Sullivan County GC (Liberty, NY) — new operator/owner

[Ronald Montesano]

Shaun Smith must be someone special. He is both "New Member" and "Legacy Member" on GCA. Few, if any, can make that claim.

Liberty NY has been home to The Monster and Grossingers, among other, public-access courses. It has taken some hits over the years, thanks to turbulence in the economy. It is a lovely part of our state, and I hope to get over that way at some point.

[Shaun Smith]

Hello Shaun,
Congrats-gotta make it back up there.


I especially love the part about preserving and using the old grasses.
A lot of work to strip the old turf and then reuse it, especially without fairway irrigation
So much texture is lost when "modern" grasses are the go to when renovation work is done, and the old turf scrapped.


I'm thinking of one course I know without fairway irrigation that loses more and more of its texture every time they slip in more uniform bluegrass surrounds and more irrigation.


I played Shennecossett Tuesday and many of the greenside bunkers had had their faces resodded with monostand bluegrass.
Rough and ready, firm, somewhat unkempt and texture in spades has always been the appeal there-I already miss the mottled fescue faced turf around and near those bunkers-I guess a few hot summers will take care of that.

That’s the thing, isn’t it?  Once you put that first nice new piece down, everything else starts to look funny, but it’s not everything else that looks funny, it’s the new stuff that looks funny, but you’ve already talked yourself into all the advantages of the new stuff, so down the road you go.

Wait until you look at before pictures and then really wonder which look is better. It'll happen. Part of the process.

Can you clarify what you mean by "which look is better"? I can't tell if you mistakenly think that we went with new grass and that in time I will grow to appreciate the new grass over the old grass. The only new grass we brought in was for the 9th green/putting course because we ran out of the old stuff. The rest was flipped or seeded.


Golfers will vary in how much emotional value they place in such things. For me the ideas and feelings that come to mind when I play on the turf here; Continuity and connection with local history, golf history, agronomic history; The practicality and modesty of using what you have because it's good and not not thinking reflexively that we can improve it by replacing it; It's beautiful how the different species change and interact day to day over a season.


It's small town and there are a lot of folks living here, older and younger than me, who have played golf here all their lives. We have very little written history about the course, no great championships or trophy room, no grill room, no locker room. The whole story of the course and everyone's memories were written right there on the ground and on that turf. It was terrifying enough doing as much as we did, but the grass is the soul of the golf course and we couldn't take that away.


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[Jason_Bernardon]

It’s great to see the progress. The course I’m a member of shares many of the same characteristics, except we have the ‘luxury’ of in ground irrigation!


There are a few 9 hole courses on my list and Sullivan is near the top.  Hope to find my way there one day. 

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