Golf on Long Island

New Parbuddy golf rewards app makes its debut on Long Island at Wind Watch and Willow Creek

Parbuddy, a new mobile rewards app that allows golfers to earn free gear and green fees, launched on Long Island earlier this month in partnership with two facilities in the ClubCorp family of courses -- Wind Watch Golf & Country Club in Hauppauge and Willow Creek Golf & Country Club in Mount Sinai.

The Parbuddy app is designed to help make golf more affordable by rewarding players with points for every dollar spent at participating courses, whether it's on tee times, in the pro shop or at the bar and grill.  Simply checking in at the course on social media earns players five points, good enough for a $5 Starbucks eGift card.

Carlton Bennett, founder of Parbuddy, Inc., says the rewards app is beneficial to those on both sides of the register.  With more than 10 years experience in business development, Bennett is familiar with the process of creating new products to fill a need.  The initial idea for Parbuddy took root while Bennett simply considered the sport's difficulty for the average player. 

"You have to spend more and more to practice and to play if you want to get better at golf," Bennett says.  "So I came up with a rewards incentive for the golf world.  It's a win-win for golfers and courses."

The difference between Parbuddy and other golf-rewards programs, Bennett says, is that Parbuddy does not restrict point collection to tee-time purchases.  For players with the Parbuddy app, any spending at the course puts them closer to rewards ranging from the introductory Starbucks eGift to free golf balls and food discounts, and ultimately to the big catches -- cart-fee-only specials and free rounds anytime. 

"After one $75 round you're already close to a 100-point reward (a $10 green-fee discount) for the next round," Bennett says.  All the more reason to stick around after 18 holes for a burger and a beer.

Players who have memberships at Wind Watch and Willow Creek still benefit because their food, drink and pro-shop purchases build up point totals, Bennett says.

Dallas-based ClubCorp, owner and operator of more than 200 clubs across the United States, is a "good fit" for Parbuddy, according to Bennett, because it has the structure in place to implement new ideas at some of its courses.  Working mostly on his own, Bennett first took Parbuddy to big companies overseeing multiple courses rather than to single facilities.  The next wave of Parbuddy locations, Bennett says, will be a mix of ClubCorp properties and individual courses.  The focus is mainly in the Northeast for now, though Bennett plans to take Parbuddy wherever there is interest, no matter the location.

Rewards will change by course, but the intent will be the same -- put golf incentives within easy reach of all players, whether they play once a month or twice a week. 

Wind Watch and Willow Creek were purchased by ClubCorp in 2011.  Wind Watch occupies one of the highest points on Long Island (pictured right) and features water hazards on 12 of its holes.  Willow Creek, a Stephen Kay design, sports fast greens and nearly 100 sand hazards ranging from small pot bunkers to massive traps (above left).

Parbuddy is available on the App Store and Google Play.  For more information, visit www.parbuddygolf.com.

Pine Ridge set to host local leg of "World's Largest Golf Outing" on August 3

The fifth edition of the "World's Largest Golf Outing" will tee off at more than 100 courses from New York to Hawaii on Monday, August 3, and registration is open for participation in the local leg at Coram's Pine Ridge Golf Club.  The annual event is held at Billy Casper Golf properties around the country and raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project.  Pine Ridge is Long Island's lone event site and one of three New York State courses involved in the outing.

Entry fee is $70 per player, with $10 from each registration plus all additional donations going to the Wounded Warrior Project.  The fee covers cart, range balls, lunch, an awards reception and some golf-related parting gifts.  Format for the tournament is four-person scramble.

The Pine Ridge leg of the outing includes two separate tee times -- 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.  Register for the event by visiting the World's Largest Golf Outing website.  You can also sponsor a team or make an online donation to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Since its initial event in 2011, Billy Casper Golf has raised more than $2 million for the Wounded Warrior Project through the World's Largest Golf Outing.  Last summer's event raised nearly $900,000 and included more than 12,000 participants nationwide.

Built in 2006, Pine Ridge is one of Long Island's newer courses.  For more on the local host course, check out the Pine Ridge flyover.  And for additional information on the Wounded Warrior Project, visit the organization's website.

Father's Day family deal at Spring Lake

Spring Lake Golf Club wants you to play golf on Father's Day, but also wants you to spend time with the family.  So the Middle Island course is looking to make it all come together with a family-foursome special valid Sunday afternoon, and it will get you home in time for the late stages of the U.S. Open to boot.

Take the family over to Spring Lake between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. this Sunday, June 21, and play the nine-hole Sandpiper course, with cart, for $99.  Call Spring Lake at (631) 924-5115 to reserve a time.

Speaking of the youngsters in the family, Spring Lake will be offering its "SNAG" clinics (Starting New at Golf) to the most junior of junior golfers next Sunday, June 28.  A clinic for toddlers age 2 to 3 will take place at 10:30 a.m. ($10 per student), followed by a clinic for kids age 4 to 6 at 11:15 ($20).  SNAG clinics led by Spring Lake pro Cristy Jurgens are designed to introduce kids to the sport in fun, innovative ways.

