Golf on Long Island

A New Decade of Long Island Golf, Part 3 -- Finding a new voice for courses as marketing evolves in the age of social media

[Follow the links to Part 1 of "A New Decade of Long Island Golf," which covered the main themes of the 2010s and what to expect in the 2020s, and Part 2 on developing local players as time runs low and millennials plan to leave Long Island.]

When followers of local golf scroll over Long Island courses on Instagram, whether it's a snap of a distant green in front of a classic clubhouse, or a stylized, music-backed clip of an early-morning drive up the entrance road, there's a good chance it's from @LongIslandGolfLinks.  Patrick Prague, the 26-year-old behind the Instagram handle, showcases nothing but Long Island golf courses with personal photos and videos of layouts ranging from $7 walk-ups like the Cedar Beach Pitch & Putt to top-tier private clubs like The Creek and Friar's Head.  For those interested in content beyond the visuals, Prague typically provides brief design descriptions and historical details.  Every post connects him with more and more local golfers, and his combination of photography, action shots, videos and background info has attracted a strong following since Prague launched the account in summer 2018.

"Most people just love seeing different Long Island courses on display and shown off to the public," Prague says.  "It gives outsiders an inside look at some of the awesome courses you can find on the Island."

It's also led to meet-ups on area courses with other Instagram posters who, like Prague, record their golf travels on and occasionally off the Island.  Some have played the social-media game well enough to promote and sell their own merchandise.  There's talk, Prague says, of putting together an outing at a local course with others in the online community.

"If golf courses took time to make their social media relevant and engaging then I think it could lead to more people playing," Prague says.  "On the flip side, if the social media isn't well run or unappealing, it's a negative."

COURSES REMAIN QUIET AS MARKETING EVOLVES...

Prague and others who've taken to online social platforms represent a modern wave of golf media, joining some of the more traditional and established resources to offer players a well-rounded view of the local golf landscape.  On in-season weekends you can peruse courses on Instagram while tuned in to Ann Liguori or Anthony Scorcia, whose longtime Sports Innerview and Scorcia On Par radio shows often feature figures of local golf.  Before leaving Newsday last fall after 36 years with the paper, Mark Herrmann covered public courses and the people who run them in his popular Golf Beat column.  Metropolitan Golf Association's The Met Golfer, which recently profiled The Golf Club at Middle Bay, devotes much of its space to clubs and courses in the region.

But it's the courses themselves that struggle to effectively get word out about where Long Island golfers can play and what those destinations offer.  With a couple of exceptions, Long Island's public golf courses have been slow or uninterested in finding ways to promote themselves to the local golfing population, even in an era where, as Prague has shown, appealing content and the followers that come with it -- at least some of them future course customers, most likely -- can be just quick clicks and scrolls away.

Looking back, it took much of the last decade for area courses to simply update or modernize their websites.  Only in recent seasons have a handful of courses started utilizing Facebook to communicate pertinent information like aeration dates and rate specials, offer real-time updates on weather delays and closures, or highlight junior golf and instructional programs.  Others use Facebook to instead promote their more lucrative wedding and catering businesses.  In total, of the 50-plus public golf facilities on the Island, less than half are represented by an active, golf-focused Facebook page.  Barely a dozen feature active Instagram accounts.

On Twitter, the casual golfer has a unique forum to freely interact with golf designers, architects, superintendents, historians, media and professionals.  Few local courses join them.  Players of all types, skill sets and levels of renown chronicle their rounds and travels on Instagram.  Both platforms offer unprecedented insight and visuals into public, private and professional golf, on the course and behind the scenes.  Golf content is everywhere, and there are modern-day conversations happening around the clock that many Long Island golf courses are simply not part of.  The silence is difficult to understand.

"Honestly, I've wondered about [marketing] for years.  My only guess is that most public golf courses here are owned by older people who don't get it," says one former general manager.  "The majority of owners have the mindset that there are only so many options and golfers will come regardless."

A few courses have indeed taken advantage of social media -- typically Facebook -- to promote some of their unique offerings.  At Sunken Meadow, head pro Judy Alvarez initiated a women's boot camp and a "Chicks, Chip & Sip" series that pairs wine and cocktails with instruction.  ("All the sessions sold out," Alvarez says.)  Leagues have grown during her two years at the Kings Park muni.  Notice is sent out on the Sunken Meadow Facebook page and in monthly e-mail newsletters.

Alvarez says the plan for the 2020 season is to bolster the park's social-media presence, with focus on Instagram, on top of her efforts to bring more women and veterans into the sport.

In addition to their annual course improvements, the owners of Sandy Pond in Riverhead promoted and staged events like glow-in-the-dark night golf during recent summers.  Bethpage, of course, underwent a full digital rebrand in 2018.  The park's social media now focus almost entirely on its junior golf academy.

Island's End has used Facebook and Instagram to publicize its semi-private membership tier for young adults under 40 -- a welcome attempt to attract millennial golfers.  (Only Island's End and The Vineyards openly advertise a young-adult-focused membership option.)  And courses like Cherry Creek and Swan Lake -- the latter of which recently posted a small collection of rare photos of the course's 1979 opening (right) -- have made attempts to increase engagement with followers so far this offseason.

But the majority of local courses sit out the social-media game, or marketing in general.

John Glozek, Jr., longtime publisher of Hicksville-based Golfing Magazine, thinks courses have been slow to promote themselves because, historically, there was no need.  When the magazine debuted 30 years ago, golf courses were full.  "They didn't have to do a thing and waits for a tee time were insane," Glozek says.  "When things started going bad [after the economy tanked in 2008], the courses weren't generating enough to promote or market themselves.  So they didn't."

Kristen Jarnagin is currently planning a September trip to the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin to promote the 2024 tournament, which will be held here at Bethpage Black.  One thing the president and CEO of Discover Long Island is not doing is fielding calls from local golf courses looking for exposure that the region's official tourism promotion agency might be able to provide.

"We hear from breweries, wineries, aquaculture and agriculture all the time," Jarnagin says.  "As soon as we hear from golf courses, we'd certainly be happy to work with them.  There's definitely a void there we'd be happy to fill."

