It won't take long for Bethpage golfers to catch a glimpse of something new when they return to the course for the first time in 2023. One of the main offseason renovations at the park -- carried out with the 2025 Ryder Cup in mind -- took place right behind the clubhouse near the start of the Black Course.
It's a subtle change, but one that is designed to bolster the already raucous atmosphere at the Ryder Cup's start and finish. A simple reshaping of the mounding between the first tee and 18th green has opened up the sight lines to allow the Black's future spectators to see every shot.
"The first tee at the Ryder Cup is one of the best experiences a golf fan can enjoy, and the crowd at Bethpage should be epic," says Andrew Wilson, Bethpage's longtime superintendent and director of agronomy. "The work done means fans will be able to see the first tee and 18th green from every seat in the grandstand."
Whether or not that epic scene will include rolled-back golf balls and players on the LIV Tour...well, uhh, let's not get into that.
Local players will begin to see the offseason course work for themselves when Bethpage Green opens for 2023 play tomorrow, March 18, followed by the Red Course on April 1. But for the most startling change of all, visitors will have to wait until the Black Course officially reopens on April 15. That's when players will work their way toward the farthest reaches of the Black and find that one of its landmark hazards -- the overhanging oak tree right of #8 green -- is now a thing of the past.
Wilson says the tree was dying and unable to be salvaged, despite his crew's best efforts to save it. "It had become a safety issue for players and employees," Wilson says. "It was sad to see it go."
Its departure means the right side of the green can offer pin placements that simply weren't possible while the tree loomed overhead, another positive when looking ahead to Ryder Cup week.
Elsewhere on the Black Course, maintenance crews renovated about a dozen bunkers with new sod edging. "That's no small undertaking considering the size of the Black's bunkers," Wilson says.
Crews completed similar sodding projects around sand traps and in areas with soil compaction on the Red and Green courses.
Meanwhile the Blue and Yellow courses saw plenty of action over the winter, not from work crews, but from players. The two courses have already hosted close to 10,000 rounds, Wilson says, thanks to mild temperatures and zero snowfall. The staff has been able to do some minor renovation work amid all that play, though multiyear projects like the continued renovation of bunkers on Yellow #14 have been kept on hiatus until next offseason.
When players prepare to tee off on the Black Course next month, they'll also notice one other significant addition -- a new forward tee on Black's opener. Wilson says the idea to add a forward tee came as a byproduct of the reshaping work done nearby.
"There's a good chance this new tee will be used during the Ryder Cup as well," Wilson says.
[PICTURED: TOP -- Newly reshaped grounds between #1 tee and #18 green on the Black Course. BOTTOM -- The oak tree on Black #8, as seen during the 2019 PGA Championship.]
After a mild Long Island offseason where roughly zero snowflakes found their way from the sky to the ground, Old Man Winter teamed up with the golf gods to make sure March -- the month of golf's local reopening -- began with a coating of slush. Go figure.
Unless you were banking on checking out the rebranded Sandy Pond Links on its opening day (postponed), this year's one light dusting of snow won't impact the reopening season that is set to kick off in a little over a week. From the lead-up to St. Patrick's Day through mid-April, all of Long Island's seasonal golf courses will get back up to speed and welcome local players back to the first tee.
The following is a list of tentative 2023 opening dates for Long Island's seasonal golf courses. (Year-round courses remain open as the weather allows and are not included in this list.) Courses will be added or updated as information becomes available. Be sure to check back through March for the latest info.
*All dates listed below are subject to change. Call the courses directly for updated dates and times.
2023 GOLF COURSE REOPENINGS:
The following courses typically reopen in mid- to late March:
The following courses typically reopen in April:
[This post was updated on March 15, 2023.]
The new operators of Eisenhower Park's restaurant and catering facility are focused on bringing professional golf back to the Red Course and are spending millions of dollars on upgrades to make that a reality, according to Newsday's James Madore.
The group, EGB Hospitality LLC, plans to reopen the facility on May 1 following $5.5 million in improvements "necessary to bring national golf events" back to the park, per Newsday. Formerly The Carltun, the new venue will be called The Grand Lannin in tribute to Joseph Lannin, the man behind what was originally the massive five-course Salisbury Golf Club. In an additional nod to history, EGB plans to name its golf-course concessions after famed architect Devereux Emmet, designer of the Salisbury courses, including the current Red Course.
EGB has applied for sales-tax exemptions with the Nassau County IDA and made a presentation to the agency earlier this month.
