Fresh Meadow

Fresh Meadow Country Club was established in the early 1920s at Flushing in the New York borough of Queens. The club’s new course opened in 1923 and was designed by A. W. Tillinghast.

Fresh Meadow hosted the PGA Championship in 1930, won by Tommy Armour, and the 1932 U.S. Open, won by its former club pro Gene Sarazen. According to club history, “Sarazen resigned his position at Fresh Meadow and took a similar position at nearby Lakeville. Sarazen believed the ‘home pro jinx’ had cost him the 1930 PGA, and he was taking no chances.”

In 1946 the club sold its Queens property for housing development and purchased Lakeville Golf & Country Club, its present course. The course at Lakeville in Nassau County near Lake Success was fashioned by Harry Colt’s partner C.H. Alison, opening on Memorial Day, 1925.

Tom Doak commented in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses: “It’s a somewhat hilly layout, but lacks the detail work around the greens and in the contouring of the bunkers that might have made it a success.”

Rudo, Mr. Top 100, played Fresh Meadow in 2015 and he commented as follows in his blog:

Today, FMCC is a beautiful course, which occupies a wonderful piece of land. However, it is a prime example of the negative influence of Augusta National on golf course conditioning in the US. The 18 holes are almost uniformly green, the fairways and greens being overwatered. The bunkers remind me of those at ANGC, with perfectly smoothed sand and manicured edges. The members love their green course and I do not think they realize how much more fun it would play if it was firm and fast. Many of the holes are extremely well designed on rolling land that does not react as it would if it was firm/fast…thereby reducing “shot values.”