Golf on Long Island

Heatherwood Golf Club remains closed amid real estate fight

A years-long battle over a proposed senior housing complex in Centereach that would cut the Heatherwood Golf Club from 18 holes to nine has instead reduced the entire course to overgrowth as the future of the development dims.  Heatherwood has been closed since early 2020, and it appears likely the course will stay closed for good.

Heatherwood slowly grew into an eyesore along busy Nesconset Highway during its abandoned 2020 season, Kyle Barr of TBR News wrote in October.  At one point a sign that read "What Should We Build?" was erected over the dormant golf course.

The deserted course and weedy lot are the culmination of a lengthy struggle pitting the Town of Brookhaven against a Commack-based real estate developer that wants millions of dollars in tax breaks to build 200 housing units for seniors on part of the golf course property.  Arguing that tax breaks would take revenue away from local school districts, the Brookhaven Town Industrial Development Agency rejected several requests in 2019 for economic-aid packages for the developer, Heatherwood Golf and Villas, ranging from $2 million to $7 million in exemptions.  Heatherwood contends that the project -- which would keep nine of the club's 18 holes -- is dependent on the tax breaks.

The developer was originally granted a zoning change for the project in 2014 and already has most of the approvals it needs to start construction of the housing complex, according to Newsday.   Local residents and civic associations spoke out against the development at the time, and after continued opposition, some feel that the abandonment of the golf course is a "vindictive" counter to the town's aid rejection, Barr reported.

As for Heatherwood Golf Club, part of the Long Island public-golf scene for more than 50 years, it filled a niche as the Island's only 18-hole executive-length course.  The 4,100-yard course featured six par-4s and a dozen par-3s, most of which played longer than 150 yards.  Its signature hole was the 148-yard ninth, where shots to a deep green needed to sail over a small pond.

Tee times will be a hot commodity again at local golf courses in 2021

On this first morning of spring, the season of new beginnings, opening day at Bethpage Green was slowed by a frost delay.  It was a fitting way to follow a winter season that was largely snowed out.

The cold thaw will do little to dampen local golf enthusiasm though, or the prospects for 2021.  The rush on tee times that became one of the main storylines in the pandemic-affected Long Island golf season of 2020 is likely to carry over through this year, Newsday golf writer Jeff Williams said in a St. Patrick's Day column, as more and more courses begin to shake off the winter freeze.  Harbor Links also reopened on Saturday, joining courses like Timber Point and Cherry Creek Woods that raised the curtain on 2021 last week.

And with sunny skies and temps projected in the 50s and 60s this week, expect a preview of this spring and summer's run on reservations.  Pent-up demand helped one Suffolk County course send out 150 players as far back as a sunny, freshly snow-thawed March 3.

"Tee sheets filled up in an instant, a week in advance or more," Williams said of 2020.  "And that trend isn't showing any signs of slowing down."

It's not just the push for golf itself that is driving demand for reservations.  "Tee times are like gold," Sunken Meadow head pro Judy Alvarez told Golf On Long Island in the fall, because most courses are still not allowing walk-up play amid the focus on pandemic safety.  Just about everyone needs a reservation to get onto any local first tee.  Players accustomed to dropping by a nearby course to join a group, or who might decide to sneak in nine holes one afternoon on a whim, are now at a severe disadvantage.  

Courses like the nine-hole Nassau County munis at North Woodmere, Bay Park, Cantiague and Christopher Morley are offering tee times for the first time ever, and without walk-up play, the difference is clear.  On a warm weekend last November, every tee time at North Woodmere was booked in advance from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon.  "Normally on a nice fall Saturday like this I'd come down here at 9:00 and get on after a little wait," said one Woodmere golfer.  "Today I can't get out."

As of noon today (Saturday), a search for Sunday tee times turns up almost nothing for twosomes at North Woodmere and Cantiague.  (The other two courses are still closed for winter.)  Singles can find three slots in total before 2 p.m.

At Cedars Golf Club in Cutchogue, the neighborhood nine-hole course transitioned in 2020 from a fully walk-up facility to prepaid tee times.  "We expect to keep the tee-time system going forward based on positive feedback from customers," said Cedars co-owner Tim McManus, who added indoor simulator play at Cedars was booked every weekend this winter.

The Golf Club at Middle Bay still has some time before the course opens on April 1, but the tee sheets are filling fast.  "We have a very limited number of tee times available for sale on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays," said golf director Ronnie Wright.

Once on the course though, golfers should find the experience well worth the fight for their spot on tee.  Pine Hills golf director Jimmy Conway told Newsday that faster rounds were one of the byproducts of pandemic-era golf in 2020.

