水果派AV

In August, members of the Sennett club and guests commemorated its 100th anniversary with music, fireworks and more festivities. Days later, 水果派AV sat down with board of directors President Dom Basile and members Kathy Becker, Sharon Franchina, Marisa Carnicelli and Jack Weinerth to talk about Highland Park and the people who cherish it.听

"We've played golf together, we compete against each other, and yet we are great friends," said Becker, the club's first and only woman president. "We've built lifelong friendships up here."

Basile said a great deal of work goes into maintaining the 145-acre property, which gets its name from its elevation.听

The club offers memberships, and they come with first choice of tee times. But both the course and the club's restaurant, the 1925 Grill, are open to the public.听

The weather determines if the golf season ends in October or November, but even when tees can no longer be pushed into the聽cold, hard ground, the club doesn鈥檛 go into hibernation. The restaurant and event space offer lunch and dinner and host music, catered events and fundraisers, like the annual Bartender Battle.

It's that presence of people that keeps Highland Park's legacy alive after 100 years, its members said 鈥� and they and the staff work continually to keep them coming.

"We're one large family up here. Everybody knows everybody," Basile said. "You can see the camaraderie that happens up here. It's phenomenal."

'A whole lot of history'

Two charred wooden crests hanging in the 1925 Grill were some of the very few items salvaged from the clubhouse following a devastating fire in 2007.听

They bear the names of people who sank holes-in-one there between the early '60s and the early '80s.

"We lost a whole lot of history in that fire," Weinerth said.

The Franklin Street clubhouse was the club's second, replacing the original on North Hunter Avenue in 1945. The current one was built in 2009.听

To the club's members, the crests symbolize its resilience.听

"It's been a golfing business of ups and downs," Basile said. "We've had highlights. We've had some sadness."

Highland Park began as a nine-hole course built by theater manager Joseph N. Swartzwalder, Rex Morris of the Columbian Rope Co., John Leo of Dowd-Leo鈥檚, funeral director Lester Brew and legal counsel Joseph F.X. Iacovino. In 1935, prolific course architect A.W. Tillinghast (Bethpage Black, Winged Foot) was commissioned to make renovations, such as adding sand traps and moving tees and greens.听

It wasn鈥檛 until the early 1970s when the course expanded to 18 holes. Geoffrey Cornish (Templewood, Blackledge) designed the back nine, which according to the course's "offers exceptional challenge and adventure to the average golfer with its quick sloping greens and surrounding bunkers." Barry Jordan of Jordan Golf Design later renovated the sand traps on the front nine.

As the course gained renown for its beauty and challenge, famous names like the Baldwin brothers and Jim Boeheim have come to play there.

But it's the local and lesser-known golfers and staff who are to thank for the club's longevity, its members said. They cited Mike Bayus, Walt 鈥淎pples鈥� Skomsky and Walt Chalanick, among others, as well as longtime groundskeeper Tommy Lynch. Basile's parents were also longtime members, and Weinerth's mother was a waitress in the clubhouse.听

"A lot of people have had family roots embedded here for generations. It's, honestly, really cool to see," Carnicelli said.

Current membership fees are vastly more than the $30 golfers paid in 1925, but Basile said the club does its best to stay affordable.

Membership itself is about 300, just under the club's '80s heyday. It dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has recovered.听

Looking at the photos hanging in the 1925 Grill, Basile said the game of golf isn't going away.

Having Highland Park in a region with many courses is important, he continued 鈥� it means more tee times. Besides, there's more competition on the green than between the clubs.

"The club is here for many, many years to stay," he said.