Golf on Long Island

Town of Islip implements updated reservation, no-show policy

The Town of Islip updated its reservation and no-show policy effective June 1, adding no-show fees that will need to be paid before account holders can book future tee times.

Islip charges a $4 reservation fee per player on tee times booked at Brentwood Country Club and Holbrook Country Club, and $3 per player at the nine-hole Gull Haven Golf Course.  Players can cancel or modify reservations as close as six hours before their tee time, and if tee times are not canceled, the reservation fees are charged.  If any players on the booking are no-shows, their fees are billed to the account holder.

According to the policy, player accounts will be inactive until fees are paid.  In addition, an account with four no-shows will be suspended for up to four weeks.

With demand for tee times still incredibly high, golf courses have turned to upfront payments and penalties to discourage players from holding multiple reservations and canceling them close to the designated time.  They are also meant to inhibit use of automated bots and third-party tee-time resellers.  The new Islip policy comes exactly one month after Bethpage State Park implemented a similar no-show policy to crack down on automation.  At Bethpage, players must pay a non-refundable $5 reservation fee at booking and cannot cancel tee times inside 48 hours.

For more on Islip's updated reservation rules, see the Brentwood golf website.

Bethpage adjusts tee-time policies in attempt to combat automated bot reservations

Starting May 1, Bethpage State Park will implement several new policy measures that officials hope will discourage users from utilizing automated methods to gain unfair access to tee times. 

The park announced this weekend that the $5 online reservation fee normally collected at check-in will instead be charged as a booking fee and collected at the time of reservation.  The fee, which is charged per person, is non-refundable.  In the event the course is closed on the date of play, the booking fee will be credited to the player's account and available for future use.

Tee times must be canceled 48 hours prior to play — the $15 no-show fee remains in place and must be cleared before making future reservations.  Players must check in 45 minutes prior to tee time or they will be considered a no-show.  The number of allowable monthly cancellations will be reduced from eight to six under the new measures.

"We understand the challenges created by the high demand at Bethpage and are working with our reservation system provider, foreUP, to implement new tools to help prevent potential unfair access to tee times through automation," the park stated in its announcement.

The presence of automated bots and third-party tee-time resellers hoarding reservations via the park's online reservation system (and, previously, the park's phone system) gained nationwide attention this winter when No Laying Up's Kevin Van Valkenburg aired an investigative podcast about Bethpage tee times.  The podcast featured a local player who acquired reservation data from New York State through a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request and was able to successfully purchase a Black Course tee time from a third-party seller using an out-of-state account. 

Van Valkenburg also interviewed an engineer who described his creation of a bot to purchase tee times.  The reason automation is successful, he said, is because there is no penalty for cancellation.  

Under the new measures, a reserved foursome will be charged $20 at booking, and the fee is non-refundable if canceled or modified.

2025 golf course reopening dates on Long Island

As most local golfers know, March is reopening month on Long Island.  Sure, it's still barely above freezing outside and the ground is mush, but as far as cold-weather players are concerned, that's what hand warmers and golf spikes are for. 

Long Island's seasonal golf courses are getting set to stick the pins back in the cups and unlock the pro-shop door.  By mid-month, many of them will be open for play, and it won't take much beyond 50 degrees to fill up that tee sheet.  When March flips to April, just about every golf course on Long Island will be sending groups out to the first tee.

The following is a list of tentative 2025 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.

2025 GOLF COURSE REOPENINGS:

• Poxabogue – March 10
• Sandy Pond Links – March 14
• Harbor Links - Championship Course – March 14
• Timber Point – March 14
• Bergen Point – March 14
• West Sayville – March 14
• Holbrook CC – March 14
• Brentwood CC – March 14 
• Bethpage Green – March 15
• Woods Course at Cherry Creek – March 21
• Harbor Links - The Lower Course (Executive) – March 28
• The Golf Club at Middle Bay – March 28
• Bethpage Red – April 1
• Bethpage Black – April 12
• Eisenhower Red – April 8

[This post was updated on March 31, 2025.]

Upgrades at Harbor Links include robots, range renovations and a rebranded Executive Course

Harbor Links has a new course operator and will soon have a variety of spiffy new amenities to enhance the playing experience.

