Golf on Long Island

Check out GOLI's end-of-2010s feature, "A New Decade of Long Island Golf"

With the 2010s now recent history, Golf On Long Island published a three-part series on "A New Decade of Long Island Golf," examining where local golf stands and some of the issues confronting the industry and area golfers as the 2020s get underway.

• Part 1 covers the changing landscape of Long Island public golf and some of the significant topics and themes from the previous decade and the new one ahead
• Part 2 looks at the task of developing new players as the area's young adults run low on time and leave Long Island behind
• Part 3 examines how local public courses have struggled to market themselves and appeal to players in the age of social media

Great Rock sign confirms course is out of business

No further confirmation was really needed -- the abrupt closing last fall, the disconnected phone line, frozen-in-time social media and lack of a 2020 playing season were all dead giveaways regarding the fate of the Great Rock Golf Club.  And without an official notice or a brief snippet in the newspaper, it seems a three-word sign on the course's locked gate is as close to a confirmation as local golfers are going to get.

Great Rock Golf Club is out of business.  The sign reads "CLOSED for Business" -- obscured behind it is a previous posting that the Wading River semi-private golf facility would reopen in the spring. 

From the time the course suddenly closed last October until early January of this year, "closed for the season" and "See You Next Year!" were the main messages sent out to area golfers on the club's website and social media outlets.  But as Golf On Long Island wrote in May, next year never arrived.  Before the course closed last fall, golfers complained about deteriorating conditions as rumors of a sale lingered.

Public golf on the East End has taken a couple of heavy blows since 2013 when Calverton Links closed in similar sudden fashion, and that includes The Vineyards switching back to fully private play in 2020.  (A detour while apple picking in Riverhead featured a drive past the remains of Calverton Links, a stop at Great Rock and could have quickly added a visit to the massive solar farm now occupying the former Tallgrass Golf Course.)

Great Rock opened in 2001 during the latest course-building surge and came to be known for fast greens and elevated service.  Holes like the signature tenth (with the namesake rock) were featured by Newsday and Golfing Magazine.  In 2010, Newsday highlighted Great Rock's staff -- some of whom were brought over in 2008 from Shinnecock Hills  -- and its focus on customer service and pristine conditions.

The course briefly closed prior to the 2014 season but reopened later that year under new ownership.  A year later, the club completed a dramatic remodel of its on-site restaurant and opened Pure North Fork, a modern American bistro.

Last year, golfers turned to review sites like Golf Advisor to voice their displeasure over what was essentially an abandoned golf course, complete with crabgrass-strewn fairways, weedy bunkers and bare greens.  Unfortunately, for some, that will be the lasting image of the Wading River club.

Street Names: The Ghosts of Long Island Golf's Past, Part 5 -- Riverhead Country Club

Street names can give clues about a community's past.  That's especially true with golf courses.  When Long Island streets are tagged with golf-related terms, it often means that buried beneath sidewalks and front lawns are the remains of a long-forgotten (or fondly remembered) course.

This series of posts will look back at courses that have been gone for decades, some close to a century, and whose presence is only marked by what developers scratched on road maps and signs.  To see other courses in the "Street Names: The Ghosts of Long Island Golf's Past" series, click the links at the bottom of the post.

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Many points of interest contend for the attention of the Long Island admirer on a drive heading east from downtown Riverhead.  First up are the shops and riverside cafes in the business district, the Long Island Aquarium, then a short jaunt to the northeast before reaching the produce stands, wineries and spacious farms and fields of the North Fork.

Along that curving road between county seat and Wine Country are two attractions that few beyond followers of golf and local history would consider eye-catching -- one is a street sign marking Fairway Avenue and the other, just a block ahead, a vintage-looking Elks Lodge.

Roads named for fairways, of course, are often a tell.  Chances are, whether named as some variation of Fairway Drive or Fairway Road, the signpost marks the site of a long-gone golf course.  Here, where Route 25 turns toward Aquebogue, once stood the Riverhead Country Club golf course, its clubhouse still in existence as the aforementioned Elks Lodge.

Riverhead Country Club came to be in 1921.  The golf course was built over farmland on both sides of Route 25 with a driving range behind the clubhouse.  Newspaper accounts of the course's opening didn't hold back on the type of grandiosity standard for golf writing of that era.  Riverhead was "declared by some experts to be one of the handsomest and best on Long Island," according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and "was formally opened ... by social functions more brilliant than anything ever before held in this town."

The Eagle continued: "The very face of nature was changed to produce the course.  An expanse of swamps, unsightly hedgerows and waste land have been molded into a scenic panorama that makes even passing motorists stop and take a second look."

