The Nassau County municipal courses at Bay Park in East Rockaway and Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn have closed for the season. Sister nine-hole courses at North Woodmere and Cantiague parks will remain open through the winter.
Bay Park and Morley will likely reopen in late March. Check back as the spring season approaches for information on course reopenings.
Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church will hold its first annual golf outing at the Lido Golf Club on Tuesday, September 20 at 1 p.m. The outing will benefit the Freeport Emergency Food Pantry.
Golfers will enjoy an on-course lunch plus a barbecue buffet dinner after the round. The $130 entry fee includes food, motor cart and a gift pack. Sign-in begins at 11:30 a.m. For more information or to register for the outing as a player or sponsor, contact the church at (516) 785-1829.
Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church supports the Freeport Emergency Food Pantry, which strives to meet the needs of individuals and families in crisis who do not have money to cover necessities, including food. The pantry provides a short-term supply of food while helping people find more lasting solutions to fulfill their needs.
For more information on the Lido Golf Club, check out the course flyover.
The fourth annual Town of Hempstead Supervisor's Cup Golf Classic will tee off on Wednesday, October 5 at the Lido Golf Club, but there's limited time to enter your name into the drawing for tournament spots.
Hempstead Town residents are eligible to participate and must submit an application before September 9. A lottery for the 144 open spots in the event will be held at the Merrick Road Park Golf Course on Friday, September 16.
Supervisor's Cup participants receive range balls, cart, continental breakfast, barbecue lunch, prizes and refreshments in addition to 18 holes at one of Nassau County's most popular courses. Shotgun start is scheduled for 10 a.m. Awards will be given out for top team score, longest drives, accurate drives and closest to the pin. The winning four-person team (scramble format) will receive the Supervisor's Cup. Entry fee for lottery winners is $15.
Applications can be downloaded from the Town of Hempstead website. Completed applications must be faxed, mailed and postmarked, or dropped off in person at the Town of Hempstead offices by Friday, September 9.
For specific details and instructions regarding the registration process, and for additional information on the tournament schedule and format, visit the Town of Hempstead website or call (516) 292-9000, x-227.
And for more on the Lido Golf Club, check out the course flyover.
It's only natural for golfers with a competitive streak to shoot for personal benchmarks when they're out on the course and playing above their standard. Breaking 80, touching 90, keeping it under 100 -- whatever the goal may be, usually somewhere around the turn, players in the midst of one of their finer rounds will start extrapolating. Just match that front-nine 41 on the back and it's a record low. Or something along those lines.
At the Lido Golf Club in Lido Beach, the back nine doesn't take too kindly to such simple math. Lido's 16th and 17th (a story for another day) stand in the way of new lows as watery hurdles that force players to earn their pars and bogeys before continuing on to the more accommodating 18th.
The 16th, popularly known simply as the "Island" or "Double Island" par-5, is a living tribute to C.B. Macdonald's "Channel Hole" at the original Lido, a links course once considered a jewel of early 20th-century golf design and a marvel of engineering. Though today's two-fairway hole is only a Robert Trent Jones replica of Macdonald's #4 (the original course was buried long ago), it maintains the same risk/reward theme -- a conservative route over some water, an aggressive route over a lot of water, and plenty of trouble in between.
From the tee, the view of the 487-/460-yard par-5 doesn't reveal any clues about the proper approach. Visible up ahead are landing areas, a lapping lagoon and a faint glimpse of a flagstick in the distance. Even Lido's repeat customers have a hard time deciphering #16's puzzle-piece fairways. If you're a first- or second-timer on the course, hope for an experienced playing partner. If you don't get one, just take your best swing and hope you don't hit it straight (it's the worst way to go).
[ABOVE RIGHT: #16 as seen from the tee. The left route begins just beyond the bridge. The right route is out of sight beyond the water. LEFT: The orientation of the first fairway becomes more clear once you reach the bridge (though by now it's too late to rethink your strategy).]
The two-pronged fairway -- shaped like the head of a wrench -- is the first stop. From there, the next target is a second fairway laid out diagonally from the first and surrounded by water. It ends at a channel-side green that can only be reached in two by a pair of expertly executed shots.
So which is the way to go? A tee shot to the left side offers a greater margin for error and requires no threatening water carry. You're more likely to stay dry on this side; the trade-off, however, is a less direct route that adds yardage to the hole. Going to the right side requires a water carry of up to 200 yards, depending on the tees and your aim. The reward is a slightly better chance of reaching the green in two, but the downside is a poor angle to the green and another long water carry on the second shot.