"For the first time we saw four-hour rounds being played on weekends. That brought joy to a lot of people’s games," Conway said.  "A tee time on Saturday wasn’t so bad anymore."

Peninsula Golf Club owners considering sale to Florida firm

Peninsula Golf Club shareholders will meet next week to discuss the potential sale of the Massapequa nine-hole golf course to a Florida firm, Newsday reported on Thursday.

On the table is a $4.4 million offer from the Florida company for the 50-acre property, which must remain a public golf course, according to Nassau County covenants.  The shareholder meeting is scheduled for March 18.

In a Feb. 15 letter to shareholders of owner P.G.C. Holding Corp., company president Nicholas DeSibio, a Hewlett-based attorney, wrote that a $4.4 million offer had been made for the approximately 50-acre, nine-hole golf course.

"Our board members and officers believe that the ‘time has come,’ as we are having difficulty devoting the time to manage the operation," DeSibio wrote.

DeSibio said in an interview Thursday that the price was good "only as a golf course" but he wanted to see whether the stockholders agreed. The proceeds would be distributed to its 68 stockholders, according to the letter. -- Ted Phillips, Newsday, 3/11/21

At least one shareholder has already voted against the current offer and asked the ownership company president for a renegotiated price.

Both the golf course itself and the golf club that operates it have roots as far back as the 1920s.  Originally the Nassau Shores Country Club, the golf course emerged during the 1920s building boom and fell victim to post-Depression financial distress -- the club went bankrupt in the 1940s and the course was neglected.  Meanwhile, a group of Nassau County golfers who formed their own club while caddying at Rockaway Peninsula golf courses in the 1920s -- hence the name Peninsula -- swooped in to purchase the Nassau Shores course in 1946.

For more on Peninsula, see the course flyover.

Progress at Topgolf site ahead of projected summer 2021 opening

There is activity at the future Holtsville home of New York's first Topgolf venue, which is on schedule to make its long-awaited debut this summer, Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle told Golf On Long Island on Thursday.

LaValle confirmed that Topgolf Long Island remains on track to open "in the third quarter" of 2021, likely around August. 

When complete, the triple-tiered Topgolf complex -- located along the Long Island Expressway's north service road near exit 62 -- will feature 102 hitting bays along with professional instruction, live-music events and dining.  Construction crews have been working on the interior of the facility during the winter months.

"There's a lot of excitement about this project," said LaValle, who plans to take a tour of the facility sometime this spring.  "People are constantly coming up to me asking, 'What's going on with Topgolf?'"

That's been a popular question among local golfers over several years of rumors and government approvals, and the answer seemed to come just about a year ago when Topgolf announced an early 2021 opening for the Long Island venue.  Just weeks later, the coronavirus pandemic halted business and construction projects in New York State.  The skeletal structure completed to that point stood untouched for the rest of the year.  In October, LaValle told GOLI that construction would likely resume in early 2021 to line up with a pushed-back summer opening. 

Mixing elements of a high-energy sports bar and grill with a modern 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. 

The Long Island facility will bring 500 jobs to central Suffolk County, according to a Topgolf press release.

SEE ALSO:
Topgolf Long Island opening now expected for summer 2021
Long Island Topgolf taking shape in Holtsville
A New Decade of Long Island Golf, Part 1 -- A Changed Landscape, On and Off the Course
Topgolf inches closer to to first Long Island location with latest board approval

Lido Golf Club, famed Macdonald masterpiece, to be recreated in Wisconsin

A replica of Long Island's very own Lido Golf Club is currently under construction with renowned designer Tom Doak at the helm, and will open to members and public guests sometime in 2023 near the Sand Valley Golf Resort in Wisconsin.

Why does the bustling Town of Hempstead municipal layout need a tribute course built halfway across the country, you ask?  Well, it doesn't.  The 1950s-era Robert Trent Jones course abutting Reynolds Channel that draws thousands of Long Islanders each year will remain unique to the barrier island and Lido Beach.

Doak's course near the Sand Valley resort will bring back to life the original Lido Club, the famed C.B. Macdonald course that was built from sandy scratch near the end of World War I, vanished in the early days of World War II, and now lives on in the hearts and minds of golf architecture and history enthusiasts. 

Old Lido -- whose only living remnant is the majestic Lido Towers condo complex that dominates the beach skyline -- has such a following among golf writers and historians that years of chatter about restoration somewhere, anywhere, have breathed the project into existence in central Wisconsin.  The Fried Egg covered the details of the project earlier this week, including a podcast with Doak on both the new course and the original.