And among those incoming amenities are robots — yes, robots — that will deliver food and drinks to players as they swing their way around the Port Washington golf course.  Kelley Brooke, whose management company Brooke Holdings LLC took over operations at the Town of North Hempstead municipal facility earlier this year, says Harbor Links will be the first golf course in the world boasting robot food service.  "On the course, players will have an app on their phone and be able to order food and drinks," Brooke says.  "The kitchen packs the robot and sends it out to the group."

That focus on technology and modernization is the theme of the Brooke-led metamorphosis at Harbor Links, which opens for the 2025 season on Friday, March 14.  The course's 37-stall driving range will soon be fully covered and outfitted with training tech, TVs and lounge seating, and hours will be extended during the season as late as 11:00 p.m.  (The robots will make deliveries to the range too.)  

"Millennials are entering the game at very high numbers, so we're trying to computerize and tech out the entire venue," Brooke says.  "It will attract that newer, younger crowd."

One development that takes a look back into the past rather than ahead at the future is the course's newly released logo.  A sand miner, one hand on hip and the other grasping a golf club, honors the workers who were ever-present near Hempstead Harbor in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the region was mined to build the infrastructure of New York City.  Harbor Links was developed inside one of the industrial sand quarries in 1998.

Brooke, the 2018 LPGA Professional of the Year and longtime contributor to The Golf Channel, adds Harbor Links to a management portfolio that includes Bethpage, Montauk Downs, Lido and Merrick.  Less than a year after signing a 10-year contract with the Town of Hempstead to operate and rebrand the Lido and Merrick courses, Brooke finalized a similar agreement with North Hempstead that took effect in January.  And in line with Merrick's rebrand under Brooke into The Nine at Merrick, Harbor Links' nine-hole Executive Course will now be known as The Lower course.  Future upgrades at the Harbor Links nine include a beer garden and an outdoor wood-burning pizza oven.  Near the driving range, a performance center with TPI trainers, simulators and a full gym is planned for this fall.

Though there hasn't been much golf played anywhere on Long Island this offseason due to weather, Harbor Links has been buzzing with activity since the new group moved in during the first week of 2025.  Gone are the old green carpets that lined the pro shop and lobby, replaced now by light, modern hardwood flooring.  Installation of new stone flooring is currently underway on the ballroom's outdoor patio.  Paint, lighting and furniture updates give the facility a noticeably fresh look.

On the course, the most significant alteration is a renovated tee box on #7, which now stretches 50 yards long.  Bunker work will likely be done next offseason.

Similar driving-range upgrades are underway at Montauk Downs and planned for Bethpage, Brooke says.  The range nets at Bethpage are scheduled to be raised in the fall.

For more on Harbor Links, check out the course flyover.

[Bar room photos courtesy of Kelley Brooke.]

2024 closing dates at Long Island's public golf courses

The handful of public golf courses that close for the Long Island winter typically go dark between the end of Thanksgiving weekend and the middle of December.  Some might hang on until Christmas week if warm weather lingers, but usually the only courses still open by then are the ones that welcome players year-round.

So, with that said, now's the time to get in the final swings on Long Island's seasonal golf courses, otherwise your next tee times at places like Eisenhower Red and Timber Point will be in early spring.  With the exception of Bethpage Red and Black, all of the Island's seasonal courses reopen by the end of March.

The following golf courses will close for the 2024 season in the coming weeks:

• Bethpage Red – December 1
• Bethpage Green – December 1
• Bergen Point – December 1
• West Sayville – December 1
• Middle Bay – December 1
• Eisenhower Red – December 8
• Holbrook Country Club – December 15
• Brentwood Country Club – December 15
• Timber Point – December 15
• Sandy Pond – December 31
• Cherry Creek - Woods Course – TBD/mid-December
• Sumpwams Creek – TBD/mid-December
• Bay Park – TBD/mid-December
• Harbor Links – TBD/mid-December
  
• Christopher Morley Park -- TBD

Some courses have already closed for 2024, including:

• Bethpage Black

Check back daily as other courses are added.  And for more information on Long Island's winter season, stay tuned for our annual Winter Golf On Long Island primer.