The wild card in all this: a straight tee shot could be lethal. That's because the gap between the fairway sections is filled with water and within reach of drivers, fairway woods and possibly hybrids. And you're not free of trouble even if center-line shots manage to stay dry. A small sand trap keeps balls from rolling into the lagoon, but it sets up awkward sideways recovery shots to either prong of the fairway.
[ABOVE LEFT: The view from the left side, with the flag barely noticeable next to the smokestack. RIGHT: Another lengthy water carry separates the right side from the farther fairway and green. BELOW: With a devious grin, this sliver of sand awaits the dreaded straight drive.]
Another wild card -- the wind. On a wide-open plot between Reynolds Channel and the Atlantic, Lido is one of the windiest courses on Long Island. Wind speed and direction can alter your strategy completely from one day to the next.
Save for a watery 25-yard gap in between, the second fairway leads to the green almost as an extension of the first fairway's left side. It is a narrow finger of land bordered on three sides by water. Players approaching from the left will almost always use this farther fairway to set up a third shot at the green. Lay up to your most comfortable distance -- once you're on the second fairway, the approach will be anywhere inside 130 yards.
From the right, players can bypass this second fairway altogether if they're within reach of the green, but the risk is great. An attack on the green requires a nearly full water carry. A left-to-right ball flight into the green can cut off some of the risk; meanwhile, position too far right will add distance. From a perfect spot at the edge of the fairway (about a 270-yard drive from the back), it's close to 180 to the center of the green. This yardage increases quickly as position becomes less ideal.
One final factor that raises the degree of difficulty of the hole is the lack of yard markers. Once you tee off on #16, you're on your own. There is a 100-yard marker on the second fairway, but that's about all. It's easy to get confused without prior experience.
The hole ends with another majestic view of the channel. Three rear bunkers prevent long shots from taking a swim to Merrick. Pulling the putter will be a relief. The green rolls from back to front.
GOLI's Rob Dimino has played Lido more than any other course on the Island:
"Even after so many rounds on that course, I'm still a little uncertain about the best way to play the 16th. What I've been doing lately is hitting 3-wood to the left side, which puts me in good position to lay up close to the 100-yard marker and leave a full wedge shot into the green. Unless you are absolutely sure about your distances, there are just too many things that could go wrong up the right side. You have to carry so much water, and it basically takes two perfect shots to reach the green. You could always bail out short of the green on the second shot, but you could have done the same thing up the left side with less risk."
For more on the Lido Golf Club, check out the course flyover.
PREVIOUS CLOSER LOOKS:
Stonebridge Golf Links #4 -- (7/29/2011)
After a successful debut outing held last summer, Painting For Cures, an organization that aims to keep young children smiling during extended hospital stays, will hold its second annual charity golf outing on Saturday, August 13 at the Lido Golf Club.
The outing is currently open for registration and sponsorship opportunities. All participants will enjoy 18 holes on Lido's scenic, wind-blown layout between Reynolds Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, with cart, special tournament balls, range balls, lunch and beverages included in the $135 entry fee. At the end of the round, enjoy cocktails and an awards presentation before leaving with a complimentary gift bag. Players will also have opportunities to win prizes -- including Nike golf equipment -- and ace their way to a $15,000 hole-in-one jackpot.
All groups will tee off between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. (Tee times will be made available a week prior to the outing.) Players may register for the event individually or as part of a foursome.
"Painting For Cures was formed to help make a difference in the lives of hospitalized children and their families," says Robert Catalfomo, the organization's founder. It helps put smiles on the faces of children during extended hospital stays by providing them with arts and crafts programs as they recover from serious medical procedures. For more information on Painting For Cures or to register online for the event, visit the organization's website.
Contact Robert Catalfomo at R.Catalfomo@PaintingForCures.org for additional event and registration details. To sign on as an event sponsor, contact Jonathan Donohue at J.Donohue@PaintingForCures.org.
Lido Golf Club in Lido Beach will start the morning with shotgun starts on Thursday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 24 at 7:30 and 7:45 a.m., respectively. All public golfers are invited to reserve a spot and will be charged based on residency. Complimentary lunch will be provided.
The course will be closed after the conclusion of the round on May 19, but will remain open for play in the afternoon on May 24. Visit the Lido website for information on future shotgun starts and course events.
