South Fork Country Club Shares History With U.S. Open Host

Over the last decade, golf course architect Gil Hanse has become one of the most respected and most sought-after architects in the country.

This week, the best golfers in the world will tee it up at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, a course that Hanse substantially remade in preparation for the tournament.

He’s also done major overhauls at such celebrated courses as the Los Angeles County Club in California, Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester, Baltusrol in New Jersey, Oakland Hills in Michigan.

And, of course, at South Fork Country Club in Amagansett.

“We got Gill before anybody knew who he was,” said Alex Walter, vice president of South Fork, which hired Hanse 25 years ago to expand the club’s course from nine holes to 18. “He’s always had a soft-spot for South Fork because of that.”

South Fork hired Hanse in 1997 to do the design for what is now the “front nine”at the course, which was completed in 2000. The design was a challenge because at less than 100 acres in all, split by Old Stone Highway, South Fork is a small property for an 18 hole course.

“What he did with those nine holes is really remarkable,” Walter said. “Some of the holes show the genius of architecture. They make you play away from the trouble, but then introduce other problems.”

Hanse has been tapped by the USGA as their go-to for updates or redesigns of the courses that will host its premier tournament, the U.S. Open — a role he inherited from East Hampton’s own Rees Jones.

Despite now being in exceedingly high demand, Hanse has been fitting in return visits to South Fork in recent years.

He designed a new “short game” practice area that Walter said is one of the best on Long Island and over the last three years has begun a gradual updating of the entire original nine holes on the land east of Old Stone Highway.

In 2020, he remade the 14th and 15th holes — introducing a “Punchbowl” design popular on some of the earliest golf courses in Europe — and this fall will overhaul the 16th, 17th and 18th holes.

Hanse has become known for undoing past updates of classic courses, restoring them to more resemble their original selves that great golfers in the early 20th century might have played. He prefers ground-level tee boxes as opposed to elevated ones — much to the chagrin of duffers — bunkers with high, fescue-rimmed embankments that punish a golfer who finds his or her way into it, sloping greens and risk-reward challenges crafted from the natural terrain.

South Fork was officially created in 1921, but the golf course was plowed under for farming during World War II. What is now the back nine and the former clubhouse were re-built in 1961. The updates to those holes that Hanse has planned so far have introduced new bunkers, lowered tee boxes and green complexes with a nod to golfing history.

After the three holes that will be overhauled this fall and winter, Walter says the club will have three holes left on Hanse’s schedule — whenever that may be.

Walter and club President John Grossman said they’d have loved to have all the work redone at once, but in light of Hanse’s demanding schedule, the club is grateful he’s been able to dedicate himself to returning to South Fork.

“The guy’s a genius,” Walter said. “We’ll take him whenever we can get him.”