...AND NEW AUDIENCES EMERGE

Before Sweetens Cove in Tennessee became one of last decade's biggest public-golf success stories, it was simply a newly redesigned, rebranded nine-hole course struggling to find its footing.  The course launched Twitter and Instagram pages, and by shining a spotlight on itself and its combination of modern, innovative design and fresh perspective on public golf, it began to draw wandering eyes. 

"The golf course really blew up on social media," co-designer Rob Collins told Sports Illustrated, which profiled Sweetens in November.  The SI piece highlights a few Sweetens Cove visitors who traveled across multiple state lines after hearing about the course on a podcast and getting swept up in the hype on Twitter and golf websites.

"Sweetens Cove is also attracting young golfers when overall participation is down 20% since 2006," the SI profile reads.  "I credit millennials with saving the golf course," Collins told SI.

Sweetens and other modernized publics have also succeeded by tapping into another key golf demographic.  Followers of golf architecture and history have slowly carried discussions of long-lost golf grounds and debates about course setup and design attribution into the mainstream in recent years. 

Look no further than last year's PGA Championship at Bethpage.  During its coverage leading up to the tourney, Golf Channel aired a feature in which Connor Lewis of the Society of Golf Historians and golf architect Jim Urbina walked the Lido Beach dunes to navigate the long-lost routing of the original Lido Club.  Computer renderings of the century-old Lido holes were provided by Peter Flory, a Michigan-based golfer who's published his work -- a hobby totaling hundreds of hours on Lido alone -- on the Golf Club Atlas discussion forums where current designers, historians and others in the industry admire and pick through the ultra-fine details.

Just a few weeks later, Long Island's only new course of the 2010s, a little, largely unknown pitch-and-putt traversing the dunes just next door at Nickerson Beach, was featured by The Fried Egg -- a prominent architecture and design website -- as a symbol of all that's right about entry-level golf in the 21st century.

Nickerson Dunes opened in 2015 with zero fanfare -- it was seemingly announced into existence by a Nassau County press release.  Despite its tiny stature and anonymous identity, that bump from The Fried Egg generated some buzz, the kind that, although small, eludes most of its local golf counterparts.

"I have friends upstate who told me they plan to take a trip down to play Bethpage and Nickerson Dunes," says Matt Krantweiss, 38, who grew up close by in Valley Stream.  "I asked why they'd travel here to play a pitch-and-putt.  They said they saw Nickerson on Twitter and that it looks really cool."

Krantweiss is baffled that so few local courses show off their signature holes, give players looks at different approach shots, or offer insider tips on where to aim a blind tee shot or where to miss on a tough par-3.

"I'm not going to play a course because they posted an Arnold Palmer quote or a blooper video," Krantweiss says.  "But I'll definitely be interested if they break down an old Tillinghast or Emmet hole that I can play, or show me the new bunkers or remodeled greens they're building.  If any course focused its efforts on material like that, it would be heads and shoulders above the rest.  But it's as if they don't want the exposure."

Mark Fedeli, a frequent Long Island golfer who works in marketing, also finds himself "profoundly conflicted" when it comes to local courses.

"There are a lot of courses that seem like they could benefit from a change in philosophy, that lack identity or don't seem terribly interested in evolving," Fedeli says. 

Of one Long Island course with a particularly unique design and background, as far as marketing and visibility, "It might as well not exist," Fedeli says.  "Maybe the owners are perfectly content.  Maybe they don't care about promoting their story.  If they're fine with that, that stinks."

"It's hard to survey the entire landscape and not feel like there's a lot of wasted potential," he says.

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Barring any obstacles, Topgolf will soon arrive in Suffolk County, and a case can be made that the still-unbuilt Long Island link in the driving range and leisure chain -- currently boasting 60+ locations and more than 250,000 Instagram followers -- already has more hype than many established local courses.  Will the new, young player with an interest in taking up golf as a consistent activity spend his or her free time at a golf course they've never heard of and never heard from, or will they instead head for the place that keeps showing up on their Twitter and Instagram feeds, with food, beer and celebrities swatting drives? 

And if Topgolf is the choice, who will convert those players, if anyone, into green-fee-paying golfers?

Part 4 of "A New Decade of Long Island Golf," which will cover the growth and focus on junior golf, will run later this spring.

Harbor Links, Sunken Meadow to host Drive, Chip & Putt qualifiers in July

Registration is open for the annual Drive, Chip & Putt Championship, an event for junior golfers that culminates every April at the famed Augusta National Golf Club.  For Long Island juniors, the road to Augusta begins this summer with local qualifiers at three area golf courses.

Qualifying rounds for the 2020-21 Drive, Chip & Putt Championship will be held on various dates in July at Harbor Links in Port Washington, Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park and the private Colonial Springs Golf Club in Farmingdale.  The event, which is made possible by the United States Golf Association, the PGA of America and the Masters Tournament, is open to boys and girls from age 7 to 15.  It gives juniors in all 50 states the opportunity to qualify at local courses and compete for a chance to play in the championship at Augusta National on the eve of The Masters.

Top performers at the Long Island qualifiers will advance to the sub-regional round, scheduled for August 13 at Bethpage State Park.  The eighty open spots at the Augusta championship -- 40 boys and 40 girls -- will then be determined at regional finals.

Participation in the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship is free.  Players accumulate points for performance in driving, chipping and putting challenges.  Complete competition rules, eligibility requirements and scoring outlines are available at the Drive, Chip & Putt website.

A New Decade of Long Island Golf, Part 2 -- Developing lifelong players as time runs low and Long Islanders leave

[For Part 1 of "A New Decade of Long Island Golf," covering some of the main themes of local golf in the 2010s and looking ahead to the 2020s, click here.]

John Borkes opens his back door to a sweeping waterfront view near Freeport's Nautical Mile, and when he plays golf, he's typically right nearby, looking out over the surf from The Golf Club at Middle Bay.  

"I'd love to go around playing different courses, but ultimately I wind up at Middle Bay because it's close to home," Borkes says.  "It's a nice course and it's convenient -- usually I don't have time to go farther and play 18."

Five times a week, Jeff Byer commutes from home in Brooklyn to work in Massapequa Park, and he often adds a sixth trip on the Belt Parkway for 18 holes on the Island.  Ask him and he'll tell you his home course is Bethpage Red, but when time is tight and he can't take another tussle with the Belt, Byer will stay inside the borough at Marine Park. 