"We're changing the former Carltun into a tourist destination that's going to pull people from all five boroughs [of New York City] and from New Jersey," [EGB's Elias] Trahanas said in an interview. "By revamping this iconic facility in this iconic park, we're going to attract more than just golf tournaments. We're going to attract many events, from corporate [functions] to charity [galas]," he said. -- James Madore, Newsday, 1/27/23
Eisenhower Park's most historic tournament was played in 1926 when the Red Course -- then known as Salisbury #4 -- hosted the PGA Championship, won by Walter Hagen. A sign commemorating the event hangs over the entrance to the park's golf building.
Decades later, after the Northville Long Island Classic (later the Lightpath Classic) left the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, it relocated to Eisenhower Red and became known as the Commerce Bank Championship, part of the Champions Tour. The last tournament was played there in 2008.
[PICTURED RIGHT: A tournament badge from the 2004 event, the first one to be sponsored by Commerce Bank following the move to Eisenhower Park.]
[UPDATE: X-Golf Westbury is scheduled to open March 10.]
Nassau County is about to get its first taste of the modern golf and entertainment experience that recently has popped up farther east in places like Holtsville, Patchogue and Commack. And it will arrive in a spot that's no stranger to the metallic echoes of drivers smashing golf balls and the thuds of tee shots crashing into screens.
X-Golf Westbury will open within weeks at Samanea New York, formerly the Mall at the Source, in part of the space once occupied by Golf Galaxy. It will be Long Island's second X-Golf location, following the opening of X-Golf Commack in June 2022. The California-based franchise is known for its combination of technologically advanced golf simulators, on-site instruction and events, and casual food and drink service.
Once the fire marshal signs off on the Westbury site, owner Chris Sciocchetti says the new facility will be ready to open within days. The latest target date is February 27. "I don't care what the actual date is," Sciocchetti says. "I just hope it has a February on it."
It's been a long road from conception and planning to finally preparing eight high-tech hitting bays and a TV-topped bar for use by local golfers. X-Golf Westbury was initially slated to open in November 2021, but with Samanea's rapid resurrection from ghost mall to indoor shopping and immersive-experience destination, X-Golf found itself caught up in an unforeseen morass of municipal red tape. First it was sorting out the allotment of parking spaces, then it was a nine-month wait for approval of a variance for the golf facility itself.
Sciocchetti is confident the pandemic-fueled enthusiasm for both regular golf and the indoor variety will make the long buildup worthwhile. During the pandemic, Sciocchetti spent two or three days each week playing the courses at Eisenhower Park and Bethpage. He had visions of opening an indoor facility somewhere near his Merrick home, and the pandemic only accelerated his plans.
"I've wanted to do this for a really long time," he says.
Visitors at X-Golf Westbury will find a row of hitting bays along a wall to their left, steps away from a bar that will turn out draft beer and light bites from at least one area pizzeria. Other bays, all of which include TVs and tables, are set up in corners and on the opposite side of the bar. Separating the two sides is a wall decorated with colorful golf-course artwork, Bethpage included, that Sciocchetti's wife Kathryn found on Etsy. Also featured are neon and turf-clad X-Golf Westbury signs well-suited for Instagram posts.
X-Golf facilities are known for their state-of-the-art simulators that feature more than 50 golf courses and advanced innovations like automatic ball retrieval, personalized tee heights and adjustable ground slope. The short-game technology also elevates the level of play in X-Golf bays, allowing players to chip and putt on virtual greens with accuracy. Westbury will offer local in-house leagues and a schedule of national and regional competitions that are part of the X-Golf network. (The franchise has locations in 32 states.) Sciocchetti is working out the specifics for instruction and fittings as well.
Hourly rates range from $55 on weekday mornings and early afternoons to $75 on weekends. A full 18-hole round takes about 45 minutes to an hour per player.
After Samanea does its own marketing push to promote its new sites, Sciocchetti says most of his own promotion will be done on social media, much like Commack, Topgolf in Holtsville, Birdies in Patchogue and Simplay in Hauppauge, all of which are active and highly visible on Instagram and Facebook. The Westbury site has already developed a following even while building permits still cover the front door.
"I get calls here every day asking when we are going to open," Sciocchetti says.
Riverhead's Sandy Pond Golf Course is taking a rare winter break this offseason, and when it reopens in March, it will do so with a new name, a modernized logo and an ownership group looking to blend the old with the new. Brian Stark, one of the new controlling owners of the rebranded Sandy Pond Links, plans to restore some of the features he recalls from his youth, when the small par-3 course on Roanoke Avenue was in its infancy.
And the way he sees it, one of the most effective ways to bring the course back to its roots is by reaching down and pulling them up.
"We've been in the ponds, removing the reeds from the ground instead of just cutting them back, so the water is clear like it used to be," says Stark, who worked at Sandy Pond while growing up nearby in the late '70s. "When I was a kid, the third hole had a clear pond, and there were sand dunes and a big green up on the hill."