The waterside 18-hole course in Lido Beach sits between Reynolds Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, making wind a major factor. Players must contend with the channel and a series of ponds and inlets throughout most of the back nine. The course is a considered a "must-play" by Newsday, and its double-carry 16th hole is part of Newsday's Long Island Dream 18, Golfing Magazine's Dream Golf Club and Golf On Long Island's "Nassau 18."
Sports fans love a good list, ranking, survey, poll -- you name it. The more room for debate, the better. And we here at Golf On Long Island are no different. So what better time of year than Masters Week -- the unofficial universal start of the new golf season -- to come up with our "Nassau 18," a fantasy course comprised of some of the best public holes in the county.
Long Island golfers are no strangers to local lists. Golfing Magazine puts out its "Dream Golf Club" every year, and the Long Island Press includes a "Best Golf Course" category in its annual "Best of LI" survey. Originally published in 2007, Newsday's "Dream 18" was a handy reference guide for great public golf holes until it got lost in the shuffle of the newspaper's website redesign.
With the "Nassau 18," we've highlighted some of the county's most challenging, scenic, historic, uphill, downhill, straight and doglegged holes and attempted to show that there's more to public golf in Nassau than Bethpage and Eisenhower. In order to accomplish that, we picked the best holes, by hole number, according to the following guidelines:
So, sure, some of the holes below might not be the absolute "best" in the county, per se (let's face it, the Black Course alone would make up two-thirds of the 18, hands down), but in terms of creating a fantasy golf course out of thin air with a mix of styles and qualities, the 18 excellent holes listed below are certainly worth the praise.
Golf On Long Island's "Nassau 18" begins at Bethpage...
1) BETHPAGE RED -- par-4, 471/459/438 yards
On the A-list of opening holes not just locally but nationally as well, #1 at Bethpage Red is 471 yards of shattered optimism. All that anticipation to start the round, and one poor drive later you're in the rough staring at a green 300 yards away atop what looks like a small mountain. And that's if you can even see the green at all. The groups of waiting foursomes have a clear view, though, and they don't like what they see. They just watched you closely from #1's stadium teebox and are now muttering to themselves as you slowly make your way up the fairway. There's one way to keep them quiet, however -- hammer a drive into the fairway and follow with a long iron or hybrid to the small, elevated surface. It's a tall order for the first two shots of the day, but pull it off and you're on your way with a swagger in your step.
Honorable Mention: Merrick Road Park (p5)
2) MERRICK ROAD PARK -- par-3, 147/122 yards
Two similar Long Island par-3s reside on municipally owned courses. Each hole directs golfers to the edge of Atlantic bay waters. Only steps from the bay, flags piercing elevated, back-to-front greens whip in strong South Shore gusts. Miss to the sides and balls will tumble down into sand, rough or uneven lies.
One of these holes is Timber Point's famous "Gibraltar," a par-3 celebrated among Long Island's most historic, iconic golf holes. The other is at Merrick Park, free of fanfare. Of course, the 60-yard difference and Timber Point's past life as a storied private club is why only Gibraltar is featured in works like William Quirin's "America's Linksland," but its shorter, rougher-around-the-edges neighbor one county over deserves some respect, if only for the scenery. The Jones Beach tower and amphitheater are visible in the distance.
Honorable Mention: Oyster Bay (p5)
3) EISENHOWER RED -- par-5, 515/490/356 yards
You'll need to be accurate on this dogleg-right par-5, because there's not much room to play with inside the hole's thickly tree-lined perimeter. A powerful drive will net an outside chance of reaching the green in two, but the risk is a punch-out from under the trees and most likely a third-shot lay-up to boot. Club down off the tee if you're not comfortable with the driver, but beware of the bunker trio waiting patiently in the hybrid/wood landing area.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Green (p3)
4) BETHPAGE BLACK -- par-5, 517/461/438 yards
Somewhere between #3 green and #4 tee, first-timers at Bethpage Black begin to understand that they are walking their carts around a world-class course. The trademark glacier bunker in the distance serves as a welcome and a warning: "Welcome to Bethpage Black. You better be on your game."
A drive short of the massive trap leaves a limited-view, uphill second shot that should be played as far into the upper fairway as possible. Easier said than done. Deep bunkers (first photo above) defend against any careless attempts to get home in two as well as lay-up attempts directed too close to the green. Also dissuading long shots at the green is a front-to-back surface that is nearly impossible to hold with a long iron or wood.