"I want time to warm up, get loose, hit some irons.  Go to the practice green and get a feel for my putter," Byer says.  "It's part of the full experience."

While their golf priorities vary, Borkes and Byer have one important thing in common -- they both recently celebrated 30th birthdays, putting them comfortably within the confines of the oft-discussed millennial generation, a group of young adults that will have plenty to say about where Long Island golf stands when the 2020s melt away into 2030.

This past summer, Newsday announced the results of an expansive "nextLI" survey that found two-thirds of Long Island's young adults expect to move off the Island within the next five years, citing the region's high cost of living.  New York State as a whole, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, lost more than 75,000 residents from July 2018 to July 2019, the largest population decline of any state in that time period.

And last month, a study by the Nassau County comptroller's office revealed that the number of Long Island residents between the ages of 20 and 44 has dropped by nearly 10 percent since 2000.

"The Baby Boomers are aging out, and that leaves the millennial generation to pick up the slack and replace rounds," says one Suffolk-based course manager.  "If even half of that 67 percent [in the Newsday report] moves away, public golf courses and private clubs will be in a bad place."

According to the National Golf Foundation, which tracks participation, golfers age 65 and over played an average of 36 rounds in 2018.  Millennials between age 18 and 34, however, played just 11.6 rounds, "a likely byproduct," per NGF, "of increased demands on their time and involvement with a variety of other activities."

"INCREASED DEMANDS ON THEIR TIME"

Time commitment has emerged as perhaps the biggest barrier preventing new players from dipping their toes into the sport and many existing ones from maintaining their preferred frequency of play.  Six-hour blocks of free time -- long the bedrock of a casual, golf-heavy lifestyle -- have given way to shorter, fragmented spurts of activity scattered around non-traditional work schedules, kids' activities and a host of other family obligations. 

"Time is pretty much everyone's main factor, with work and family playing a big part," says Scott Fowler, 37, who plays most of his golf at public courses in western Suffolk.  "If I have to, I'll go out and pay for a round knowing I can only get 12 or 13 holes in."

It's part of the reason modernized nine-hole courses are in vogue nationally, and on a local level as well.  Long Island's only newly built course of the 2010s was the Nickerson Dunes Pitch & Putt, which earned a little bit of golf press with its uncommon design.  Two longtime nine-holers at Sandy Pond and Cedars were rejuvenated last decade by extensive repairs and renovations.  Around the country, refurbished courses like the Winter Park muni in Florida and Sweetens Cove in rural Tennessee are hits that draw golfers from states away.  

Meanwhile, Jack Nicklaus is on record in support of 12-hole rounds.  And the USGA's ongoing "Play 9" campaign centers on the "time-friendly, unwind-friendly" nature of the nine-hole round.  In one Play 9 promo, a bearded, denim-jacketed man on the go -- the unofficial mascot of the millennial crowd -- looks at his watch as the narrator ponders, "Golf and life...how do you fit one into the other?"

The issue is certainly not a new one.  ("The situation is getting worse instead of better, and there seems to be no solution," reads one 1951 Newsday column on slow play.)  In 2011, longtime Newsday golf writer Mark Herrmann covered the sport's time constraints and its possible remedies.  "Golf is expensive and it takes a lot of time," said Steve Smith, then the executive director of the Long Island Golf Association.  "There are reasons why young people don't take up the game and why people stop playing."

"It takes too much time to play golf," former Bethpage pro Joe Rehor told Newsday.  "I see it with my son-in-law.  He's got two kids at home and he can't play golf.  He's got [youth] lacrosse, he's got concerts, he's got this and that.  He's got no time for golf.  If you want to introduce new players to the game, you can't make it so time-consuming."

Fast-forward nine years and time-friendliness has taken on greater urgency, as course closings continue to heavily outpace openings, and the massive boom of mobile technology has shortened attention spans and conditioned people, especially younger ones, to streamline more of their daily routine, including time spent on recreation.  Rapid growth of technology has already changed the way people search for rounds of golf via GolfNow and other tee-time apps.  It's likely just a matter of time before technology changes the way people view the act of playing golf itself.  Once you've grown accustomed to having any conceivable task no farther away than your fingertips, pacing around for 15 minutes on a backed-up par-3 in the middle of a five-hour round feels even more like time poorly spent.

"While time has always been a consideration with golf, I think it makes the game less appetizing to potential players as our society evolves," says Jon Sherman, creator of Practical Golf, a Long Island-based game-improvement website and newsletter.  "How much time are golfers willing to endure?"

Much of the resistance to outside-the-box solutions revolves around the sport's traditions.  Ideas like 12-hole rounds are dismissed by some as gimmicks destined to fail; others consider them too radical for a local public course to explore on its own without proof of success.

"It's hard to be the first to experiment with something new, there's so much uncertainty," says Andrew Wilson, Bethpage's director of agronomy.  "If statistics say most people want to play 18, is it worth focusing on six holes or nine holes?"

Ryan Stewart, 31, is at peace with the length of play and willing to endure the five-hour-plus round if it means getting in a full 18.  "Anything less than 18 holes is just not enough for me.  The only time I play less than 18 is after work when I run out of daylight," says Stewart, who admits the recent arrival of twins might alter his perception of golf's time crunch.

"I don’t see additions of 12- or six-hole rounds fixing the time problem on the 18-hole courses," he adds.  "We have plenty of nine-hole courses around here but I rarely ever see a wait."

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So with time at a premium, priorities shifting away from half-days at the course and the pool of prospective players shrinking locally, it would seem imperative that Long Island's public golf courses stake their claim to what remains of young adults' time and attention, and fight to turn them from hesitant prospective golfers to potential lifelong players and customers.  Perhaps come up with mutually beneficial ways to get them into the clubhouse, onto the course and headed home in two or three hours rather than five or six.  Especially now, when businesses can brainstorm fresh ideas at little to no cost and deliver them right where young adults spend much of their time -- on their phones, perusing social media.

But while Long Island restaurants, farm stands, coffee shops, breweries and breakfast joints have figured out ways to build and captivate audiences -- in some cases thousands of followers deep -- with eye-catching photos and video clips, Long Island golf courses have largely sat hidden away in self-imposed online anonymity.

Check back next week for Part 3 of "A New Decade of Long Island Golf," which will address local golf's marketing and self-promotion in the social-media era.

