01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 27, 2006

There is no bigger fan of Newport Country Club than the executive director of the United States Golf Association.

"Personally, I can't think of a course I enjoy playing more than Newport," said David Fay, who fell in love with the course -- and with Rhode Island -- nearly 20 years ago.

"I first saw Newport in August of 1987," Fay recalled. "I was working at the U.S. Women's Amateur at Rhode Island Country Club and, before the championship in Barrington, P.J. Boatwright [a former executive director of the USGA] and I traveled down to visit Newport as a follow-up to the club's invitation to host the 1995 [U.S.] Amateur.

"P.J. and I instantly fell in love with the place, including the fact that the course had no irrigation system to water the fairways and roughs. Indeed, we made it very clear that we thought the absence of a modern irrigation system was one of the more appealing aspects of the course, both visually, and in terms of the way it played.

"I find everything about Newport Country Club appealing," Fay said. "The look, feel, and challenge of the golf course. The clubhouse -- which I believe is the most strikingly appealing of any in the U.S.A. The fact that it was the birthplace of national golf championships in the United States -- both the Amateur and the Open in 1895."

Fay was so enthralled by Newport that not only did he become a member of the club, but he also bought a summer home in Saunderstown, where he plans to retire.

"I might be one of the more passionate imported Rhode Islanders you've ever encountered," he said.

It's easy to see why someone who's passionate about golf -- not just the game itself, but also its history and traditions -- would love Newport CC.

As one of the founding clubs of the USGA in 1894, and as host of the first national championships, it has a lasting place in the golfing history of this country. The newly renovated clubhouse, visible from almost every hole on the course, is an elegant throwback to the days when Newport was the summer place to be for America's most fashionable socialites. And then there is the course itself.

With several holes only a wedge shot from the Atlantic Ocean, and many having a view of the water and the rocky coast, it has a links-like feel reminiscent of the classic courses of Scotland and Ireland. Although short by the technology-affected standards of modern golf, Newport remains a challenge for even the best players because of the unpredictable winds off the water and, particularly following a wet spring such as we have had, the thick rough, which exacts a severe penalty for an errant tee shot.

Unlike many overwatered courses, where membership demands a lush green year-round, Newport hearkens back to an earlier era, when the course changed with the weather. Often wet in the spring, when the fairways allow little roll, the course dries out in the summer, enabling -- and sometimes forcing -- players to execute bump-and-run shots to the greens.

For the golf purist, the tactical decisions resulting from such widely varying conditions is a delight.

"One enduring memory of the '95 Amateur [won, for the second of what would be three consecutive years, by a young man from the West Coast by the name of Eldrick Woods] was the puff of dust from the iron shots," Fay said. "The course was brown, and hard, but that wasn't surprising. That's the way it is most years."

Newport is a course one can play for years without ever tiring of it.

Fay, whose handicap varies widely -- "Depending on when you get me," he said, "I'm either a sandbagger or, worse, the possessor of a big vanity handicap," -- has played in a number of club tournaments over the years.

"Without distinction," he said, although noting that he did finish second a few seasons ago in the T.S. Tailer, a stroke-play tournament in which he played with Rees Jones, the renowned golf-course architect.

"Our last hole," Fay said, "was the [211-yard, par-3] fourth, which will be the 13th for the [Open] championship. Rees and I both managed snappy double-bogeys."

More impressively, Fay had a hole-in-one -- one of three in his life -- on the difficult, 205-yard, par-3 14th at Newport, which will play as the fifth hole this weekend, when the nines have been reversed to provide more access for spectators on the finishing holes.

"My golf handicap is a roller-coaster, running the gamut -- in just the past 12 months -- from an index of 5.7 to 12.4," Fay said. "It's been that way for about the last 15 years. Evidence: In April, 1991, I played two rounds in one day at Augusta National. My score, in the morning, from the members tees was 91. My score in the afternoon, from the back tees, was 72, with a double-bogey on 17. I rest my case."

When it comes to making a case for being one of America's best clubs, Newport has no better -- nor more ardent -- advocate than Fay.

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340