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THE SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB

Becky Templeman was certified in 2007 as a Snake River
Sporting Club Sales Specialist.

We are so pleased to announce to that Snake River Sporting
Club has been awarded one of the MOST prestigious Golf
Course Awards in the Country. We are officially #2 on the
Golf Digest Magazine's America's Best New Private Course list.
Number 1 was awarded to Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton,
New York.

"If Jackson Hole Snake River Sporting Club isn't the best piece
of property that I have worked on in the US, it is tied for 1st!
What makes it such a special piece of property is the Snake River,
the canyon, the varieties of large, mature trees on site, and the meadow and wetlands areas. I believe it to be my finest golf course design in the US to-date." -Tom Weiskopf

Please feel free to contact myself or Jack Delay for further information.

See below a stunning photo of the course in all its fall splendor!

We will be working closely with the magazine to maximize all marketing opportunities, including a link to the article on our websites. Please see this link to the actual article, and one we have the hard copies, we will distribute reprints.

http://www.golfdigest.com/rankings/courses/private/2008/bestnewprivate

By Ron Whitten
Photo By Stephen Szurlej January 2008

It was an intriguing mix of seemingly oil-and-vinegar collaborators, a blend of the highly successful designer Jack Nicklaus and the now-mid-40s-but-still-Boy-Genius Tom Doak. Quibble, if you must, about who added the sizzle and who added the spice. We prefer to savor Sebonack Golf Club's many pleasures without worrying about which chef to compliment. Both deserve full credit.

Being among those privileged to have witnessed its creation ("Head to Head in the Hamptons," December 2005), we can vouch that the finished product exceeded its potential. It was hardly an outstanding piece of land in the beginning. Today it is a showcase of American golf, half of it linksland overlooking Great Peconic Bay (after a considerable amount of tree removal), the other half a sideslope of inland forest. Holes presumed to be weak links during construction-- the short opening par 4, just 355 yards from the back tee; the par-3 eighth over a pond; the par-5 13th-- turned out to be fine, solid, attractive, even invigorating. Those that were knockouts even in dirt-- the risk-and-reward, par-4 fifth, the windows-on-the-bay 11th and 12th-- are now exceptional.

The true secret to Sebonack's success was the transformation of the mundane into the magnificent. A modest campus of concrete-block dormitories has become the rolling, dunesy, par-4 second. A roadbed is now the rumpled seventh fairway. An old mansion and swimming pool made way for the bluff-top, par-5 18th.

Another potential mansion, intended to be a new home for owner Mike Pascucci in the center of the course, was scratched once he realized it would detract from the natural serenity of the layout. That allowed Doak and Nicklaus, months after the course had opened for play, to relocate the 16th green farther up a hill, on Pascucci's intended driveway, extending the par 4 from a drive-and-pitch 376 yards to a powerful-statement 467 yards, with a cleverly concocted new putting surface that feeds low, bouncing approach shots from the left down to pin positions on the right. The lesson? Even the best can stand improvement.

For all its high profile, Sebonack is really about nuances and illusions, a wry wrinkle in a putting surface that diverts a shot from its intended line, a bunker that looks tight but is far removed, a green that looks shallow but plays deep. Someday, maybe sooner rather than later, it might join neighbors Shinnecock and the National Golf Links in that pantheon of course architecture, America's 100 Greatest.

Contact Becky?

becky@beckytempleman.com


Best New Private
America's Best New Courses 2007

Sebonack Golf Club: The latest swagger on New York's Long Island.