So how did Lido jump from the pages of internet forum fodder, grainy photos and newspaper clippings onto the ground in a scenic spot next door to one of America's modern destination golf resorts?  It took more than the course's historical charm and romance.  First, Lido was considered by several writers of the early 1900s to be one of the finest American courses ever built, so its recreation, Doak says in the Fried Egg podcast, was worthy of consideration on its strategic merits. 

But much of the legwork and inspiration came from an unlikely source.  Peter Flory, a Chicago-area golfer with a deep interest in lost golf courses and a fluency in virtual-golf software, took those archived photos and clippings and got to work -- hundreds of hours worth.  Previously, Flory told Golf On Long Island in 2018, he had dabbled in recreating lost courses in his area at Olympia Fields and Mill Road Farm. 

Lido, though, offered a different challenge.  Over the course of the next two-plus years, Flory posted incredibly detailed renderings of all 18 Lido holes on the Golf Club Atlas forums, where golf historians and designers, including Doak, discussed and scrutinized his virtual fairways, hazards and greens.  Using aerials, models, ground-level snapshots and news descriptions, Flory was able to digitally resurrect Lido's slopes and undulations, in some cases using details like shadow lengths and angles in old photos to estimate the precise dimensions of mounds, bunkers and other features.

[PICTURED RIGHT: A 1933 Brooklyn Daily Eagle sketch of Macdonald's #4 "Channel" hole, one of the course's most notable designs -- and the inspiration for today's double-fairway 16th.]

Flory's work drew the attention of Michael and Chris Keiser of Sand Valley, who used the digital imagery to gauge interest from future members.  When it opens in 2023, The Lido -- renderings and descriptions available on its newly launched website -- will be open to members and resort guests.

Back here on Long Island, the Lido muni lives on just to the east of its famous predecessor.  The original Lido spread from channel to ocean on land that is now occupied by Long Beach High School and residential streets.  For more historical context, take a look at these past Golf On Long Island features:

• A brief look back at the original Lido Golf Club in its "centennial" season
• Street Names: The Ghosts of Long Island Golf's Past, Part 2 (Lido Club)
• Original Lido Club featured on Golf Channel, golf history podcast
• Newsday slideshow features 11 places that were formerly golf courses
• Closer Look: Lido Golf Club #16

The Lido Club is also prominently featured in the photo-history book "Images of America: Long Island Golf" by GOLI's Phil Carlucci.  Follow the preceding link for more info or click the book image at the top of the page.

Crab Meadow renamed to honor former Huntington supervisor

The Crab Meadow Golf Course in Northport will be renamed for Robert J. Flynn, the former Huntington supervisor whose work in acquiring parkland paved the way for the town's two municipal golf courses, according to a press release. 

The Huntington Town Board unanimously approved the rededication of the 18-hole course, which will now be formally known as Robert J. Flynn Crab Meadow Golf Course.  Flynn's tenure as town supervisor from 1959 to 1965 included the creation of Suffolk County's first municipal parks system and led to the creation of the public Crab Meadow and Dix Hills Park golf courses.

In a 2016 profile, Jeff Neuman of The Met Golfer said Crab Meadow's launch during the early-1960s course-building boom was a result of Flynn's "forward thinking."

"Flynn believed in protecting open space as part of a strong parks system, and he led the fight for a bond act passed in 1962 that funded the purchase of 700 acres of land for town parks large and small. ... Crab Meadow is bordered to the north and west by wetlands that might have been filled and sold for development in those pre-EPA days had the town not gotten involved." -- Jeff Neuman, The Met Golfer, Nov/Dec 2016

Crab Meadow opened to the public in 1965, the design work of William Mitchell, who's credited with many of Suffolk County's municipal golf courses and considered golf's "public defender."  The history of golf on or near the Crab Meadow property actually dates farther back to the early 1920s, when famed designer Devereux Emmet built the short-lived Northport Country Club beside the wetlands and Sound.

For more on Crab Meadow, check out the course flyover.

Topgolf Long Island opening now expected for summer 2021

If you drove near exit 62 of the Long Island Expressway in June, you might have caught a quick glimpse of the shell of a new driving range -- New York's first Topgolf location -- along the north service road.

And if you made the same drive in September, you might have noticed -- well, you might have noticed the same exact shell.  No construction, no progress.

There's no cause for concern, however, according to Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle, who told Golf On Long Island yesterday that the $25 million Topgolf facility in Holtsville is expected to open sometime during August or September 2021. 