The 2023 season will be one of change at the course, including in the layout itself, the facilities and the amenities, but it will retain the quaint East End vibe it's been known for since it opened a half-century ago.
Previous owners Ken Weinstein and Chris Wahlers "built a great clientele," Stark says, since they took over operation of the course in 2012. "They brought in leagues and outings, they have a few members. There is a real religious following here."
On the course, much of the focus will be on expanding the greens to their original size. "We're going to bring back the contours of the original greens," Stark says. "You can still see areas where the contours were lost, and how the greens have shrunk significantly over time. They used to have more character and pin positions."
Stark, one of the original owners of the neighboring Long Island National Golf Club, also wants to reintroduce some of the course's original sand-dune features. Sandy Pond was built out of an old sand quarry, after all.
The orientation of the course will change too, with the ninth hole flipping to the top of the scorecard as Sandy Pond Links' new opener. (The other eight holes will move down a slot.) That modification is being made to accommodate a new clubhouse to be built on the north side of the property near the current ninth tee. Plans there include a simulator, an outdoor patio and beer and wine service. Food trucks, a common sight at wineries and breweries in the Riverhead area, could eventually be part of the offerings as well.
Most noticeable on that end of the property will be the addition of a miniature golf course, which is currently pending approval by the Town of Riverhead. Stark hopes it will be ready by the fall.
Even though the course's longtime shack (and its famous green-fee dropbox) will eventually become part of Sandy Pond's past, the new owners don't expect the facility to lose any of its charm.
"Complaints about golf always revolve around three things -- it's too hard, it takes too long and it's expensive," Stark says. "Sandy Pond is none of those."
[PICTURED: Sandy Pond, as seen in 2014, following upgrades under previous ownership.]
Some people wake up a little groggy on New Year's Day and spend the morning in pajamas, clutching a cup of coffee. Others wake up a little groggy, see the sun shining on a 45-degree day, and spend the rest of the morning on the golf course, clutching irons and hand warmers.
Golf on a January morning might seem like a bizarre concept to those in the pajama group, but for the ones scanning the 24-hour forecast on their weather apps as the ball gets set to drop on New Year's Eve, it's just another day in Long Island's winter golf season.
There's no official start date to winter golf season -- some might say Thanksgiving, others might argue it begins with the first frost delay. By late December all of Long Island's seasonal golf courses are closed, leaving the year-round courses with Christmas through mid-March all to themselves. From a player perspective, if you can handle cold, biting wind and ground conditions that get soggier and sloppier as the offseason progresses, there's no reason to stay home and let your golf clubs and new holiday-gift gear collect dust.
So far the 2022-23 winter has been OK despite the cold snap that temporarily froze everything shut. We've seen blizzards wreck offseasons before Christmas, so a snow-free Long Island into the new year is always a win.
Some things have changed about winter golf in recent seasons. Golf On Long Island used to post notable winter-rate specials that were available at local courses, but there's no longer any need. The days of heavy discounts -- or even moderate price breaks -- appear to be gone. Courses now keep their winter rates much closer to peak prices than the $35-45 rounds with cart (and sometimes a free breakfast or lunch) from just a few years ago.
Note that some courses are still offering trimmed-down pandemic-era amenities, so check in advance if you want your winter round to include food and drink options or access to the pro shop.
There's also more competition from modern indoor facilities like X-Golf in Commack, Birdies in Patchogue and the semi-enclosed TopGolf in Holtsville. All offer enjoyable high-tech golf experiences combined with the social attraction (and warmth) of a sports bar and grill. Another X-Golf is on the way this year in Westbury, and Simplay remains an indoor stalwart in Hauppauge.
Golf On Long Island posts relevant course information as necessary throughout the offseason. Be sure to follow local courses on social media for the latest on weather closures, frost delays and more.
[This information was updated on December 24, 2022.]
We've made it to December, and while many on Long Island have already packed away their golf clubs for 2022, the area's cold-resistant players are still out looking for tee times. The selection is about to get smaller though, because December is closing month on Long Island.
By the middle of December, the Island's seasonal public golf courses lock up for the final time and hang a "See You In March" sign on the clubhouse door. So if you have the urge to take on Gibraltar at Timber Point or drive the greens on Brentwood's short par-4s, get those swings in now while you still can.
Or you can just sit back, relax and pick your spots at the Island's many courses that stay open year-round.
The following golf courses are preparing to close for the season this month:
Some courses have already closed for 2022, including:
Check back daily for the latest closing dates. And for more information on Long Island's winter season, stay tuned for our annual Winter Golf On Long Island primer.
It took a few years, but the long-discussed transformation is complete. The former Calverton Links golf course is now part of the solar industry.