Covering a modest 82 acres according to news and historical accounts, Riverhead's golf course was likely similar in build to a modern-day executive course.  Or perhaps it was a bit longer, packing in as much yardage as possible at the expense of safe boundaries between holes.  In the club's inaugural season, a member of the East End's well-known Griffing family took an errant shot right to the kisser, his bloody lips and loosened teeth chalked up to the overwhelming popularity of the nine-hole course (it was expanded to 18 in season two).

The club stood out as a prominent social and recreational venue through the boom of the 1920s, but the music stopped and the tee shots were eventually grounded as the malaise of the 1930s set in.  A 1940 news article on a local group's bid to resurrect the course indicates the property had "not been used in any way for several years."  For the next few seasons it saw intermittent play, though not enough for the club to remain solvent.

In 1946, the clubhouse and surrounding land was purchased by the American Legion, which then sold the larger parcel on the west side of Route 25 the following year for the development of homes for military members and veterans.  This small community was called "Riverhead Greens" -- and is still known locally as The Greens -- in honor of the golf course buried underneath.

The Riverhead Elks purchased the clubhouse in the 1950s, and the historic lodge is now closing in on its 100th anniversary.

[PICTURED: Riverhead Country Club postcard, circa 1920s; courtesy Gail Evans]

SEE OTHER STREET-NAME POSTS:
Part 1: Cedar Point/Meadowlawn/Westwood -- North Woodmere
Part 2: The Lido Club -- Lido Beach
Part 3: Valley Stream Country Club -- Valley Stream
Part 4: Sayville Golf Club -- Sayville

Fall aeration underway around Long Island

We're at the height of fall aeration season on Long Island's public courses.  Fall maintenance is underway or recently completed at many local courses, so be aware of potentially sandy greens and fairways when booking tee times this month.

The Red Course at Eisenhower Park is currently closed for aeration and will reopen for play on Friday, September 18.  The White will be aerated starting Monday 9/21; Blue on Monday 9/28. 

Bethpage Blue will be closed today and tomorrow 9/16, followed by Yellow, Red and Black later this month.  (See the previous Bethpage aeration post for dates.)  The Green Course was aerated earlier this month.

Timber Point will close one of its nine-hole courses over the next three days, beginning with the Red Course today, Blue tomorrow and White on Thursday.

Sunken Meadow is currently aerating its Red nine, followed by the Green nine next week.  The Blue nine was aerated last week.

The Town of Oyster Bay municipal course will complete two days of aeration this afternoon and reopen for play tomorrow.

Glen Cove's municipal course is closed through tomorrow and will reopen for play on Thursday 9/17.

At Cherry Creek in Riverhead, the Woods Course will close for aeration tomorrow 9/16, followed by the Links Course next Wednesday 9/23.

Pine Hills in Manorville is aerating today and tomorrow 9/16; all tee times must be made directly through the pro shop.

Island's End in Greenport was aerated on September 14.

For information on other aeration/maintenance dates, special rates and more, contact the courses directly.

Fall aeration starts next week at Bethpage

The calendar turns to September next week and Bethpage State Park is wasting no time beginning fall aeration across its five golf courses.

The Green Course will be the first Bethpage 18 to temporarily close for seasonal maintenance.  Green will be out of the rotation on September 2 and 3.

Bethpage's other four courses will close as follows:

• Blue Course: September 15-16
• Yellow Course: September 23-34
• Red Course: September 28-29
• Black Course: September 30-October 1

Be sure to call the park office at (516) 249-0700 for updates on course availability.

Bethpage still in recovery mode following Isaias

More than a week since Tropical Storm Isaias powered through the northeast, Bethpage State Park remains in recovery mode, with the Yellow Course and part of the Blue still shut due to extensive tree damage.

In the hours following last Tuesday's storm, fallen trees were a common sight across Long Island communities, a good indication that areas like Bethpage -- no stranger to post-storm tree damage -- would be heavily impacted.  The park slowly reopened its courses over the next few days, but Yellow and Blue were hardest hit.

"All tree damage and hanging branches," says Andrew Wilson, Bethpage's director of agronomy.  "We're working our way through the courses."

Slowing down the recovery process is regular maintenance and mowing that can't be interrupted even by a powerful storm.  "Grass doesn't get the hint, so we do have to keep up mowing," Wilson says.  "We can't let tees, fairways and greens go a week without it."

There is no update yet on when the Yellow and Blue front nine will reopen.  Stay tuned for news.

Several courses remain closed due to storm recovery

A handful of Long Island's public golf courses remain closed as a result of the widespread tree damage and power outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias, which blew through the area with powerful winds on Tuesday.

Most notably, the five courses at Bethpage State Park, which is prone to fallen trees amid tropical storms and hurricanes, are closed Thursday for cleanup. 

