as usual,” said Joe Rafferty, general manager of the 7,000-yard, par 71 Hudson Hills Golf Club in Ossining, noting that the especially snowy winter did not require more preparation and maintenance than the typical cleanup that comes before each season opener.
“Everybody is working very hard to keep the courses up to the standards we expect,” said Peter Tartaglia, deputy commissioner for the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation.
He noted Saxon Woods Golf Course in Scarsdale underwent a “pretty significant facelift last year.”
Saxon Woods now features a reconfigured seventh-tee that has undergone expansion with new landscaping. The sixth green was elevated and relocated to the former location of the secondary seventh tee.
Flooding, which historically posed a problem for the course that borders the Hutchinson River and its parkway and which opened in 1931, will be of a lesser impact with the addition of new fairway drains and rebuilt drainage systems.
“They did some things aesthetically around here, added some cobblestones, repaved the driveway (and entrance circle) and did some beautification around the clubhouse,” said Charles Meola, Saxon Woods”™ new golf professional, who most recently served as assistant golf professional at the county”™s Mohansic Golf Course in Yorktown Heights. “In the golf shop, we did a facelift renovation and added some new product in there.”
Improvements to the driving range include: new mats, mat dividers, Caymen balls and target greens.
“It was a pretty big project,” Meola said, but declined to list a dollar amount. “They put a continuous cart path throughout the entire golf course ”“ we have 56 golf carts all equipped with a GPS unit. We”™re also trying to organize some junior clinics and some adult clinics to get new people introduced to the game.”
Mike Belmont, who came to Saxon Woods from the county”™s Dunwoodie Golf Course in Yonkers, will serve as general manager.
Maple Moor Golf Course in White Plains also has a new golf professional, Tom Avezzano, who most recently worked at the county-run Sprain Lake Golf Course in Yonkers.
A $1 increase in greens fees at the county courses this year will create a net savings for the county of about $800,000 annually, according to the 2011 budget.
Greens fees for 18 holes with a Westchester County Park Pass are as follows: weekends and holidays, $33; weekdays, $29; seniors and juniors (weekdays only), $22. Greens fees without a park pass are: weekends and holidays, $43; weekdays, $39.
Hudson Hills Golf Course offers a 2011 annual pass, which is broken down as follows: $3,350, unlimited park pass holder; $3,950 unlimited without park pass; $2,250 weekday park pass holder; $2,950 weekday without park pass; $1,950 senior with park pass and $2,350 senior without park pass.
Further information can be found at golf.westchestergov.com.