Island's End property protected in Town of Southold land-preservation deal

Southold Town and the owners of the Greenport property housing the Island's End Golf and Country Club agreed to a deal last month that protects the land from future development, Newsday reported on Thursday.

The town purchased the development rights to the 127-acre property beside Long Island Sound for $5.1 million, according to Newsday, preserving it for use as a golf course and protecting wildlife on the site.  The purchase was facilitated by the Peconic Land Trust.

Newsday's Jean-Paul Salamanca broke down the specifics:

Under the deal, the King and Turner families — who own most of the property — and the golf course will retain ownership of the land, subject to the restrictions of the town easement. This means that if either the golf course, which owns roughly about one-third of the property, is discontinued or the families decide to discontinue their arrangement with the golf course, the town would be able to make sure the property is used for either farming, a similar golf course or passive recreational uses such as a trail, Sanford said.

Catherine Chaudhuri, president of Island’s End Golf & Country Club, said the golf course’s board and shareholders “are thrilled our public course has been preserved.”

Mary M. Pacinda-Turner, a property owner representing the Turner family, said in a statement that her late husband, Robert Turner, would be “very proud that his father’s legacy will now continue to be enjoyed by the community that he so loved.” -- Jean-Paul Salamanca, Newsday, 1/2/2020

Southold is at least the third Long Island township in recent years to enact or propose measures designed to protect golf courses.  Brookhaven created a zoning category called "golf course district" in 2017 that permits only golf, catering and other related facilities to be built on site, and in 2018, Hempstead proposed a similar designation in an effort to prevent development of sensitive wetlands areas.

Island's End is best known for the scenic par-3 16th, which overlooks Long Island Sound from atop a bluff.  For more on the Greenport course, check out the Island's End flyover.

A New Decade of Long Island Golf, Part 1 -- A changed landscape, on and off the course

Another decade of Long Island golf is coming to a close -- the thirteenth, to be exact, since the first shots went airborne at Shinnecock Hills in the 1890s.  Some have been decadent, others disastrous, and while the 2010s didn't meet either of those extremes, it will certainly go down as a decade of significant change to the Long Island golf landscape.

Golf On Long Island spoke with representatives from Long Island's public golf courses as well as members of golf media, a cross-section of area players and figures in related businesses to get their perspective on the local golf scene at the dawn of a new decade.  What follows are some of the significant topics and themes related to Long Island's public golf courses and public golfers as the 2010s leave us and the 2020s approach the first tee.

Check back after the new year for Part 2, focusing on junior golf and the conversion of young adults into lifelong players.

CLOSINGS, OPENINGS AND PROTECTING GOLF COURSES

Tallgrass Golf Course in Shoreham entered the 2010s already fending off development plans.  As far back as 2008, the Gil Hanse course announced in promos that it was "here to stay."  Indeed it was -- for nearly a full decade, before a solar-energy company took over the land and ripped up a facility that had been named among the "Best Courses You Can Play" in New York State by Golfweek for nine straight years.

Course closures on Long Island mirrored the national trend in the last decade.  Simply put, far more courses are shutting down than opening, a correction of the wild building race of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Its persistence meant that Tallgrass was the last course to fall off the public roster in the 2010s, preceded by other East Enders at The Links at Shirley, Calverton Links and Long Island National (sold and turned private).  The quaint nine-hole Dix Hills Golf Club closed to make way for luxury housing.  And Hurricane Sandy ended a long run for the Jones Beach Pitch and Putt, its oceanfront site beside the iconic park tower always prone to abuse by coastal storms.

Out of Sandy's wrath in 2012 came one addition to Long Island's list of public courses.  The private Middle Bay Country Club, an Oceanside fixture since the 1950s, was battered by the storm and forced into bankruptcy.  Savvy maintenance work and some good luck with post-Sandy weather allowed the course to reopen the following spring as the newly public, freshly titled South Bay Country Club.  Lease issues threw more hurdles in its path, but eventually the course settled into its current identity as The Golf Club at Middle Bay.

"We've had a steady increase in rounds every year," says golf director Ronnie Wright.  "We're at full capacity Friday through Sunday, and we do well on Wednesdays when Lido and Merrick are closed." 

Pace of play is the club's selling point, Wright says, though golfers, especially water lovers, might insist it's the proximity to the bay.  Its signature hole is a par-4 with the bay down the left side and a collection of bunkers nearly forming a ring of sand around the green.  Beyond the green is a clear view toward Long Beach.

Last year, Middle Bay -- featured in the November/December issue of The Met Golfer -- was part of a Town of Hempstead proposal aimed at protecting golf courses against residential development.  Hempstead's plan, designed to prevent the recently sold Woodmere Club from closing in 2022, would designate Middle Bay and the private courses at the Woodmere Club and Inwood Country Club as "golf course coastal residence districts."  The new category would restrict residential development due to environmental issues like flooding and impact on area wetlands. 

Woodmere, its roots more than a century deep in Five Towns, is one of a small handful of golf facilities already slated for at least partial development in the near future -- others include the public Heatherwood Golf Course in Setauket, to be cut down from 18 to nine holes to make way for senior housing, and the century-old Engineers Country Club in Roslyn, where residences are planned around the existing private golf course.   

Previously in 2017, the Town of Brookhaven went ahead and created a new zoning category -- "golf course district" -- and has since redesignated the town-owned Mill Pond and Rolling Oaks golf courses and the privately owned Rock Hill Golf & Country Club.  Properties zoned as golf course districts can build catering halls, restaurants and health clubs on site, but homes, non-golf offices and retail stores are not permitted.

And in early December 2019, the Town of Southold, in a deal facilitated by The Peconic Land Trust, purchased the development rights to the land housing Island's End Golf & Country Club in Greenport.  The $5.1 million purchase by the town ensures that the 126 acres bordering Long Island Sound will be free from development and likely preserved as a golf course, per Newsday.

Closures also impacted the driving-range business around the Island.  At least three large ranges closed since 2011 -- first to go was Island Green in Selden, followed by the Oakdale Golf Center and, most recently in 2017, Skydrive Golf Center in Farmingdale.  Many of those lost stalls will be replaced if a proposed Topgolf -- New York's first -- opens in Holtsville in the near future. (More on that below.)