2024 Thanksgiving golf outings at Long Island courses

For the many Long Island golfers who do not play golf year-round, there is usually a distinct point where the golf season comes to an end.  Some might call it a year at Halloween, others Thanksgiving.  Some might end it the first time they put the heat on at home, others might end it at the year's first frost delay.

Only one of those particular times, however, comes with a slate of golf outings and events.

Local players consider Thanksgiving morning the border between fall golf and winter golf, and they celebrate the transition by layering up and hacking around a local scramble.  Conditions are often dicey, but with the winter playing season only one blizzard away from getting wiped off the calendar, a brief November chill is tolerable.

Golf On Long Island will update the 2024 Thanksgiving slate of scrambles and shotgun starts as information is made available.  All Thanksgiving outings are designed to get you home at a reasonable time for family and football.  Listed below are many of this year's special holiday events (all are on Thanksgiving, November 28, unless otherwise noted).  These outings tend to sell out very quickly, so it's best to book early.

Cherry Creek is offering 18 holes on the Links Course with cart, range balls, hot breakfast, raffles and on-course contests for $79 per player.  Shotgun tee time is 8:30 a.m.  Call (631) 369-6500 to register.

Crab Meadow is hosting a Turkey Trot that includes cart, range balls, breakfast, food and beer.  Call the pro shop at (631) 757-8800 to register.

Harbor Links will host its 18th 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 $75 for Town of North Hempstead residents; $85 for non-residents.  Call (516) 767-4816 to sign up.

Middle Island Country Club will tee off with a holiday shotgun start.  Call (631) 924-3000 for details and reservations.

Mill Pond (pictured) will host its 17th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout.  Format is four-person team scramble.  The event always sells out fast; book in person or by calling (631) 732-8249.

Pine Hills Golf & Country Club continues its tradition of hosting a holiday outing on Black Friday (November 29).  This year's event includes cart, range and prizes for $85.  Shotgun start is 9:30 a.m.  Call (631) 878-7103 or visit the pro shop to sign up.  Part of each outing fee benefits Toys for Tots.

Spring Lake Golf Club will host its annual Thanksgiving Day Shotgun, which includes breakfast and 18 holes.  Tee time is 8:00 a.m.  Cost is $80 per player due at registration.  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 $70 and covers golf and cart only (food and drinks not included in fee).  Call (631) 369-1818 to sign up.

Check back through November for updated information.

Bethpage, Montauk Downs listed among Golfweek's 2024 Best Courses You Can Play

There are certainties in Long Island golf life — group photos at the Black Course warning sign, wind at Montauk Downs, and Bethpage and Montauk ranked highly in Golfweek's list of the region's top public golf courses.

Golfweek's 2024 Best Courses You Can Play rankings were published earlier this month and Bethpage Black finds itself on familiar ground atop the local list, followed closely by its next-door neighbor Bethpage Red and its New York State sister course at Montauk Downs.  The Best Courses You Can Play list ranks the elite publicly accessible courses in all 50 states.  The three courses are typically locks for New York's top eight with the Red Course and Montauk Downs jockeying for position.  This year the Red Course at #6 edged out Montauk by a spot.

Also of local interest, Bally's Ferry Point (formerly Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point) in the Bronx is ranked third behind only the Black Course and Leatherstocking in Cooperstown.

Bethpage Black is featured prominently on Golfweek's broader lists as well.  The Black moved up one spot to #9 on the national Best Courses You Can Play list, jumping ahead of the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.  It also held its #26 spot on the Best 200 Classic Courses list, which ranks public and private courses built before 1960.  That list showcases Long Island's enormous depth of internationally renowned golf courses, with three courses in the top 10 (Shinnecock Hills, National Golf Links and Fisher's Island) and a total of 15 courses overall.

For many years, Golfweek included a fourth Long Island course in its annual Best You Can Play — Tallgrass Golf Course in Shoreham.  Tallgrass is gone, of course, but another "lost" course with local ties — sort of — did crack the list.  The resurrected Lido at Sand Valley in Wisconsin lands at #15 on the national list and #2 in the state.  That course is a nearly identical replica of C.B Macdonald's original Lido Club located on Long Island's south shore from 1917 to 1942.

