Golf on Long Island: Spy Ring Golf Club to open to the public May 6

Spy Ring Golf Club to open to the public May 6

[NOTE: Spy Ring GC is now open. Read more about the course in the Spy Ring flyover.]

The wait is nearly over. The slow and steady rollout of Spy Ring Golf Club, the first non-executive public golf course built on Long Island in nearly two decades, is moving ahead toward launch.

Spy Ring will make its grand opening to Long Island's public golfers on Monday, May 6. Designed by Tyler Rae, the modern nine-hole layout in Setauket replaces the former Heatherwood Golf Course with a boldly contoured, fun-forward course built from the ground up in the mold of other top-tier nine-holers around the country. Reservations will be available starting in late April.

Optimism has been sky-high ever since Rae and a team of builders began shaping the course during the early days of the pandemic. "This has a chance to be something special and unique for Long Island," said Heatherwood president Chris Capece during a 2022 course tour. "I think this is going to be up on the same level with Sweetens Cove."

Given the course's forward-thinking design and lofty aspirations, Spy Ring is the most ambitious golf project on Long Island since Harbor Links was built in a reclaimed Port Washington sand mine in 1998. When it opens next month it will be the first public course (excluding pitch-and-putts) to debut in the region since Coram's Pine Ridge in 2006.

Spy Ring is one of the first solo designs for Rae, whose resume includes many Golden Age restorations and renovations, with emphasis on Donald Ross courses. Here Rae laid out a 3,100-yard par-36 that plays up and down a series of rolling holes. The eye-candy hole is #7, a 145-yard par-3 with a Ross-inspired volcano green perched above the surrounding terrain and guarded by four large traps. Rounds conclude on a 515-yard par-5 that runs downhill from the tee, then back uphill past bunkers to a massive green. Many of the putting surfaces feature broad entrances that set up ground-game approaches.

It will also stand out among Long Island publics because of its sand-based construction and specially adapted turfgrass designed to allow balls to bound across fairways and over Rae's pronounced green contours. The pandemic slowed construction overall but provided time for Rae and crew to strip off all the site's topsoil and mold the exposed sandy base to their precise specifications. Rae said the setup and ground conditions create a "turnkey firm-and-fast course" for local players.

When designing Spy Ring, Rae considered the high standard for Long Island golf courses, especially in that corner of Suffolk County. "Golf intellect is very high on Long Island," Rae told Golf On Long Island during grow-in. "You can't just come in with Mickey Mouse bunkers and flat greens and expect to have success. Especially with a course like St. George's right down the street."

Rae's greens feature internal contouring and funneling that set up fun putts without going over the top. "There's a ton of variety in the greens, and plenty of pinnable space," he said. "Each one can play really easy or really hard."

While the course's style is geared toward the present and future, Spy Ring is not shy about nodding to the past. It is named for the Culper Ring, the famed network of colonial spies that operated in Setauket and along Suffolk County's north shore during the Revolutionary War. Behind the pro-shop counter hangs a large black-and-white photo of opening day at the original Heatherwood course in the early 1960s. In a LinkedIn post that revealed Spy Ring's official logo — a Setauket-area spy peering suspiciously from beneath a trifold hat — Capece called the opening a "special accomplishment" for a local, family-owned company with Long Island roots that go back nearly 75 years.

Next on the pre-opening agenda is the launch of a new Spy Ring website, likely sometime next week. Local players will be able to make tee times beginning in late April.

Posted in Course Promos and Updates, In the News, Suffolk Courses, Suffolk Courses: 9-hole, Voices of Long Island Golf | Permalink