The Town of Babylon has commissioned a feasibility study to explore the possibility of eliminating nine holes of its Cedar Beach Golf Course due to low use, and replacing them with cabanas, lockers and other revenue-generating amenities, according to Newsday.
In 2021 the Cedar Beach course, currently an 18-hole pitch-and-putt, drew its highest turnout in four years, though that followed a pandemic-affected 2020 season that totaled only 890 visitors. The town charges residents $7 and non-residents $8 to play the course.
"It's not as used as we would like it to be," Babylon Deputy Supervisor Tony Martinez told Newsday.
Babylon hired the engineering firm Nelson & Pope of Melville for $55,000 to conduct the study. The town's preliminary plans for the converted site include cabanas that could each generate thousands of dollars in revenue per season, as well as seasonal lockers, a miniature golf course and possibly a pool.
Babylon is modeling the new amenities after Nickerson and Malibu beaches in Lido Beach in Hempstead Town, which have hundreds of cabanas that cost an average of $4,000 per season. Martinez said that if the town ends up building cabanas, there would be a lottery rental system and the structures could possibly have a shower, changing area and picnic tables outside.
The lockers, also to be rented seasonally, would be big enough to leave chairs, umbrellas and other beach items, Martinez said.
"This way when they come back the following week or the following day they don’t have to haul this stuff back and forth," he said. -- Denise M. Bonilla, Newsday, 1/13/2022
Cedar Beach is one of several barrier-island pitch-and-putt courses on Long Island's south shore. The Robert Moses State Park pitch-and-putt course is located nearby across the inlet, and the Nickerson Dunes course at Nickerson Beach -- which was featured by The Fried Egg as a model of innovative entry-level golf -- opened in 2015. Jones Beach's course closed in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.
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