For nearly a decade since the course abruptly closed for good in 2013, past players could still see the old front nine resting in plain view alongside Edwards Avenue in Calverton. Its future loomed right across the street, where solar panels eventually took over a former sod farm. Today the course itself is buried under a new solar farm installed earlier this year.
That makes two former East End courses that are now home to hundreds of thousands of solar panels. The transformation of Gil Hanse's popular Tallgrass Golf Course was extensively covered on this site during the years-long lead-up to its closure in 2017.
Amid the debate over Tallgrass's then-proposed future in solar, one opponent of the plan said she did not want her hometown of Shoreham to become "the solar capital of the world." Calverton residents voiced similar concerns in the recent past, though the building continued. Now visitors taking the Edwards Avenue route to get to North Fork farms and vineyards first pass through fields of Calverton solar panels before reaching the area's open space and scenery.
What's become of Long Island's other closed golf courses? You can find out in this updated post from last spring.
[PICTURED: The par-3 11th at Calverton Links, just a few months before its closure.]
Get the hot chocolate and hand warmers ready -- it's time to start preparing for Thanksgiving golf outings.
Local players know Thanksgiving is essentially "last call" for Long Island golf season -- the leaves are down, frost delays are longer, the layers of golf gear thicker. Thanksgiving is one final opportunity for golf with all the trimmings, including a hot meal, prizes, occasional open bars and more.
Golf On Long Island will update the 2022 Thanksgiving slate of scrambles and shotgun starts as information is made available. All outings are designed to get you home to the family with enough time to carve the turkey. Listed below are many of this year's special holiday events (all are on Thanksgiving, November 24, unless otherwise noted). These outings tend to sell out very quickly, so it's best to book early.
Brentwood Country Club is typically the earliest riser on Thanksgiving morning. Shotgun tee time is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Rate is $54 for 18 holes and cart. Call (631) 436-6060 to reserve a spot.
Cherry Creek is offering 18 holes on the Links Course with cart, range balls, hot breakfast, raffles and contests for $70 per player. Shotgun tee time is 8:30 a.m. Call (631) 369-6500 to register.
Harbor Links will host its 16th annual holiday Turkey Shoot. Registration and breakfast begin at 8:00 a.m., followed by a 9:00 shotgun tee time. Golf, cart and breakfast are $65 for Town of North Hempstead residents; $75 for non-residents. Call (516) 767-4816 to sign up.
Island's End's holiday begins with a 9:00 a.m. shotgun start. Entry fee covers golf and cart. Call the course at (631) 477-0777 to register.
Mill Pond (pictured) will host its 15th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout, teeing off at 8:00 a.m. Format is four-person team scramble, and the $79 entry fee includes cart, range balls, hot breakfast and a drink. The event almost always sells out fast; book in person or by calling (631) 732-8249.
Pine Hills Golf & Country Club continues to hold its holiday outing on Black Friday (November 25). This year's event includes cart, range, light breakfast and prizes for $85. Part of the entry fee will be donated to Toys For Tots. Shotgun start is 9:30 a.m. Call (631) 878-7103 to sign up.
Spring Lake Golf Club will host its annual Turkey Shotgun, which includes breakfast and 18 holes. Tee time is 8:00 a.m. Cost is $75 per player. Call (631) 924-5115 for a spot.
Swan Lake's holiday outing begins with 7:00 a.m. breakfast and an 8:30 shotgun start. Beverages and BBQ will be available until 1:00. Entry fee is $60 and covers golf and cart only (food and drinks not included in fee). Call (631) 369-1818 to sign up.
Willow Creek's shotgun start is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. The $69 entry fee includes golf and cart. Call (631) 474-9200 to register.
Wind Watch is hosting a holiday shotgun scheduled to tee off at 8:30/9:00 a.m. (time to be determined based on forecast). Golf and cart are $69 per player. Call (631) 232-9850 to register.
Check back through November for updated information.
The countdown has begun at Bethpage Black. Long Island's top public golf course will close for the season at the conclusion of play on Sunday, November 13. It will reopen for the 2023 season in mid April.
Meanwhile, the Black's two neighboring courses are also preparing for winter hibernation, though they will remain open a little bit longer. The Red and Green courses will close on Sunday, November 27.
Long Island's winter golfers will still have the Blue and Yellow courses to enjoy this offseason. Both courses stay open year-round as long as the weather permits.
Closing dates are subject to change depending on the weather. In 2020, Bethpage decided to keep the Black Course open for an extra week thanks to favorable November weather, so fans hoping for bonus golf should start rooting for sunny skies and warm temps. If the weather fails to cooperate, you can play the Black, Red and Green again in April.
Call the park at (516) 249-0700 for updates on course availability during the offseason.
