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Perhaps stung by its recent past, Yale Golf Course is focused on salvaging its present, with an eye toward a restorative future that could complete the circle back to when and where it all began.
Confused?
Let’s unpack where we’re at and how we got here. Yale Golf Course opened in 1926, a Golden Age collaboration from Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor resulting in one of the game’s greatest early designs.
It’s been exceptionally well received ever since, landing on best golf course lists in Connecticut (No. 2 according to Golf Digest, last month), the United States (No. 54 according to Golfweek, last month), and the world (No. 83 according to Golf magazine, 2019). Golfweek has named it the best college campus course in the country.
So where did things go wrong?
Yale had developed the reputation of being a gem that had lost its sparkle. Good bones, but in need of some aesthetic attention. When the pandemic hit hard in March 2020, Yale Golf Course became the exception: With courses in Connecticut remaining open for what would become record-setting seasons for many as golf provided an undisturbed recreational outlet, Yale University closed all campus facilities and sent students and employees home. That included the golf course and most of its staff. What had been a crew of nearly two dozen was reduced to two, left to do whatever maintenance work they could in the limited time they had to work on a course that wasn’t opening any time soon.
The scrutiny intensified when photos emerged last summer showing the shuttered course suffering from serious neglect, weeds sprouting out of bunkers, grass uncut. Sadness and anger swept over those who call Yale home.
“Golf courses were just about the only safe place to go, and as far as I know, Yale was the only course in the state that was closed,” said the Rev. Bill Lee, a longtime Yale Golf Course member and club champion who earned degrees from the Yale Divinity School in the early 1970s. “I’m sorry to see it’s become what it’s become right now, because there are so many people who enjoy playing it.”
When the course finally re-opened in late September 2020, there were two temporary greens and only 17 holes – the famous par-3 ninth with its long Biarritz green was closed for construction reasons. But a new general manager was in place. Peter Palacios was hired in August to help bring the course back to life.
Two months ago, Palacios hired Jeffrey Austin as the new Yale Golf Course superintendent. Austin had been the assistant superintendent at Augusta National Golf Club before taking the top job at Quail Hollow Country Club in Concord, Ohio, seven years ago.
“Bringing this course back from 2020 will not happen ‘overnight.’ We are excited where the course is and more importantly with our direction forward.”
Jeffrey Austin
“Jeffrey’s knowledge and commitment to agronomic integrity has been paramount throughout his career,” Palacios said in a statement announcing the hire. “We believe this will lay a solid foundation that will propel the Yale Golf Course in maintaining great playable conditions.”
Neither Palacios nor Austin responded to interview requests for this article. But with two key personnel moves in place, Yale Golf Course opened this year in mid-April, all 18 holes available with no temporary greens.
In an e-mail sent to Yale Golf Course members on May 25, Austin said: “We continue the process of reclaiming the golf course after the challenging past 12-18 months. It will be a process that we continue to improve upon throughout the season and I am confident that you will see incremental improvements from week to week.
That direction could include an upcoming major restoration project that would close the course for up to two years. In a Yale Daily News story last month, Palacios said plans are in the approval process with university leadership, and that discussions are being held with prospective donors to fund the project.
Knowing that there might be an opportunity to restore a Macdonald-Raynor masterpiece has drawn the interest of many of the best architects in golf, and fans and members of the course are thinking about landing a big fish for the job, such as Gil Hanse, Tom Doak or the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.
All are considered elite when it comes to restoring classic courses. Hiring any would be the clearest sign yet that Yale University is serious about bringing its famous golf course back to the level that so many have longed for, and know is possible.
“It’s such a treasure,” said Lee, a 2008 inductee in the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame who lives a mile away from the course in New Haven. “I’m a classic golf course person, and that course is such a treasure in terms of its design.”
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