Spring Brook

Spring Brook Country Club features one of the more eccentric routing foibles in American golf...namely that Walter Travis opted to play three par threes back to back. This series of short holes, dubbed “The Gauntlet,” may not end the course, but it will be surprising if they do not have some impact on the result of a match.

The first of these holes, No. 9, requires an 190-yard shot that hugs Armstrong Pond, to a green that sits to the left of the drink, and between two large trees (to be fair, this will bring you back to the clubhouse, so the gauntlet does offer a brief commercial break). The No. 10 hole is the shortest of the trio, but requires a carry directly across the same pond to a wide green where a tee shot past the green is not much safer than a wet ball out front. Finally, players will get away from the pond and play a 200-yard hole with imposing bunkers at the front.

This routing choice will certainly not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a charming reminder of golf’s more eclectic age.

Interestingly, Travis’s involvement at the course was strictly speculative for the club’s first 87 years of existence, until researchers from the Walter Travis Society finally confirmed the routing was indeed the native New Yorker’s. More recent updates were done by Ken Dye...we're sure he hopes the future Ken Dye Society takes note for posterity.