The Lido Golf Club was a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, Nassau County,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, New York.

History

The Lido was designed by

Charles B. Macdonald Charles Blair Macdonald (November 14, 1855 – April 21, 1939) was a major figure in early American golf. He built the first 18-hole course in the United States, was a driving force in the founding of the United States Golf Association, won the f ...

, with contributions from other designers, and constructed in 1915. Overseen by engineer

Seth Raynor Seth Jagger Raynor (May 7, 1874 – January 23, 1926) was an American golf course architect and engineer. He designed approximately 85 golf courses in about 13 years, his first in 1914, at age 40. His mentor was Charles Blair Macdonald, the creat ...

, construction required that "thousands of pounds of sand" be pumped out of the bay to reclaim what had been a marsh. The advantage was that "the exact contours required by the course architects" could be achieved. Turf bricks were cut from nearby property to lay the greens. The course opened by the summer of 1917.

More than 2,000,0000 cubic yards were pumped in from Long Beach channel by five hydraulic dredges. Hills forty feet high and undulations corresponding were thus constructed. Forty thousand cubic yards of meadow muck were lifted and placed as a soil for all the fairways, greens and tees. Among the incidentals more than 2,500 tons of lime, 6,000 tons of fertilizers, and 35,000 tons of top soil. The entire rough was planted by hand with beach grass, each in squares eighteen inches apart. Nearly a million plants were required. They hold the sand in place and at the same time afford an excellent hazard. An irrigation system provides for every foot of the expanse.

Unfortunately, its opening coincided with the United States' entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During the summer of 1918, management was forced to lower the annual dues from $200 to $60 and make the course easier to attract more amateur players. In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

acquired the property and destroyed the course to construct a naval base. After the war, in 1953, a new course was built in nearby Lido Beach with a design by

Robert Trent Jones Robert Trent Jones Sr. (June 20, 1906 – June 14, 2000) was a British–American golf course architect who designed or re-designed more than 500 golf courses in 45 U.S. states and 35 countries. In reference to this, Jones took pride in sayi ...

. While different from the original, the Trent Jones course features a replica of Macdonald's 4th hole.

Course

The Lido provided a championship, a regular, and a short course.

Reception

In 1921,

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger ...

listed the Lido as one of golf's "Big Three" courses, along with the National Links, and Pine Valley. An assessment after completion described the course as "the greatest test in the world, with the possible exception of Pine Valley."

On two holes at high tide the surf scatters spray over the greens, while the ocean seems scarcely more than a drive, a brassey and approach from any of the tees. The course proper covers 115 acres, over seven of which flows the lagoon, an artificial lake dredged twelve feet deep with made-land in the centre constituting the island hole.… The home hole was built after the design of the best of more than one hundred plans submitted in a prize contest conducted in England for the best two-shot stretch.

Legacy

In 2021, Michael and Chris Keiser, operators of Sand Valley Golf Resort in

Nekoosa, Wisconsin Nekoosa is a city in Wood County, Wisconsin, United States. Its name derives from the Ho-Chunk word, "Nįįkuusra", "Nakrusa", or "Nįkusara" which translates to "running water". The population was 2,580 at the 2010 census. History An article d ...

undertook to construct a replica of the Lido in the Wisconsin sand barrens. Golf historian Peter Flory spent years studying the original course's design and created a virtual, 3-D computer simulation. Impressed by Flory's photorealistic model, Keiser hired architect

Tom Doak Tom Doak is a golf course architect. He has 6 courses ranked among the top 100 in the world according to the "Top 100 Courses in the World" March 2021 list compiled by ''Golf Magazine.'' These include Pacific Dunes in Oregon, Ballyneal in Colorad ...

to bring the replica to life. It's expected to be completed in 2023. Another Lido-inspired course opened in 2022 at Ban Rakat Club near

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Designed by architect

Gil Hanse Gilbert Hanse (born August 12, 1963) is an American golf course architect. Hanse, along with his business partner Jim Wagner, was selected to design the Rio 2016 Olympic Golf Course, the first Olympic venue to host golf since 1904. Education A ...

alongside business partner Jim Wagner, Ballyshear Golf Links features 18 holes reinterpreted to fit the site's landscape.

References

{{Reflist Golf clubs and courses in New York (state) Golf clubs and courses designed by Charles B. Macdonald Defunct golf clubs and courses 1921 establishments in New York (state) 1942 disestablishments in New York (state)