The Lido

The Lido clubhouse

History

Charles Blair MacDonald was one of the most influential men in American golf.

As a player he won the first U.S. Amateur Championship (albeit in rather odd circumstances).

He was also influential in the move to set up the U.S.G.A.

He designed the first eighteen hole golf course in the country (Chicago GC), and with Seth Raynor went on to design and build a host of the better courses in the country.

These courses include: National Golf Links of America, Piping Rock, Sleepy Hollow CC, Shinnecock GC & the original Lido Club..

The Lido Club

The Lido- hole 2 (Plateau)

After fabulous success with his growing list of designs, MacDonald was approached to build 'the course of courses' at Lido Beach on Long Island.

It was to be the best of his designs, with facilities to match.

The investors gave MacDonald (& Raynor) free reign to design the best holes and course possible, with no fiscal restraints.

As he had done with all of his work to date, MacDonald based his design on template holes, with strategies seen on some of the more inspiring holes in the U.K.

The Lido opened for play in 2014 to much acclaim.

But it did not last long- the club weathered World War 1, but was devastated by the crash of Wall Street.

The lavish clubhouse and then the beachfront holes were sold off to realtors as the membership suffered.

The last straw was delievered with the onset of World War Two.

In 1942 the U.S. Navy took over the entire facility.

In 1956 a new Lido course designed by Robert Trent Jones was built on adjoining site.

It bears no resemblance to the original Lido.

The new Lido

The Lido- hole 1 (First)

The Lido- hole 1 (First), approach

Over nearly a century the reputation of The Lido has grown- certainly it is regarded as one of THE great courses from yesteryear.

In recent years the golfing world has had a fascination with the classic template courses that C.B. MacDonald created a century ago.

Mike Keiser and his team at Bandon Dunes look at the possibilities of employing Tom Doak to build Lido at Bandon Dunes, but Doak did not think the land was ideal.

So they built Old MacDonald- a tribute to C.B.MacDonald and his template holes.

Bandon Dunes- Old MacDonald

Enter Peter Flory, a keen golfer who used his technical skills to recreate the Lido topography on his computer.

When Tom Doak connected with Flory they were able to convince the Keiser's on the merit of building a genuine reproduction of the original Lido adjacent to their Sand Valley Resort.

With a site comprised of acres of sand, Doak & Flory were able to replicate every mound, dip and furrow from the original Lido.

Tom Doak of course had to resize the course to suit the modern golfer- not just for length but also with width between holes.

It appears he has done that without compromising the integrity of the iconic holes.

One cannot truly understand the magnitude of this project until you see it, walk it, play it.

Even then I am a little awed by just how much detail has gone into this recreation- the movement in the fairways, ridges, bunkers- everything is precisely placed as per the original course.

Personally I don't think I could take it all in, and get to know the lines of play off different tees and to different pins without playing the course for weeks!

I really am amazed at the detail and complexity in this project and the skills required to build it.

Notable holes include:

- hole 3 (Eden), a challenging par 3 based on the 11th hole at St Andrews Old Course

The Lido- hole 3 (Eden)

The Lido- hole 3 (Eden) green

- hole 4 (Channel), a striking double water carry par 5 based on the Old course at Littlestone.

The Lido- hole 4 (Channel)

- hole 5 (Cape), a gorgeous short par 4 and in my opinion the best hole on the course. It was based on MacDonald's 14th hole at The National Golf Links

The Lido- hole 5 (Cape) approach