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Great Long Island Courses

Long Island: We Have Many Great Golf Courses

From top - Bethpage State Park, Fishers Island Club, and Indian Island Golf Club.

There are many courses on Long Island Besides the very famous U.S. Open courses like Bethpage Black and Shinnecock Hills. And even some of the state and county courses are very challenging. The featured courses in this article are only a small sample of what Long Island Has to offer.

A golf lover has to make Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale (516-249-0707) a destination. Design credit is given to A.W. Tillinghast, who also created Pine Valley and Pinehurst. The course is regularly rated by Golf Magazine as among the top 20 in the country. The Black, opened in 1936, is one of five courses built at the park, which was constructed by Robert Moses in 1934. Because of the 2002 U.S. Open, the first ever at a public golf course, the rest of the world found out what local players knew, and the Black immediately became the standard by which other public courses are judged.

The rough is now shorter than in ’02 and a few fairways have been widened, but the Black remains “an extremely difficult course,” as the sign near the first tee warns. It’s still over 7000 yards, so you need plenty of sock in your clubs. The greens are relatively small and well-bunkered, so accurate iron play is required too. The fourth hole’s fairway is bisected by a steep-faced bunker, then there’s a high-lipped bunker in front of the green. The 15th is a long par-4 that rises 50 feet over its last 45 yards to a small green guarded by three bunkers. A shot from the par-3 17th tee has to avoid two large, high-lipped bunkers fronting the green.

The U.S. Open will return to Bethpage in 2009, so get there while you can. With greens fees of $41 weekdays and $51 weekends (for state residents), you can’t go wrong.

If you can’t get onto any of Bethpage’s five courses (all named after colors) – and it is indeed difficult in the spring and summer – give Eisenhower Park (516-572-0327) on the Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow a try. It opened in 1914 and has three 18-hole, par-72 courses, with the longest being a healthy 6794 yards. A testament to its caliber is the PGA Champions Tour conducts a professional event (formerly known as the Long Island Classic) there every summer.

Fishers Island Club (631-788-7221) is not a public course. However, it is rated the 28th best course in the world, and even if you can’t wangle a guest pass, it is worth viewing and the island is an attractive, quiet place to get away. It can be reached only by ferry from New London and by plane, yet it is part of the Town of Southold in Suffolk County. The course was designed by a Southampton architect, Seth Raynor, in 1925. Much of its 6544 yards look out onto the Atlantic, and to the east is 1800 acres of farmland.

From top - Long Island National Golf Club and Montauk Downs State Park.

Let’s give Suffolk County credit for the Indian Island Golf Course on Riverside Drive in Riverhead (631-727-7776). It is not a long course and it is a relatively benevolent par-72, but the greens fees are reasonable and the setting is lovely. There is always a water view, and on a few of the 18 holes there is river and bay water on three sides. A good course for average hackers and youngsters.

The North Fork is a wonderful place to visit with its farm fields, vineyards, and rugged coastline. Take your golf clubs and head to Islands End Golf and Country Club (631-477-0777), right on Route 25 in Greenport. It too has reasonable rates for 18 holes at par-72 for 6639 yards adjacent to the Long Island Sound.

Sometimes overlooked because it is tucked into extreme southwest Nassau County, Lido Beach is a gem of a public course, located on Lido Boulevard (516-889-8181) between Long Beach and Point Lookout, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The par-71, 6868-yard course opened for play in 1949, and the architect was Robert Trent Jones Sr.

Back in Riverhead is Long Island National Golf Club, on the Northville Turnpike (631-727-4653). This course opened only eight years ago, but it has a great pedigree, having been designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., one of the top golf architects in the world. It was built on farmland, and bordering one side is a working potato farm. It is quite a test at 6838 yards from the green tees and being only a par 71.

The course at Montauk Downs State Park (631-668-1100) is rather beautiful already, but a restoration is underway to make it even better for the eye as well as the golf skills. It was built in 1928 by Carl Fisher as part of his effort to turn Montauk into the “Miami of the North.” It fell into disrepair, was renovated by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his two sons, Robert Jr. and Rees, then purchased by the state. The restoration, paid for with a combination of state funds and private donations, is being done pro bono by Rees Jones, who prepared Bethpage Black for the Open.

From top - Eisenhower Park, East Hampton Golf Club, Sebonack Golf Club

The greens fees on weekends and holidays are a paltry $41 for state residents, and an even better bargain at $36 weekdays considering that some golfers consider the Downs to be Pebble Beach of the Northeast. It is 18 holes, par-72, and is extra challenging when the wind is coming off the ocean.

If you go any further east you’ll arrive in Ireland. The Old Sod has some great golf courses – one of them, the K Club, hosted the Ryder Cup last September – but please get your fill of Long Island’s first.

Though Long Island is dotted with golf courses, there always seems to be room for another one, especially to the east. Here are the best to have been built since 2000:

The Bridge, Bridgehampton. Rees Jones carved a championship-level course out of the hilltop site of the former Bridgehampton Race Circuit. The elevated tee of the 250-yard par-3 16th looks out at Peconic Bay and clearly visible are the North Fork, Shelter Island, North Haven, and a large expanse of sky. Also on display are thick clumps of old trees, high green and purple fescue, and green grass hills and valleys.

East Hampton Golf Club. Hidden away in the woods off Abrahams Path is this challenging course designed by golf great Ben Crenshaw and his partner, Bill Coore. It will cost you several hundred thousand dollars to join, so start saving now.

Friar’s Head, Baiting Hollow. Crenshaw and Coore went at it again, and the result is what Golf Magazine cited as the 41st best new course in America and, as it matures, has a shot of cracking the top 100 of all courses. (This course was profiled in a “Links Life” column in February.)

The Links at Shirley. Open to the public (631-395-7272), there is a par-72, 18-hole championship course and a par-54, 18-hole short course. This is a good, accessible course, and you don’t have to be Tiger Woods to play it.

Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton. The newest kid on the block opened in May 2006. The owner is Michael Pascucci, who also owns TV-55. There’s no doubt this will make a bunch of “best” lists being that it was designed by the one-time-only combination of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak. It can be found next to two of the country’s great all-time courses, National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills.