Before he ever thought about routing a golf hole, David Gang was writing code.
A software engineer, he came to the game in his late 20s at a sleepy course near his home in western New York, sneaking in holes at dawn and dusk. He loved the solitude and the challenge. But it wasn’t until his son, Matthew, who has Down syndrome, fell for golf that Gang’s interest deepened into something else. A pivotal moment came during a pro-am at Sherwood Country Club in Southern California, when Matthew, then 8, got to walk the course with Tiger Woods.
“Tiger was so warm and welcoming; he basically invited Matthew into his world,” David Gang told me the other day. “It was a reminder of what a powerful force golf can be.”
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Gang came away resolved to create a place that reflected the joy that he and Matthew felt when they played — an accessible, flexible and engaging course, rooted in camaraderie and a sense of belonging.
That vision has taken shape at Storm King Golf Club in the Hudson Valley, on a modest parcel in the shadow of a mountain of the same name. Revising an existing design by Chris Gray, Gang has brought an entirely new course to life, one that breaks with 18-hole convention but hews faithfully to the spirit of the game. The foundation is a walkable nine of roughly 3,000 yards, though the routing splinters and reconnects through an intricate network of tees and greens — five distinct nine-hole loops, more than 30 teeing options, and some 225,000 square feet of putting surface (more than double of what’s found on a typical 18-hole course), including double, triple, and even a quadruple green. The result is a kind of golf kaleidoscope, upward of 45 possible holes depending on the path you choose.
Stitched over it all is a 19-hole short course that strings together par-3s across the property — a lighter, faster option for a quick loop or a spirited match with friends. Gang describes it as “golf, reimagined.”
He conceived of Storm King around three guiding principles: playability, maintainability, and sustainability. The turf is tended by robot mowers. The footprint is small, the inputs minimal. You can get around in little more than an hour or lose an afternoon trying new combinations. Post a score, or don’t — the real point is the company and the walk.
Gang is 69. Early in his career, he helped build AOL before launching his own software company, Brightspot. He’s done well for himself. Storm King is his way of doing well for others. Though the business plan is still in flux, it promises to be something of a hybrid, with fractional-ownership memberships that allow small groups to rent the course out for the day; select windows set aside for public access; and events with proceeds earmarked for charitable organizations.
This past weekend marked the first of those events — the Storm King Match Play Invitational — which featured a field of 32 adaptive golfers and wounded veterans, playing in support of Tunnel to Towers, a nonprofit that helps first responders and military veterans.
The course was buzzing. But, Gang says, “it still felt empty. We could have easily hosted 40 to 48 golfers playing simultaneously without hiccups.”
There will be time for that. Storm King is welcoming limited play by invitation through Nov. 15 before shutting down for the season. It will reopen June 1 next year.