For more on the three Long Island publics, including a Closer Look breakdown of Red #13 (and Tallgrass #8, just for old time's sake), check out the course flyovers via the above links.

[PICTURED: Bethpage Black #5 in spring 2024.]

Citing "unprecedented demand," Bethpage announces changes to reservation system and tee-time policies

Bethpage State Park has heard the ongoing complaints about the fairness and circumvention of its tee-time reservation policies and is now taking steps to address them.

In an email distributed earlier today, Bethpage announced several changes to its reservation system and policies, all scheduled to go into effect next Monday, June 24.  The main change, according to the email, is the creation of a new booking type called "Verified NYS Resident - Bethpage," which will continue to allow tee-time reservations up to seven days in advance.  In order to make this change, the park conducted a months-long audit of its reservation system and removed all duplicate golfer accounts.  Residents in good standing will be automatically reclassified under the new verified booking type.

Starting next week, however, any new registrants, plus golfers who have been locked out due to multiple accounts or violations, will have to verify their resident account by emailing a copy of their NYS driver's license or identification card to the park.

The park cited "unprecedented demand for tee times" as motivation for the system change as well as other policy updates.  Players will now be restricted to eight cancellations in a calendar month to limit the ability to make and transfer tee times.  "Unfortunately, we have seen a trend of many users reserving tee times with no intent of using them, but instead booking for friends, family members and playing partners by trying to coordinate those cancellations," the email said.

Reservations on the Red Course will be limited to one every 14 days, similar to the current restriction on the Black Course, where tee times are limited to one every 28 days.

"We know some of these changes may cause some initial consternation amongst the golfing public," the email said, "but we are hopeful that these changes may allow more users to obtain reservations moving forward."

Bethpage Black opens 2024 season with bunker tweaks, irrigation upgrades

Players who went looking for a one-on-one fight with Bethpage Black on the golf course's opening day were instead met with an ambush by briskly cold temperatures and a brutal, relentless wind.  But the surprises weren't all bad — waiting on the first tee for some of the park's morning players was the Ryder Cup, perched on a pedestal in all its golden glory.  Representatives from the PGA of America were on hand to give away hats and let players from all five courses pose for photos.

The trophy's presence at Bethpage Black's grand 2024 opening was a gleaming reminder that Long Island is just a year away from hosting the famed international tournament and that Bethpage's accomplished staff continues its years-long effort to prepare the course for the global spotlight.

This offseason the Black Course received another set of upgrades, the most important of which, according to director of agronomy Andrew Wilson, was the completion of its irrigation system.  Longtime Black Course superintendent Mike Hadley led the effort to install new irrigation on holes 13 and 18, and with those two holes finished, the staff now has precise control of water usage throughout the course.  "The building blocks of a successful course are the irrigation and drainage systems," Wilson says, "so we are excited for the work to be done."

Up on ground level, players will find one notable change at #13.  Wilson says the crew "leapfrogged" the two fairway bunkers on the bending par-5, filling in the near trap and creating a new one just beyond the far bunker.  The new alignment will better defend against longer drives.  From the tees likely to be used in the Ryder Cup, the two traps will sit between 300 and 350 yards away.  Regular players will encounter them roughly 260 to 300-plus yards from the middle tees.

Also on #13, Wilson says the fairway has been widened by about 10 yards leading up to the traps.  "Over the past year or two we have widened fairways on many holes so running balls will not get caught in the rough," Wilson says.  "Now they could run into the bunkers."

The massive fairway bunker on the par-4 fifth will be even more intrusive this season.  Crews widened that trap a bit and made some improvements designed to prevent flooding.

As for Ryder Cup preparations, Wilson says there will be no changes to the Black Course's routing, as some have speculated.  The course will be played in order, from 1 to 18, starting at the Black's recently built Ryder Cup tee.  Other changes could be in the works as this season progresses.  

"We will see once the Ryder Cup captain is chosen," Wilson says.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Wilson]

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.   

READ MORE:
Spy Ring Golf Club in Setauket working its way toward a soft opening this fall (2023)
Coming Soon: Heritage Spy Ring GC, Long Island's first shot at the Sweetens Cove model (2022)