[PICTURED: Top right -- Calverton Links, three months before abruptly closing down in 2013; Top left -- The view toward Long Beach and Jones Beach from the signature hole at Middle Bay in Oceanside; Bottom right -- Skydrive's farewell note to customers prior to closing in 2017.]

NINE-HOLE GOLF: RENOVATIONS AND NEW BEACH VIBES

The loss of Dix Hills GC notwithstanding, the 2010s marked a mini renaissance for nine-hole golf on Long Island.  It's status quo at the Nassau munis -- Bay Park rang in its 50th year this season with zero fanfare -- but out east, two tucked-away nine-hole spots were reinvigorated by new, hands-on owners.

In Cutchogue, nestled among quiet streets behind the village green and community library is Cedars Golf Club, a fixture since the 1960s on land utilized for golf for more than a century.  Tim McManus and Paul Pawlowski took over the course in 2014 and made immediate changes -- bunker and green renovations, irrigation upgrades, brush clearing and more.  They added a comfy patio, built a simulator room in the vintage clubhouse and partnered with a company to offer kayak and paddleboard rentals in a creek off the ninth hole.

"Cedars has definitely exceeded our expectations," McManus says.  "Every time I'm at the course I hear compliments from players on the conditions and the overall friendliness of the experience."

Nearly the same story played out a few seasons prior in Riverhead, long the home of Sandy Pond Golf Course, another nine-holer hidden in plain sight behind an anonymous shack amid more familiar 18-hole neighbors.  It got a shot in the arm in 2012 from two new owners, Ken Weinstein and Chris Wahlers, who dug right in cleaning out ponds, resurfacing tees, repairing greens and clearing overgrowth around the perimeter.  By 2014, the course gleamed with golden-brown grass between holes, colorful flower beds and vibrant green fairways.

“We’re noticing more skilled golfers coming to play,” Wahlers told Golf On Long Island at the time.  "And people from the area are coming by and saying they never knew the course was here.”

The crew continues to run successful leagues and unique night-golf events.

While Cedars and Sandy Pond underwent their annual upgrades, another little course took shape out of the barren sandscape way back west in Lido Beach.  Not that many people knew about it at the time -- outside of a county press release and a few news snippets, the Nickerson Dunes Pitch & Putt, Long Island's only newly built public course of the 2010s, came to be in beachfront secrecy. 

Holes start out from turf mats with rubber tees and stretch no longer than 105 yards, but that simplicity is countered by the course's sloping greens, hilly terrain and features like punchbowls and grass mounds.  Salvaged boardwalk planks stand in as walking paths and, on one hole, the retaining wall around a desert-style waste area.  So noteworthy is the layout that The Fried Egg, a prominent golf design and architecture website, featured the course in 2019, holding it up as a shining example of modern entry-level golf.

"You could work a couple of Nickersons into just about any town -- nine holes on 10 acres, or four holes on five acres.  At that size, golf courses cost far less to build and maintain, and could even fit into existing parks," writes The Fried Egg's Shaun Smith.  "We need more ambient golf.  If my daughter wants to pick up tennis or basketball or baseball in the future, it will be easy because the playing spaces will be right there.  Golf may never be that open, but it could get closer."

[PICTURED: Above left -- looking up to a hilltop green at Sandy Pond, post-renovation in 2014; Above right -- Nickerson Dunes was featured by The Fried Egg's Shaun Smith (@GorseNod on Twitter); Screenshot courtesy of The Fried Egg (@the_fried_egg)]

BETHPAGE

If the 2000s thrust Bethpage Black into the spotlight as the new rock star on the national golf scene, then the 2010s was the decade the "People's Country Club" matured into a polished, well-coiffed celeb.  By the time Brooks Koepka walked off the Black clutching the Wanamaker Trophy as winner of the 2019 PGA Championship this past May, the Black had added two editions of The Barclays to its resume (2012 and 2016) and earned the right to host the 2024 Ryder Cup.

And with its years-long march toward the 2019 PGA coinciding with the rise of Golf Twitter and Instagram, more and more of the Black's daily happenings -- from fairway, tee and green renovations to updates on pollinator gardens -- were chronicled in real time.  Andrew Wilson, the park's director of agronomy and sporter of many hats during a lengthy tenure at Bethpage (including past jobs in the clubhouse and as a starter), is the man behind many of those updates, keeping followers in the loop with frequent glimpses of scenes around the grounds. 

Wilson was front-and-center during PGA week, talking up the Black Course on TV, radio and podcasts.  And as Wilson discussed the meat and potatoes, other outlets poured on the dressing.  Over on sites like Golf Club Atlas, spirited debates quickly ignited on course setup while Golf Magazine's Josh Berhow took a deep dive through anecdotes and fuzzy memories in an effort to pinpoint the origin of the famous "Warning" sign.

For Wilson, the famous Joe DiMaggio quote, the one about giving his all because a kid might be seeing him play for the first time, is always in mind.

"We know people travel from all over to play at Bethpage," Wilson says, "so we want to give them the best experience we can."

Though locals and tourists might arrive at Bethpage with higher expectations now that the Black Course has been a household name nationally for nearly two decades, the focus around the grounds remains on simply putting the best foot forward.  Much of the maintenance work is the same as it was at the close of the 2000s.  Technology has obviously improved, taking much of the guesswork out of course conditions.  And the staff now has years of experience preparing for major events -- Wilson says this offseason's renovation of the bunkers on Black #4 are being done with one eye on the '24 Ryder Cup.  The staff is also considering shortening the turf around traps to bring more of them into play, among other changes.

Off the course, Bethpage -- and its fellow NYS park courses at Montauk Downs and Sunken Meadow -- took a leap into the 21st century with the long-overdue switch to an online tee-time portal.  New golf director Kelley Brooke, another Bethpage multitasker ("I'm running everything here but tee times," she told Golf On Long Island last year), has plans to lengthen the driving range and expand the facility's use of state-of-the-art video and biofeedback systems for instruction.  A primary goal is to make Bethpage a "full-service academy" with instructional programs, clinics and camps.

Behind the scenes, a marketing team focused on revamping the facility's digital presence.  For way too long until 2018, Bethpage was represented on the internet by a bleak website half-focused on hawking apparel.  Brooke hired Zach Toste, a digital-marketing consultant who played golf at Notre Dame, to craft an online personality befitting the country's most prominent public-golf facility.

