"Country Roads"

Back in the days when Route 9W was just a dirt road and the only means of crossing the Hudson River above the city was a ferry, Rockland Country Club was a trailblazer.  In the autumn of 1906, a group of 11 men, most of them New York City residents, gathered to discuss the possibility of establishing a Club, way out in the country where they might spend weekends hunting, fishing and play golf.

The Club was incorporated in November, 1906.  The founders bought the Blauvelt Farm, which extended from the Hudson River to the land now occupied by the front nine.  Henry Stark, greenkeeper at Englewood, the premier private golf club in the region at the time, was hired to build a nine-hole course that was ready, along with four tennis court, by July of 1907.

Although additional land was purchased as early as 1910, it was almost two decades before the Club decided to expand the course to 18 holes.  Robert White laid out what proved to be an entirely new golf course, which was ready for play in 1930.  Perhaps only the present third green, which was approached originally from the direction of the 16th fairway, remains from Stark's original nine-holer.

Befitting a course on the western ledge of the Palisades, the land tumbles and falls.  From its high point along a ridge that runs north to south, golfers can see for miles into Rockland County.  But they'll rarely see a level lie, playing up, down, and along the ridge for most of the round.

The ninth is a short par four calling for a carry of 150 yards across a lake to a rising fairway that alternately falls off to both sides.  Mounds just in front of the green leave a narrow alley in and often hide the flag.  Shots too long can find the highway.

Number 12 is a long, treacherous par four, starting from an elevated tee, dropping into a valley, then climbing to a slick two-tiered green.  Thick trees line the right side out-of-bounds, with more trees on the left trimming the margin of error perceptibly.

A major change was made to the course in 1963 for reasons of safety.  Until then, the eighth and ninth holes had been on the east side of the highway, playing to and from the river, with the ninth tee on a bluff, just 20 feet from the water's edge.  But crossing the busy highway became increasingly dangerous, so the Club sold all east of the highway,to the Palisades Parkway Commission and purchased acreage to the south on which the present 12th and 13th holes were built by architect Alfred Tull.  Two difficult greens, the 15th and 17th were rebuilt by Stephen Kay in 1995 as part of a master plan expected to carry the Club into the 21st century.

The most prominent and long-serving of Rockland's professionals was Ray Jamieson (1960 - 1985), whose driver may be worthy of a place in the Hall of Fame.  Jamieson was an assistant to George Jacobus at Ridgewood in 1935, as was Byron Nelson, who later hired Jamieson as his own assistant at Inverness in Toledo, Ohio.  One day Nelson asked to borrow Jamieson's brand-new driver.  That was the club Nelson used to forge his record-setting streak of 11 consecutive wins in 1945.  Jamieson never did get it back.