The following courses are closed Thursday or until further notice:

• Bethpage
• Brentwood Country Club
• Glen Cove
• Smithtown Landing
• Sunken Meadow
• Town of Oyster Bay

Swan Lake in Manorville is open despite loss of power.  Transactions are cash only and golf carts might not be available.

Contact courses directly for the latest updates or questions regarding canceled tee times.

Bethpage Black to close for NYS Open in late August

The annual New York State Open will be held at Bethpage State Park's Black Course next month after receiving the green light from state government to play the tournament amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, the Black Course will be closed to the public from Monday, August 24 through Thursday, August 27.  The course will reopen on Friday, August 28 unless tourney play is pushed back an extra day due to weather.

The other four courses will remain on a regular schedule.

Contact the park at (516) 249-0700 for schedule updates or changes.

Long Island's future Topgolf taking shape in Holtsville

Just weeks before the world was turned upside down by Covid-19, Topgolf quietly publicized specific details about its planned Long Island location.  Included in that announcement was a broad target opening date of early 2021.

Whether or not that exact timeline still stands (the company did not respond to requests for a schedule update), here in early summer 2020, after several years of rumors and governmental hurdles, there is a structure in Holtsville that's starting to resemble a Topgolf facility.  The shell of the main building and its three driving-range tiers have been erected about a 1/4 mile west of Nicolls Road.

Topgolf broke ground on its new Holtsville facility in January, and in mid-February a company press release offered golfers a glimpse of New York's first Topgolf venue -- 102 bays spread out on three tiers, live-music events, year-round lessons, upscale dining and more.  On the economic side, Topgolf expects to bring 500 jobs to central Suffolk County.

From the press release:

"Topgolf's mission centers around building and connecting communities and we have been working very hard with the Suffolk County community to design a custom venue that fits their needs including added vegetation, updated fencing and more," said Topgolf Chief Executive Officer Dolf Berle. "We're looking forward to not only entertaining Guests here, but also being a good neighbor to the community through volunteer projects, fundraising efforts and other events geared toward giving back to local organizations.  We truly can't wait to open our first venue here in the state of New York."

Topgolf also added Long Island to its list of "Coming Soon" locations, complete with photo renderings and other info.  Topgolf Holtsville will be located at 5231 Express Drive North, just off the Long Island Expressway near exit 62.

Kids play free at Spring Lake this summer

Spring Lake Golf Club is reaching out with a deal that offers two benefits in the pandemic summer of 2020 -- it gets the kids out of the house and you onto the golf course.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays in July and August, kids under the age of 14 play for free with one paying adult.  The special covers nine holes on Spring Lake's Sandpiper Course, home to the facility's namesake lake and signature hole.

Call the course at (631) 924-5115 for additional info and booking.  Presently, all rounds at Spring Lake must be booked in advance -- no walk-up tee times are available.  The pro shop and restaurant are open with masks required.

For more information on Spring Lake's Sandpiper Course, check out the course flyover.

Nine courses participating in Golfing Mag's 2020 "Free Golf" Program

As the unique, contact-free Long Island golf season of 2020 hums along, a familiar figure of pre-pandemic normalcy -- Golfing Magazine's "Free Golf" certificate -- makes its way to area mailboxes once again.

Golfing Mag's 2020 Free Golf program includes nine Long Island golf courses, ranging from nine-hole munis to the region's most scenic waterfront layouts.  For $54, subscribers to the magazine's annual promotion are entitled to "free" green fees for one round at each of the program's participating courses.  It also includes a one-year digital subscription to Hicksville-based Golfing Magazine.

This year's Free Golf certificates cover rounds at Brentwood Country Club, Gull Haven Golf Course in Central Islip, Holbrook Country Club, Island's End Golf & Country Club in Greenport, Mill Pond in Medford, Peninsula Golf Club in Massapequa, Rolling Oaks in Miller Place, The Golf Club at Middle Bay in Oceanside and Willow Creek Golf & Country Club in Mount Sinai.

Taking advantage of the promotion is simple -- bring your Free Golf certificate with you to the course and all you pay is a cart fee (and reservation fee, in some instances).  The certificate is honored only once at each course, at designated times during the week and on Sundays.  Availability varies by course.  (Specific terms for each course are listed on the certificate and can be viewed at the Golfing Magazine website.)  Be sure to double-check all terms and conditions when reserving your round.  Tee times must be made in advance.

As an added bonus for those who travel across the Northeast, certificates are also valid at dozens of golf courses across upstate New York and New England. 

Players can subscribe throughout the season for only $54.  Certificates are valid until December 31, 2020.  To subscribe online, visit www.GolfingMagLI.com.  And for descriptions of the participating Long Island courses, click the links above to read the course flyovers.