Architects Dave Zinkand and Joel Weiman have been hired to restore the private Hempstead Golf & Country Club on Long Island in New York, with a master plan already in development and bunker work set to begin in 2028. The current layout, which sits on the site of the club’s previous course, was designed by A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1927.
Zinkand and Weiman plan the large-scale bunker renovation for 2028 and 2029, with more work to follow through 2033. The goal is to recapture Tillinghast’s strategic principles while modernizing the layout.
"Hempstead presents a rare opportunity to restore both an exceptional Tillinghast golf course and the remarkable landscape that shaped it," Zinkand said in a media release announcing the plans. "Our goal
is to connect those two stories in a way that feels authentic to the club's history and serves generations of members to come."
Zinkand and Weiman have not worked together before, but they roomed together while studying landscape architecture at Cornell in New York. They plan to move Tillinghast’s great hazard (a large bunker that must be carried, and a feature Tillinghast repeated on multiple courses) on No. 13 at Hempstead downrange to better challenge modern players, and they will enhance Nos. 16-18 to create more risk/reward decisions.
“The master plan strengthens the course's natural flow by capitalizing on Hempstead's compact footprint and reinforcing the distinction between its spacious outward nine and more intimate inward journey,” Weiman said in the media release. “Expanded sightlines from the clubhouse will immediately draw golfers deeper into the property, while the routing creates ideal opportunities to restore classic Tillinghast features.”
Jason Lusk is Golfweek's travel and golf course architecture editor, as well as the print magazine's creative director. He has written for and designed Golfweek for more than two decades.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Golden Age New York course to undergo years-long restoration
