Golf on Long Island

22nd annual 50+ Lifestyles Golf Tournament to be held September 24 at Timber Point

Timber Point Golf Course in Great River will host the 22nd annual 50+ Lifestyles Golf Tournament on Thursday, September 24.  50+ Lifestyles is an independent publication geared toward Long Islanders over the age of 50.

Registration for the event is $149.  The tournament includes continental breakfast, barbecue lunch, open bar, raffles, prizes and awards.  All players are welcome to participate, however, only golfers age 50 and older will be eligible for prizes.  Visit the 50+ Lifestyles website for more information, or call (631) 286-0058 x111 to register.

Timber Point is best known for its "Gibraltar" par-3 overlooking Great South Bay.  The 27-hole facility includes three nine-hole courses -- Red, Blue and White.  Parts of the Red and Blue courses date to the 1920s when Timber Point was a highly exclusive private club.

For more on Timber Point, visit the Red, Blue and White course flyovers.

Dental Mission to Madagascar golf outing slated for September 20 at Tallgrass

Tallgrass Golf Course in Shoreham will host an outing next month that will support the Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine's mission to provide dental care in the African country of Madagascar.  This is the third year of the event, which raises money to send a team of dental students and two faculty members each summer to perform sometimes life-saving dental work free of charge.  All proceeds go to the Madagascar Outreach Fund.

The outing is scheduled for Sunday, September 20 with a 1:00 p.m. tee time.  Format for the event is four-person scramble.  The $175 entry fee includes golf, cart, dinner and entertainment.  There will be long-drive and closest-to-the-pin contests, prizes for low individual and team scores, plus the chance to win raffles and auction prizes. 

Players and sponsors can register online, and learn more about Stony Brook's charitable efforts in Madagascar, at the Dental Mission to Madagascar website. 

Designed in 2000 by renowned architect Gil Hanse, Tallgrass has been named one of the "Best Courses You Can Play" in New York State by Golfweek for the past six years.  To learn more about the course, check out the Tallgrass flyover.

Rock Hill set to host ninth annual Chrissy's Wish Golf Outing this Saturday

The ninth annual Chrissy's Wish Memorial Golf Outing, which raises money each year for the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, will tee off this Saturday, August 15 at Rock Hill Golf & Country Club in Manorville.  The event has raised nearly $500,000 since its inception for research and treatment of various mental illnesses, including depression and bipolar disorder. 

Tee time is 1:30 p.m.  Barbecue lunch, range practice and an opening ceremony begin at 11:30.  After the round, players are invited to stay for a buffet dinner, dessert and two-hour open bar.  Entry fee for all players is $160 and includes cart, range balls and meals.  To register for the outing as a player or sponsor, or to donate, visit the Chrissy's Wish Memorial Fund website.  Interested participants can also register as dinner-only guests for $55.

At 7,050 yards, Rock Hill is one of Long Island's lengthiest public courses.  Thick rough and uphill approaches make distance off the tee vitally important.

For more on Rock Hill, check out the course flyover.  And to learn more about the mission of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, visit the organization's website.

Memorial golf outing to benefit Kids Need More, August 13 at Rock Hill

Help support Kids Need More and its Camp Adventure -- a Long Island camp for children with cancer -- by participating in the Robert "Appo" Lodato Memorial Golf Outing on Thursday, August 13 at the Rock Hill Golf & Country Club in Manorville. 

Registration is $200 per golfer.  Included with the entry fee are beverages throughout the day, a post-golf buffet and open bar, plus raffles and prizes.  Sink a hole-in-one and win a 2015 BMW 3-Series convertible.  Tee time is 1:30 p.m.  To register, print the application at the Kids Need More website and submit as directed.

Kids Need More oversees Camp Adventure, a camp for children with cancer and their siblings.  The camp is staffed by volunteers and free for attendees.  For more on Kids Need More and Camp Adventure, visit the organization's website.

And for more on Rock Hill, check out the course flyover.

Observations: Eisenhower Park - White Course

Long, straight and a shade under 7,000 yards from the tips, Eisenhower Park's White Course makes it easy for players to choose what to hit off the tee.  And with its trademark gaping bunkers at the mouth of every green, there's added importance on squeezing out every last yard with the driver.

So when you take those attributes and then add what one local golfer describes as U.S. Open-style rough, suddenly a tough but manageable golf course is elevated to a demanding, difficult one. 

Last month, Matt from New York, a 10-handicap with an accurate driver, started his round slightly off-line from the tee.  His drives on the first three holes landed in the rough, not too far off target, but the consequences were drastic thanks to deep, sticky fescue only a few paces from the fairway.

GOLI's Rob Dimino was on hand to help Matt find the balls in the scruff, though the efforts were futile.

"The fact that two of those three drives were lost in the rough was ridiculous," said Dimino, who added that the penal fescue thinned out farther along the course.  "After #4, the fescue was less dense and better for spotting balls."

While the GOLI group viewed the rough as merely a hazardous reality on a course playing tough, local golfer Nick Giroffi sees the setup as problematic and a symptom of poor management.  In a letter published in Newsday on August 1 with the title "Speed Up Golf at Eisenhower," Giroffi contends that the high rough contributes to golf's slow-play epidemic, especially at Eisenhower where rounds typically breach the five-hour mark.

"The White Course is set up for U.S. Open Championship play with narrow fairways," Giroffi says.  "The grass in the first rough is so high that balls disappear, challenging the average player to find them.  It takes too much time to find the balls and the slow play becomes frustrating."

Giroffi compares the knee-high fescue to turn-of-the-century sheep meadows, and also claims that bunkers are filled with "rocks the size of potatoes."

"Complaints go nowhere.  The overall fairways are super, including the greens, so some changes would make for excellent golfing," Giroffi says.  "Faster play is the bottom line.  Cut the rough and sift the sand traps."

PICTURED: One of the White's familiar front bunkers (photo taken December 2011)

Ominous forecast for Tallgrass Golf Course as solar-energy push continues

[UPDATE, May 19:  Tallgrass will remain open through the summer of 2016, according to Newsday's Mark Herrmann.]

SEE LATEST POSTS:
Supporters, opponents of Tallgrass solar development state their case to Brookhaven Planning Board (1/26/2016)
Tallgrass offering 2016 tee-time memberships as threat of solar development lingers (12/18/2015)
Talks concerning solar-farm future at Tallgrass continue (9/8/2015)

With an out-of-state energy company making plans to convert the sunny skies over Shoreham into renewable energy, dark clouds are looming on the horizon for Tallgrass Golf Course.

In a 139-page report submitted to the Town of Brookhaven Planning Board last month, Chicago-based Invenergy detailed plans for a 110,000-panel solar farm to be built on the grounds of the existing Tallgrass course.  According to the report, the current clubhouse would be used as a community center, and the cart path would be repurposed as a multi-use recreational trail.

The Town of Brookhaven still needs to approve the proposal, which would be Long Island's second-largest renewable-energy project, according to Newsday.  The former Calverton Links golf course has also been tied to discussions regarding solar farms. 

Speculation varies among those close to the Tallgrass situation, with some doubting approval, while others consider it likely, Golf On Long Island has learned.  It is believed that a sale of the course to the developer is already in place in the event of approval.

Tallgrass Golf Course was designed by Gil Hanse and opened in 2000 on the site of a former sod farm.  For the past six years, Tallgrass has been ranked by Golfweek as one of the "Best Courses You Can Play" in New York State.