LaValle said he recently spoke with Topgolf representatives and noted there are no issues with the project, despite the lack of activity at the site this summer.  (Topgolf has not responded to multiple inquiries by Golf On Long Island regarding location status.)

"With a project like this, you want to make sure you open at the right time," LaValle said of the planned summer debut.  Back in February, Topgolf announced an early 2021 opening, but that was just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic halted business and construction projects in New York State.  A summer 2021 completion pushes the timetable back for construction, marketing and other pre-opening work.

"You'll probably see construction pick up on the site in January and February," LaValle said.

Topgolf Long Island will offer 102 hitting bays on three tiers, as well as live-music events, year-round lessons and upscale dining, in addition to the arcade-style bells and whistles that its facilities are known for.  It will also bring 500 jobs to central Suffolk County, according to a company press release.

SEE ALSO:
Long Island Topgolf taking shape in Holtsville
A New Decade of Long Island Golf, Part 1 -- A Changed Landscape, On and Off the Course
Topgolf inches closer to to first Long Island location with latest board approval

Great Rock sign confirms course is out of business

No further confirmation was really needed -- the abrupt closing last fall, the disconnected phone line, frozen-in-time social media and lack of a 2020 playing season were all dead giveaways regarding the fate of the Great Rock Golf Club.  And without an official notice or a brief snippet in the newspaper, it seems a three-word sign on the course's locked gate is as close to a confirmation as local golfers are going to get.

Great Rock Golf Club is out of business.  The sign reads "CLOSED for Business" -- obscured behind it is a previous posting that the Wading River semi-private golf facility would reopen in the spring. 

From the time the course suddenly closed last October until early January of this year, "closed for the season" and "See You Next Year!" were the main messages sent out to area golfers on the club's website and social media outlets.  But as Golf On Long Island wrote in May, next year never arrived.  Before the course closed last fall, golfers complained about deteriorating conditions as rumors of a sale lingered.

Public golf on the East End has taken a couple of heavy blows since 2013 when Calverton Links closed in similar sudden fashion, and that includes Long Island National turning private that same year and The Vineyards switching back to fully private play in 2020.  (A detour while apple picking in Riverhead featured a drive past the remains of Calverton Links, a stop at Great Rock and could have quickly added a visit to the massive solar farm now occupying the former Tallgrass Golf Course.)

Great Rock opened in 2001 during the latest course-building surge and came to be known for fast greens and elevated service.  Holes like the signature tenth (with the namesake rock) were featured by Newsday and Golfing Magazine.  In 2010, Newsday highlighted Great Rock's staff -- some of whom were brought over in 2008 from Shinnecock Hills  -- and its focus on customer service and pristine conditions.

The course briefly closed prior to the 2014 season but reopened later that year under new ownership.  A year later, the club completed a dramatic remodel of its on-site restaurant and opened Pure North Fork, a modern American bistro.

Last year, golfers turned to review sites like Golf Advisor to voice their displeasure over what was essentially an abandoned golf course, complete with crabgrass-strewn fairways, weedy bunkers and bare greens.  Unfortunately, for some, that will be the lasting image of the Wading River club.

Bethpage still in recovery mode following Isaias

More than a week since Tropical Storm Isaias powered through the northeast, Bethpage State Park remains in recovery mode, with the Yellow Course and part of the Blue still shut due to extensive tree damage.

In the hours following last Tuesday's storm, fallen trees were a common sight across Long Island communities, a good indication that areas like Bethpage -- no stranger to post-storm tree damage -- would be heavily impacted.  The park slowly reopened its courses over the next few days, but Yellow and Blue were hardest hit.

"All tree damage and hanging branches," says Andrew Wilson, Bethpage's director of agronomy.  "We're working our way through the courses."

Slowing down the recovery process is regular maintenance and mowing that can't be interrupted even by a powerful storm.  "Grass doesn't get the hint, so we do have to keep up mowing," Wilson says.  "We can't let tees, fairways and greens go a week without it."

There is no update yet on when the Yellow and Blue front nine will reopen.  Stay tuned for news.

Bethpage Black to close for NYS Open in late August

The annual New York State Open will be held at Bethpage State Park's Black Course next month after receiving the green light from state government to play the tournament amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, the Black Course will be closed to the public from Monday, August 24 through Thursday, August 27.  The course will reopen on Friday, August 28 unless tourney play is pushed back an extra day due to weather.

The other four courses will remain on a regular schedule.

Contact the park at (516) 249-0700 for schedule updates or changes.