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Led by landscape designer Miranda Brooks, this sustainable golfing getaway is tucked away in nature, allowing amateur and expert golfers to enjoy sweeping Catskills views while hitting the links.
Photo by Christian Harder
The highly anticipated Inness golf course opens in Accord, the latest from acclaimed golf architects King-Collins Golf.
The most enjoyable round of golf you play this summer might very well take place on a nine-hole course. Situated between the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains, the golf course at Inness — a new resort and members club in Accord — is a wide-open, Links-inspired course with expansive views across the property. Opening in June, it is the newest project from acclaimed golf-course architects Rob Collins and Tad King and has golfers in the know brimming with excitement to play.
King-Collins Golf is best known for creating Sweetens Cove in Tennessee, which consistently places high on rankings of the best courses, sells out its annual day passes, and is praised by amateurs and pros alike — even though it, too, is a nine-hole design. The experience there is focused having the most enjoyable golf experience. The only rule at the club: “Don’t infringe upon other people’s enjoyment of the course. Keep up and be a good friend.”
The ethos at Inness — which is accessible to hotel guests and club members and their guests — is also one of fun. No need to worry about many of the stale rules and traditions you might find at other high-profile courses. For example, walking is encouraged and keeping score and proper attire are optional.
And if Inness plays to the nickname some insiders have already given it, “Sweetens’ Back Nine,” we might come to enjoy some of the same features that makes the Tennessee course so beloved, such as going out in groups of eight, playing the same hole from a variety of different angles, and access to all-day passes.
Small details, like locally sourced, masonry-grade sand for the bunkers, exemplify how King-Collins Golf blends sustainability and design — incorporating architecturally significant elements from the past into modern layouts.
The course features many memorable green complexes, including a double green, a megaplex triple green with a 12,000-sq-ft practice-putting surface, and a reverse redan on hole 3. The course is also rumored to have four or five greens influenced by the nearly forgotten Sitwell Park, designed by Allister Mackenzie (Augusta National and Cypress Point), and famous for their extreme undulation.
Mackenzie’s influence is noted on a sign at Sweetens Cove, “It’s only natural that players who have been spoon-fed on insipid, flat, uninteresting golf should view with a considerable amount of suspicion anything which is undoubtedly out of the ordinary.”