Toste and the digital-marketing team introduced "Experience Tradition" as the park's slogan and filled its rebuilt social-media feeds with video demonstrations, action shots around the course and other features.

"There was a sense of urgency due to the upcoming PGA Championship," Toste says.  "Until then there had been no sense of history on the site.  Our initial focus was on tradition and history, bringing the courses' stories and milestones to light."

With the PGA event in the past, much of the online focus now is on Brooke's successful junior programs, including the park's first-ever summer camp, started in 2018.

"It's nice being out on the course and seeing 40 or 50 young kids playing," Wilson says.

[PICTURED ABOVE: First two photos -- scenes from the PGA Championship in May 2019; Bottom right -- Wilson's Twitter updates (@Greensideup17) on the Bethpage courses recently included photos of renovations to the famous glacier bunker on Black #4.]

GOLFNOW

The last holdouts -- Bethpage and the NYS parks, plus Oyster Bay this season -- finally hung up on the phone-reservation era last year, though that doesn't mean the phone-reservation era actually ended.  It just means dialing is old news.  Tapping and scrolling for rounds of golf via GolfNow and other reservation apps has made locking down 18 holes easier than ever and revolutionized the tee-sheet business.  Golfers can now find nearby tee times the same way they find Christmas gifts on Amazon -- by initiating a search and perusing the results.  And in an era where time is of the essence, any convenience is valued.

GolfNow didn't emerge in the 2010s, but its massive financial backing from NBC Sports and Golf Channel allowed it to gradually acquire other booking engines (the latest as recently as last month) in a decade where online commerce and mobile technology rapidly grew more sophisticated, accelerating the company's growth into an industry behemoth.  The company boasts 3.5 million registered users worldwide that can book rounds at more than 7,000 courses.  On Long Island, public green fees have remained close to the same as they were a decade ago, while tee-time apps streamline the search for heavy discounts.

The prize catch for the player on a GolfNow search is the small inventory of "Hot Deal" tee times at each course that slash green fees by as much as 80 percent.  Like the base economy rate of an airline ticket or a hotel room, the Hot Deal price is paid up front and non-refundable.  And taking that comparison even further, GolfNow offers a rewards program that allows players to earn points on booked tee times.  So between the convenience, the potential discounts and rewards, it's a win for the player.

But on the business end of the transaction, not everyone is sold on the merits of GolfNow.  Critics in the golf-course industry argue that by training consumers to treat golf courses the same as a pack of boxer shorts on Amazon, GolfNow is pressuring courses to price their rounds too low to remain sustainable.  And by further incentivizing bookings through GolfNow, the benefits to the player ultimately come at the expense of the facilities they play.

"The cost to operate and maintain a golf course increases 3 to 6 percent per year, yet green fees remain the same price as they were in 2008," says one Suffolk course manager.  "The GolfNow model is helpful to some but damaging to others.  Operators cannot increase green fees because people simply won't pay it.  Eventually there is a breaking point."

The structure of the popular Hot Deal is largely the source of critics' concerns.  GolfNow's agreements with courses require each facility to trade a certain number of tee times every day in exchange for use of GolfNow's booking platform and other perks like website design and e-mail marketing.  Those exchanged tee times are then promoted as deeply discounted Hot Deals, paid in full to GolfNow, not to the course.  Then GolfNow heavily promotes its available Hot Deals in a particular region (see screenshot below) and pushes them to the front of searches, ahead of the rest of the standard-rate tee times paid to the course.  GolfNow is helping courses up with two hands, the argument goes, while kicking their legs out from under them.

Wright at Middle Bay says he's not fully for or against GolfNow.  "We definitely needed them to help us get off the ground," he says.  "Their advertising can be very helpful."

On the other hand, "I've never seen a relationship where one side always benefits," Wright says.  "You have to watch what's going on and stay on top of them when issues arise, otherwise the course loses out."

Part of the reason local courses don't ditch the GolfNow model is fear of the unknown.  Courses not under the GolfNow umbrella do not appear in searches.  So a consumer scrolling for tee times by zip code might think he or she is getting a full, real-time menu of golf in a particular area, when that's not the case.

"I would bet a lot of money that if the public owners could get together, they would agree not to participate in GolfNow," says the Suffolk manager.  "The only reason they are using it now is that everyone else is."

Supporters of GolfNow argue that this is simply business at work, that the aggregation of tee times is yet another positive innovation of the modern digital marketplace.  Anything that helps lead more players to local courses should be considered a win for the industry.

Sometimes the lines are blurry.  A search for tee times on a recent December afternoon revealed a $15 mid-day Hot Deal at Eisenhower Park's White Course.  Eisenhower, of course, is a Nassau County muni, and residents pay the county for Leisure Pass access to tee times and resident golf rates.  Yet an arrangement with GolfNow allows all comers to swoop in and pay much less.

As for the tens of thousands of dollars worth of tech and marketing services acquired in the tee-time trade (one daily tee time at $40 per player is worth more than $50,000 annually), the courses still have to get their hands dirty to get their money's worth.  Needless to say, a GolfNow-sponsored e-mail blast that is simply a tee-time ad with a course logo on top is not a sound marketing strategy. 

Neither is what went on at Great Rock this past season.  The Wading River course fell into disrepair in 2019 while its Twitter feed and e-mail blasts pumped out almost nothing but generic GolfNow ads linking to tee-time lists.  The course abruptly shut down for the season in October, and its e-mail and social-media campaigns subsequently refocused on the fact that the course is, well, closed.

[PICTURED ABOVE:  GolfNow prioritizes the sale of its Hot Deal tee times, a practice that some in the golf-course industry argue is more harmful to courses than helpful.  Screenshot courtesy GolfNow.com] 

TOPGOLF

Unofficially, the topic that inspires the most chatter among Golf On Long Island readers is the prospect of Topgolf making its New York debut in Suffolk County.  And, as of now, it will, on a site just north of the Long Island Expressway at exit 62 in Holtsville.  It's made its way through government proceedings, faced the requisite share of NIMBY opposition, and appears to be in the clear provided it meets some conditions outlined by the Brookhaven Town planning board in September.