Cherry Creek Links to host annual Scleroderma Charity Golf Outing on June 24

Cherry Creek's annual Scleroderma Charity Golf Outing will tee off on Wednesday, June 24, with proceeds from the event benefiting the Scleroderma Foundation and Scleroderma Research Foundation to help find a cure for the little-known but debilitating skin disease.  The outing will take place on Cherry Creek's Links Course.

Shotgun start is scheduled for 8 a.m.  Format for play is a team scramble.  The $100 entry fee covers golf, cart, range balls, breakfast before the round and on-course refreshments.  Also included are a post-round open bar and an Italian buffet lunch.  Contests on the course, a 50/50 cash drawing and a variety of raffle prizes add to the festivities.  To sign up for the event, visit the Cherry Creek Links pro shop in Riverhead or call (631) 369-6500 ext. 1.

The Links Course at Cherry Creek is best known for its par-6, 644-yard 18th, the only hole of its kind on the Island.  At 7,187 yards from the tips, the course is a driver-friendly layout that's second only to Bethpage Black in length among Long Island's public courses.  For more on the Links at Cherry Creek, check out the course flyover.

And for information on the other Cherry Creek layout located right across the street, visit the Woods Course flyover.

Observations: Great Rock, Willow Creek, Middle Bay

Golf On Long Island's Rob Dimino has been all over the Island this spring, teeing it up on both sides of the bay on Nassau's south shore, navigating slick greens at Great Rock in Wading River, and finding plenty of fairways in between.

Out at Great Rock, the devilish 11th green may have been renovated a few seasons ago to help players keep their approach shots on the surface, but the nasty left-to-right tilt remains.  The 11th is a short par-4 that bends to the right, and one of Dimino's best drives of the season left him just a few paces short of the green -- close enough for the putter to take over.  That's when the fun began, he describes:

"Pin was middle left -- I aimed a good 6-8 feet left.  Missed just in front of the hole, and I thought I'd have about four feet for birdie.  Then it kept trickling...and trickling...and trickling.  Wound up about 30 feet away.  One of my playing partners was incredulous.  Rapped my next putt up the hill and it just jammed on the brakes about three feet from the hole.  The power lip-out for bogey that followed was just icing on the cake."

[See this Closer Look post for a description and video of Great Rock #11.]

Great Rock will soon feature a new dining destination to help soothe frustration over ill-timed four-putts.  Pure North Fork is opening on site in the remodeled Blackwells space.  The focus will be on craft beers, small-batch liquors and local food and wine, with chef Michael Mandleur, formerly of Jamesport Manor Inn, running the kitchen.  Pure North Fork is slated to open later this month.

Not far away at Willow Creek Golf & Country Club in Mount Sinai, the equally speedy greens drew praise.  "The greens are immaculate," he says, adding that while some courses around the Island have had trouble recovering from the damaging winter, Willow Creek has rebounded beautifully from tee to green.

Back in Nassau, Rob and brother Anthony Dimino continue to be perplexed by the wind at The Golf Club at Middle Bay in Oceanside.  The two have combined to play hundreds of rounds across the bay at Lido, and it's agreed that while the wind might shift or ease up at times at Lido, it simply never ceases at Middle Bay.  Both posted numbers well above the norm in their most recent Oceanside rounds as the gusts wore them down.

Regarding the new hole orientation, Rob says Middle Bay upgraded when it made the former par-5 sixth hole its new 18th (pictured), even though the long, sweeping dogleg plays right into the teeth of the wind. 

"I feel like I always hit two good shots, and I'm still hitting 4-iron into the green," he says.

Observations: Bethpage Red impressive after rough winter

Feedback from readers has been largely positive regarding the greens at Bethpage State Park, which absorbed a heavy beating from the winter of 2015 and needed until the very end of May to get back to full capacity.  For much of the spring, a half-dozen temporary greens were in play on the Black Course, and next door on the Red, the par-3 fourth hole was closed as it bounced back from turf damage.  A U.S. Open qualifier on the Red Course was reduced to 17 holes because of it.

As of last week, all 90 holes are fully open, greens and all.  Golf On Long Island reader Matt K. took a ride out from Manhattan last weekend to check out how the Red fared in its recovery.

"Overall the Red was in great shape," he said.  "The greens were true, but really quick, probably due to the lack of rain."

As for the recently reopened #4, the picturesque one-shotter was in "perfect shape." 

Up ahead at #13 -- Matt's favorite hole -- the play, as usual, was to the blind left side of the split fairway.  "Smoked a drive and had a great angle into the green to set up a birdie opportunity," he said. 

"Just the way Tillinghast designed it."

PICTURED: Bethpage Red #4 (taken 2012)