Honorable Mention: Oyster Bay (p4)
5) HARBOR LINKS -- par-4, 333/305/280 yards
The first of three double-fairway holes at Harbor Links, this short par-4 finds a near-perfect balance of risk and reward. A lower, more approachable fairway is open on the right, but the second shot is totally blind and must fly over a slope of merciless rough. Getting caught in there is practically a penalty stroke. The upper fairway ensures a clear shot at the green, but landing there safely in the first place requires a precise tee shot to an ever-shrinking sliver of short grass that's no more than 15 yards wide in the ideal landing area. (Right: The view from the lower fairway.)
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Black (p4)
6) BETHPAGE BLUE -- par-4, 462/446/437 yards
Envision trying to make a hard left turn going 40 mph -- in a Mister Softee truck -- and you'll begin to understand the difficulty of this Bethpage behemoth. Not your everyday dogleg-left par-4, this version starts from an elevated tee, then climbs back uphill from fairway to green. Ideally, a mighty draw finds the sweet part of the fairway with minimal risk, but since many players don't have that shot handy, a different route might be necessary. You can try to cut the corner blindly over trees, but miss and you're lost. Go straight out to the turn, just keep in mind the elevation brings a far-side bunker within easy reach. Plus, it's not too hard to overshoot the turn and scoot down to the fourth fairway. Even with the perfect drive, there's still close to 200 uphill yards to go on one of the best holes in the entire Bethpage complex.
Honorable Mention: Harbor Links (p5)
7) GLEN COVE -- par-4, 410/304/292 yards
The toughest hole at Glen Cove's municipal course is a left dogleg with a unique teeing area. The back tee is recessed behind a tight corridor framed by trees, a creek and some shrubbery, which leaves only a small part of the fairway visible in the distance. A trio of bunkers waits to gobble up long, straight drives outside the turn, but play the tee shot short of these traps or draw the ball to the left-center of the fairway and all that's left is a mid- to short iron approach to a flat green.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Black (p5)
8) BETHPAGE BLACK -- par-3, 210/191/152 yards
The hills of Bethpage are hard to capture in photographs and even harder to envision in mind if you've spent any prolonged stretch of time in central Nassau. Stepping up to #8 on the Black Course, one wonders if they're really just a mile from flat, soulless Route 110. The hole plummets from stacked teeboxes. Black's lone water hazard fronts the green, while a tree overhangs on the right and bunkers sit left and long. Wind and the descent force you to think hard about club selection.
Honorable Mention: Oyster Bay (p3)
9) BETHPAGE RED -- par-4, 466/449/433 yards
It's tempting to snip some yardage off this lengthy par-4 by cutting the corner of the soft dogleg, but a cluster of bunkers in the rough between #8 and #9 calls for a carry of up to 250 yards. Plus, two trees stand over the traps like bodyguards. Mess with them if you wish, but it's usually best to steer clear and head over to the right side of the fairway for a slightly longer approach. Unless you're coming in from the right side, you'll have to take this green from the air, as a trap short of the surface guards the left half.
OUT: Par 36 - 3,531/3,227/2,948 yards
10) BETHPAGE GREEN -- par-4, 343/328/290 yards
After some cruelly long par-4s, how about opening the back nine with a shortie. The toughest part of this hole might be the hike to the elevated teebox. A well-struck iron or hybrid down the hill to a tree-lined fairway will set up a short-iron approach. If you play with wild-eyed abandon, or you're a pro that can thread powerful drives into a tiny window, you can rip driver and see what happens. Two bunkers clogging the neck of the green convince you not to bother.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Yellow (p5)
11) EISENHOWER BLUE -- par-5, 460/450/367 yards
You can score nicely on this short par-5 if you cut the unprotected corner on the left and safely reach the farther half of the fairway. Follow up by drilling an approach and you could be putting for eagle. All that stands in the way is a lone front bunker styled after the traps typically found next door on the White Course. If you don't get off the tee well enough to challenge the green in two, a lay-up actually comes with an element of danger. Inside 100 yards, left and center fairway bunkers combine with the greenside trap to form a loose triangular defense of the preferred lay-up area.
