Multi-Year Project Will Celebrate Club’s Enviable Setting on Long Island’s Hempstead Plains While Honoring Enduring Golden Age Design Principles
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) – Zinkand Golf Design (ZGD) – led by golf course architect David Zinkand and drawing upon more than 25 years of experience designing, managing and shaping projects in the field – has been selected in partnership with Joel Weiman of Weiman Golf Design to restore New York’s Hempstead Golf & Country Club.
The comprehensive multi-year master plan will highlight the 100-year-old handiwork of famed “Golden Age” golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast and accentuate the club’s alluring location on Long Island’s Hempstead Plains.
Zinkand and Weiman are working together for the first time, though they have been close friends since rooming together while studying landscape architecture at Cornell University. Their subsequent 30-year design careers have taken differing paths, and these varied experiences are providing Hempstead with an exciting collaborative skillset.
Master planning has begun, with a large-scale bunker renovation set for 2028-29. Additional course improvements will continue through 2033. Although the brief originated with the need to replace Hempstead’s aging bunkers, it quickly evolved into a broader restoration focused on revealing the course’s strategic principles, visual character and unique setting.
“Hempstead presents a rare opportunity to restore both an exceptional Tillinghast golf course and the remarkable landscape that shaped it,” said Zinkand. “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.”
Adds Weiman: “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. Expanded sightlines from the clubhouse will immediately draw golfers deeper into the property, while the routing creates ideal opportunities to restore classic Tillinghast features.”
Highlights of the aforementioned features include a dramatic Great Hazard on the 13th hole that will be repositioned to challenge today’s golfer yet remain faithful to its Golden Age origins. Holes 16 through 18 will also be enhanced to create a compelling sequence of risk-and-reward decisions that bring the playing experience to a rousing crescendo.
Equally important will be reestablishing the course’s sense of place. Prior to its mid-20th century development, the 60,000-acre Hempstead Plains formed one of North America’s rarest tallgrass prairie ecosystems. A century ago, it became home to several of Long Island’s most influential golf courses because of its sandy soil and rolling terrain. Architecture enthusiasts have long viewed the region, home to neighboring classics like Garden City Golf Club, as a birthplace of strategic American golf course design.
Ultimately, the work will leverage a visual and strategic tension: the deliberate juxtaposition of golden-age history and striking naturalism built on the Plains ecosystem. Players will experience a captivating contrast where clean, formal and deeply traditional Tillinghast design features – such as crisp, sharply-defined green complexes and geometric hazards – meet the untamed edges of the restored Hempstead Plains prairie.
“The masterplan creates an exciting balance between preserving our architectural heritage and preparing Hempstead for its next 100 years,” said Steven Perkowski, superintendent at Hempstead Golf & Country Club. “David and Joel have embraced the property’s history and recognized the unique opportunity presented by the Hempstead Plains. Their vision respects what members cherish about the course while introducing improvements that will strengthen both playability and long-term stewardship.”
For more information about Zinkand Golf Design, visit zinkandgolfdesign.com or follow @zinkandgolfdesign on Instagram.
About Zinkand Golf Design
Zinkand Golf Design stresses three overarching principles: Strategic Options, Sense of Adventure and Genius Loci to guide clients through project completion. Adapting these principles in a site-specific manner allows the firm to deliver cost-efficient results that elevate artistry while emphasizing practical, long-term maintenance. Principal designer David Zinkand, PLA, ASLA, developed this philosophy while studying the great courses of Great Britain and Ireland as a Dreer Award recipient and later refined it during 14 years working alongside Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Recent clients include Old Elm Club (Ill.), Big Foot Country Club (Wis.), Monterey Peninsula Country Club (Calif.), Sharon Golf Club (Ohio) and Chechessee Creek Club (S.C.).
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