Topgolf adds elements of a trip to Dave & Buster's to the typical driving-range experience, allowing players to hit microchipped golf balls toward arcade-style target areas for computer-scored games and contests, in addition to food and drinks.  Climate-controlled hitting bays are rented by the hour and typically include televisions, WiFi and access to food and drinks.  Standard range features like lessons and clinics are also included.

There are nearly 60 Topgolf locations generating lots of buzz around the country and overseas, including a Las Vegas site that lives up to its locale with glass-walled swimming pools and a concert venue.  The question that remains unanswered in golf circles is whether or not the popularity of Topgolf actually makes green-fee-paying golfers out of its many followers.

"I can't wait for it to be built," says one local course manager.  "I only see it as a benefit, getting more people interested and increasing rounds locally."

"Any time we can get a golf club in somebody's hand, it's good for the game," says Middle Bay's Wright, who adds it could also benefit local PGA pros if they get the opportunity to give lessons in the offseason.  "Even if it's having fun over a beer and a bucket of wings, it will be helpful in growing the sport."

Andy Carracino, PGA pro and director of golf at Timber Point, agrees Topgolf is good for the sport but is unsure if it's a match for Long Island.  "It's up to the industry to turn those Topgolf customers into 'real' golfers," he says.  "My hunch is it's too big an investment to succeed here.  Too many off days between October and April for a return, and the winter storms will kill the equipment."

At the moment there is no timetable for when the Long Island Topgolf might open, and it's not listed among the dozen "Coming Soon" locations on the company website.  For now, Long Island golfers will have to travel at least as far as central New Jersey to get their Topgolf fix.

[PICTURED ABOVE:  Topgolf in Edison, New Jersey, currently the closest location to Long Island.  Photo courtesy Topgolf.]

COULD A SWEETENS COVE WORK ON LONG ISLAND?

In September, Rob Collins and Tad King leaked word of their latest golf design project.  Nine holes of ambitious New York fairways and greens, roughly 90 minutes from Manhattan, sure to draw scores of players from the city onto area parkways, golf bags in tow. 

The two partners -- together known officially as King-Collins Golf Course Design -- are the darlings of modern golf architecture thanks to their work transforming a flat, unremarkable golf course in rural Tennessee into a pilgrimage site for followers of golf design and those simply seeking a fresh take on the golf experience.  It's been featured in the New York Times, hailed as a model of innovation in Sports Illustrated and profiled by golf publications whose writers chronicle their journeys to Sweetens Cove -- formerly known as Sequatchie Valley Golf & Country Club -- with pictures of the course's weathered signs and tiny shed of a clubhouse.  Golfweek ranked it #49 on its 2019 list of top modern courses, a rarity for nine-hole layouts.

Sweetens Cove and other similar projects around the country -- Winter Park in Florida, a revamped muni, for one -- might just be setting the foundation for the post-Recession, post-Tiger wave of American course building.  Taking spent or outdated golf grounds and reimagining them with a focus on bold features, strategic design, no-frills fun and a streamlined building process that allows for affordable public and municipal golf. 

Reimagining golf is the key -- as Collins told the Times, "People had been building golf courses completely wrong for years."  He and King are already in the very early stages of an unnamed project in Mississippi where the finished product would be a 12-hole course -- a nine-holer with a separate three-hole loop. 

The King-Collins project in New York will not be east of the city out in these parts though, it will be north, a meandering drive from the Thruway in a town called Accord.  Nine new holes are in progress on what previously was Rondout Golf Club.  The 18-hole course is being cut to nine by King and Collins while the rest of the property will be bolstered with a boutique hotel, cabins and shops.

Innovative golf design, limited amenities and daring features, all with a laid-back, player-friendly mentality -- could it work on Long Island?  Rob Collins thinks so.

"I have no doubt it would be a huge success," Collins told Golf On Long Island earlier this month.  At Sweetens, much of the challenge for the designers was bringing their new ideas to life and succeeding in a rural area of a depressed county, as Collins describes it.  That wouldn't be the case here.

"Sweetens Cove was the ultimate pie-in-the-sky project," Collins said.  "There's a lot less risk on Long Island.  You have a built-in golf population, and most of the great courses are private.  If you could make a course on par with the privates that's open to the public for an affordable price, why wouldn't it work?"

"Something like Sweetens would do wonders to help grow the game," said one Long Island general manager.  "I hear it so often from people who don't play -- they don't know how to get started and they are afraid of embarrassing themselves.

"The focus is to eliminate the formalities of what golf has always been and have a course that is available to the public where the emphasis is fun."

Jeff Warne, director of golf at The Bridge, isn't sold. 

"The availability of cheap golf on Long Island, even with recent closings at Tallgrass, Shirley and Calverton Links, make it unlikely," Warne says.  "A municipality could easily pull it off, with the model being Winter Park, but I don't see government on Long Island doing it."

But given the recent success stories on the nine-hole front, and other changes coming to the area, perhaps the 2020s will prove to be the right time for some innovation on the Long Island golf scene.

"You will see how many people buy into an idea like this once Topgolf opens," says the local GM.  "I think the younger generation would eat this up."

Great Rock closing for the season today

Great Rock Golf Club will end its season this afternoon, closing the book on a tumultuous 2019 littered with widespread reports of horrendous course conditions and rumors about the future of the Wading River facility.

Typically praised for its fast greens and overall excellent conditions, Great Rock fell into disrepair this year, with many Long Island players taking to various online platforms to post reviews and photos portraying a seemingly abandoned course with fairways overrun by crabgrass, bare greens, unmowed rough and weed-filled bunkers.  The restaurant, Pure North Fork, has been closed.  As the season progressed, the course answered player complaints with canned responses about future improvements.

Meanwhile, there are rumors that a sale of the course is in the works, so Great Rock's status for the 2020 season is currently unknown. 

As seen nearby at the former Calverton Links, the track record of golf courses that abruptly close in October amid sale rumors is not great.

Check back through the offseason for updates and additional information.

Long Island Press announces nominees for "Best Golf Course" in 2020 survey

Bethpage State Park rarely loses any kind of Long Island golf popularity contest -- in fact, it's won nothing but gold in the "Best of Long Island" reader survey conducted each year by the Long Island Press.  Still, this fall, more than a dozen public courses and private clubs have an opportunity to knock Bethpage off its perch in the 2020 "Best Golf Course" category, which is officially open for online voting.  Also open for voting are "Best Driving Range" and "Best Golf Store."