12) BETHPAGE YELLOW -- par-4, 313/300/289 yards
Once part of Bethpage's original Blue Course, the 12th on today's Yellow is a remnant of A.W. Tillinghast's signature "Reef" hole, a design that asks golfers to weigh the risks and rewards of challenging a diagonal hazard near the green. More than 75 years after the hole's debut, no such hazard exists, so what's left is a driveable par-4 that provides some fun ahead of Yellow's formidable par-4 13th. Give it a go from the tee -- you can send a runner up the far end of the fairway with little to worry about except a far-left bunker and mounding on the right. On the other side of the mounds, the hole's designed bailout area lives on as a small arm of fairway.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Black (p4); Bethpage Blue (p5)
13) EISENHOWER RED -- par-3, 211/193/176 yards
Par is a good score on this lengthy par-3, especially if the pin is hidden on the right side behind a meaty trap. Add a few yards as the green is slightly elevated. If you opt to play safely to the left side or just short of the green, it's still a long two-putt or up-and-down for par. Even if the hole is cut in the center or left, it still takes a big-time long iron or hybrid with bunkers on both sides for offline shots.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Red (p4); Bethpage Yellow (p4)
14) LIDO -- par-4, 402/376/351 yards
The threat of water is present all over Lido's closing holes, whether it's Reynolds Channel along the preceding 13th or interior hazards on 14 through 17. Water ripples on both sides of #14's narrow fairway -- a large hazard flanks the entire right side while a smaller pond splashes far and left. The best tee shots begin down the left side and fade back into the fairway. You can start balls out to the right, but if they don't draw back, they're sunk. The green is offset to the left and protected by a deep trap. Left of the green, the pond remains in play to catch pulls and hoppers through the side rough.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Yellow (p3)
15) BETHPAGE BLACK -- par-4, 478/430/417 yards
Another of the Black's iconic par-4s, this brute seems surprisingly tame from the tee. The fairway is wide open, at first glance, compared to the rest of the Black. But it's a heck of a 50-foot climb to the green, and a drive into the rough makes the sand- and rough-riddled slope impassable with the second shot. Putts rocketed around this severely sloped green during the U.S. Open in 2009, and even though some of the contouring has been leveled, there's still plenty of work to be done once you've made it to the top.
Honorable Mention: Eisenhower Red (p4)
16) LIDO -- par-5, 487/460/430 yards
Bring a map, compass, GPS, caddy; whatever it takes to navigate around Lido's double-island fairway. There are several methods of attack on the 16th, but none of them offer clear views of their targets, and only the most precisely executed plans will result in a spot on the green in two or even three strokes. Tee shots are directed to an island landing area that offers a conservative path to the green and a daring one. Shortcuts follow the right side. Here, the water carries on both the drive and approach are much longer, the margin of error much slimmer and the angles much less favorable. There's much more dry land to work with on the left, but short drives will force you to play the rest of the hole on the defensive. Oh, and don't forget the whipping wind!
Honorable Mention: Oyster Bay (p4)
17) HARBOR LINKS -- par-3, 201/184/157 yards
Nassau boasts some memorable one-shotters at #17, including this pseudo-island, self-titled "Oasis" that must be challenged blindly with a long iron. The good news is that you can club down off the tee and play short of the green with a preferred iron, then chip or pitch on from there. The bad news is that any misses left, right or long are gone for a swim. Making matters worse, you won't know the fate of borderline shots until you proceed to the green, since the surface is out of sight from the tee.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Black (p3); Lido (p3)
18) BETHPAGE GREEN -- par-4, 398/386/368 yards
Wrap up this round of dreams the same way it started -- with an uphill approach to a small green. This time the target is perched high on the right side. After an open tee shot, take aim at a green that is wedged between an even higher sidehill on the right and a deeply sunken sand trap on the left. If you're in the fairway with a nice tee shot, it's a middle iron into the green and a favorable par opportunity to end the round. Just don't trickle down into the trap -- it's a long way back up to the green.
Honorable Mention: Bethpage Red (p4)
IN: Par 36 - 3,293/3,107/2,845 yards
TOTAL: Par 72 - 6,824/6,334/5,793 yards
Disagree with any of our selections? Let us know in the comments section below, or become a fan on Facebook and let us know over there.
Most golfers enjoy facing a challenging water hazard. The more demanding the shot, the better. NBC and The Players Championship at Sawgrass bank on the dramatic nature of a potential late-round splash landing every May.
"Water-hazard hole" is kind of ambiguous, but you get the idea. Tell us your favorite public hole in Nassau with the threat of a dip in or around the fairway or near the green. Whether you pick your favorite based on strategy or simply for the view, you can't be wrong. Unless you pick a hole without a water hazard.
Leave your answer in the comments section below or on the Golf On Long Island Facebook page (click the tab on the right side of this page) and you're automatically eligible to win a box of GOLI Callaway Warbirds. The most common response will be selected for our "Nassau 18," which will be announced next month.
You can also go back and answer last week's "Best Par-3" question if you missed it.
So, what's your favorite water hole in Nassau? (Click here for a list of courses by county.)