The 2020 nominees for "Best Golf Course" -- as determined by Press readers -- include 12 public courses and five private clubs.  Voting is open at the Long Island Press website until December 15.

This year's public-course nominees are:

• Bethpage State Park
• Brentwood Country Club
• Eisenhower Park
• Harbor Links
• Lido GC
• Middle Bay
• Rock Hill
• Stonebridge Golf Links
• Swan Lake
• Timber Point
• Town of Oyster Bay GC
• Willow Creek

In the "Best Golf Store" category, Babylon's Unique Golf Shop has been just as dominant as Bethpage, sweeping the contest since its inception.  This year it will compete with 14 other stores around the Island, including independent shops, national retailers and even one -- Golfsmith -- that's out of business.  (The Press has been notoriously slow in vetting its list of potential nominees.)  Country Fair in Medford is vying for a three-peat in the "Best Driving Range" survey, though it will need to beat out former champions Heartland Golf Park and Eisenhower Park, among nine others.

Winners of the 2020 survey will be announced in January.

Topgolf inches closer to first Long Island location with latest board approval

After listening to arguments last month in support of and opposed to a proposed Topgolf facility beside the Long Island Expressway in Holtsville, the Town of Brookhaven planning board followed up this week by voting 6-0 in favor of granting site-plan approval for the company's first New York location.

The approval requires that Topgolf plant additional trees and install 6-foot-high fencing along parts of the property that border residential neighborhoods, among other measures, according to Newsday and town documents.  Topgolf must also get building permits from the town before it can begin construction at the site, which sits west of Nicolls Road at exit 62 of the LIE.

Though there is no opening date at the moment, with this latest Brookhaven approval, Topgolf's efforts to expand into New York are essentially sitting in the middle of the fairway, wedge in hand.

Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle, who represents Holtsville on the town board, said Topgolf is "a very positive business" that would provide an economic boost to the area.

“I think what’s been put in place with the buffers ... really will help to mitigate the concerns,” LaValle said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "The response that I’ve had from people who live around here and people I know from college, everybody says it’s an amazing experience.” -- Carl MacGowan, Newsday, 9/18/19

Mixing dining, nightlife and technology with the traditional elements of a driving range, Topgolf facilities allow players to hit microchipped golf balls toward arcade-style target areas for computer-scored games and contests.  Climate-controlled hitting bays are rented by the hour and typically include televisions, WiFi and access to food and drinks.  Standard range features like lessons and clinics are also included.  Currently, the closest Topgolf facility to Long Island is located in Edison, New Jersey (pictured).

For more, see previous GOLI posts on the proposed Topgolf:

Plans in place to bring Long Island's first Topgolf location to Holtsville (12/23/2017)
No updates on planned Topgolf facility in Holtsville (12/20/2018)
Holtsville residents tee off on plans for Long Island's first Topgolf facility (8/21/19)

[Photo courtesy of Topgolf]

Holtsville residents tee off on plans for Long Island's first Topgolf facility

Ground has yet to be broken in Holtsville for what would be Long Island's first Topgolf facility, but representatives from the Dallas-based company have already received a traditional Long Island welcome from area residents who spoke out against the development at a Brookhaven Town public hearing on Monday.

Citing loud music, lights and the potential for increased traffic and drunk driving in the area, Holtsville residents asked the board to oppose the new facility, which would be located north of the Long Island Expressway at exit 62, according to Newsday.  Topgolf is known nationwide for its driving ranges that mix high-tech features, modern amenities, dining and nightlife.

Topgolf officials argued that the $25 million facility would create up to 500 jobs and comply with all town laws, though residents were skeptical of the range's use of music and lights late into the night.

Opponents of the project threw up their hands in apparent exasperation during the hearing as Topgolf officials tried to assure them that their lifestyles would not be disrupted by the business.

Mike Quilty described a recent vacation trip with his wife Mary during which they saw a Topgolf site with blaring music and bright lights.

"When we saw the Topgolf in South Carolina, I said, Oh, my God, it is in your face," Quilty said. "I said, wow, this is going to be in my neighborhood? I can't believe this."

Other residents expressed concern about Topgolf customers driving drunk as they leave the facility, which would be open until 2 a.m. on weekends. -- Carl MacGowan, Newsday, 8/20/2019

Back in December 2017, the Brookhaven Town board unanimously approved special permits and zoning changes to make way for Long Island's first Topgolf.  At the time, proponents cited Topgolf's entertainment value while residents complained that disruption from the site could devalue their homes. 

Unlike standard driving ranges, Topgolf features microchipped golf balls and arcade-style target areas for computer-scored games and contests, as well as dining and lounge-style amenities that appeal to non-golfers.  Climate-controlled hitting bays are rented by the hour and typically include televisions, WiFi and access to food and drinks.  Standard range features like lessons and clinics are also included.  Currently, the closest Topgolf facility to Long Island is located in Edison, New Jersey (pictured).

Brookhaven's planning board deferred a decision until its next meeting on September 16.

For more, see previous GOLI posts on the proposed Topgolf:

Plans in place to bring Long Island's first Topgolf location to Holtsville (12/23/2017)
No updates on planned Topgolf facility in Holtsville (12/20/2018)

[Photo courtesy of Topgolf]

Junior golfers play free this Saturday at New York State Parks courses

Take your junior golfers to the nearest state park for nine or 18 holes this Saturday -- New York State is picking up the green fee.

This Saturday, July 20, is Free Youth Golf Day, a statewide event that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this spring as New York welcomed the PGA Championship to the crown jewel of NYS Parks golf courses, Bethpage Black.  All players 18 and under are entitled to a free round of golf at all state parks, five of which are on Long Island -- Bethpage, Montauk Downs, Robert Moses, Sag Harbor and Sunken Meadow. 

"We want to encourage and grow the sport of golf in New York.  To help encourage that, the State is going to sponsor an event on July 20 where anyone under the age of 18 years old can golf for free at any of our state facilities," Governor Cuomo said back in May. "It's a nice way to get young people out to experience the game, and I think once they experience it and they understand it, they will be hooked."

Golfers must be New York State residents to participate.  Cart fees, range balls and food/drinks are not included in the promotion.

For a full list of state-park golf courses, see the Free Youth Golf Day info page.