Golf on Long Island

Proposed homebuilding plan calls for major modifications or possible closure of Stonebridge Golf Links

The future of Stonebridge Golf Links and Country Club suddenly appears to be in doubt.

A proposed plan to build additional homes at the Hauppauge course would modify or eliminate several golf holes and remodel Stonebridge into two separate layouts, said attorney David Altman at a March 20 meeting of the Smithtown Planning Board.  If the town board does not approve amendments to longtime covenants attached to the property, said Altman, who spoke on behalf of Stonebridge ownership, the alternative might be closure of the golf course.

The project, as outlined in a presentation by Altman and Islip-based architect Jerry Rumplick, calls for 28 houses and a new access road to be constructed along the property's western perimeter, which is currently occupied by several holes on the course's back nine.  Maps and renderings indicate the plan would eliminate the existing 17th hole, heavily modify holes 11, 16 and 18, and shorten Stonebridge's western half into an executive-length course.  The eastern section of the course would likely remain as part of a full-length nine.

However, development at the site is limited by covenants put in place in 1999 when Stonebridge, an 18-hole semi-private course that surrounds a 105-home residential community, took over the former Hauppauge Country Club.  The covenants restrict further homebuilding and particular changes to the golf course and membership.  

Altman's project overview did not explicitly raise course closure as a possibility, but when pressed by a board member to explain how the plan benefits Smithtown residents, Altman said the alternative was loss of the golf course. 

More than a dozen residents of the course community and neighboring areas spoke out against the plan, citing concerns over the course alterations, environmental impact, proximity to the adjacent county park and decline in home value.  They also argued the covenants were integral factors in their decisions to buy or stay in their homes on the property and should not be amended to accommodate major changes to the site.

Stonebridge and the previous Hauppauge Country Club, both full-length 18-hole courses, have occupied the property along Veterans Highway since the 1950s.  Community resident Sue Stavrakos told the board that keeping a par-70 golf course on the site is required by the covenants.  Another resident who lives next to the tenth hole said golfers and potential members have little interest in playing an executive-length course and advised the town board to take steps to protect Smithtown's golf courses, similar to recent zoning changes enacted in the Town of Brookhaven.  Several homeowners said the site is too compact as is, leading to property damage, overcrowding during clubhouse events and, in some cases, severe injuries to residents.

According to renderings, the current 17th hole would be eliminated by the new home sites and #18 would be shortened and reoriented.  Rumplick said other changes would be made to improve safety in general and reduce ball strikes on the existing homes.  The par-4 16th would be split into two par-3s, one of which would feature a newly built island green.  At #10, new tees would be built parallel to the line of homes in order to cut down on property strikes.  Same at #2, a long par-4 on the other side of the course that would be shortened with new tees relocated ahead of an existing pond.

There is no timetable for a decision by the planning board, but several attendees at the March 20 meeting urged the board to schedule a second public hearing given the number of people who were turned away due to capacity limits.

Stonebridge is unique among Long Island's public courses as it is comprised entirely of template holes made famous by renowned designers C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor and Charles Banks.  Macdonald biographer and historian George Bahto redesigned the previous Hauppauge Country Club course to include replicas of holes typically found at early-20th-century clubs.  The troubled 17th hole, for example, is modeled after  Macdonald's "Eden" par-3s.  Other replicas include the Redan at #4, Biarritz at #7 and Hog's Back green at #16.

For more on the course, see the Stonebridge flyover.

[PICTURED: The 16th hole, which would be split into two par-3s under a proposed course remodeling.]

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)

Oyster Bay Golf Course to reopen April 1 with irrigation, tee-box upgrades in progress

The Town of Oyster Bay is investing in an upgraded irrigation system and newly built tee boxes at its municipal golf course in Woodbury, though the ongoing work will not delay the course's spring debut.  Oyster Bay is scheduled to reopen for the 2024 season on Monday, April 1.

While the fairways and greens will be ready to go next month, the renovated tee boxes will not, so players will start all 18 holes from temporary tees until early June, according to town officials.  The irrigation work, which includes full replacement of plumbing, electrical systems and other components, will continue throughout the season but is not expected to affect play.  Cost for the two projects is approximately $5 million.

“We strive to deliver a great experience for all golfers at our course and these improvements will certainly enhance the playing experience once complete,” said Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joe Saladino.

Oyster Bay, formally known as the Honorable Joseph Colby Town of Oyster Bay Golf Course, is Long Island's only Tom Fazio design.  It covers a tree-lined Woodbury site that was previously a Gold Coast estate known as "Woodlands."  The course features narrow fairways, dramatically contoured greens and holes that play up and down the property's steep hills.  Its uphill fourth hole (pictured above) is considered one of the toughest par-4s on the Island and was selected for GOLI's "Nassau 18" in 2020.

For more on Oyster Bay, check out the course flyover.

Ryder Cup 2025: NYS Parks expects 225,000 fans, massive infrastructure at Bethpage Black

When the final putt drops at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome on Sunday, Bethpage State Park will officially be on the clock.  Two years and counting until the next Ryder Cup will be awarded on Long Island at the "People's Country Club."

New York State is expecting approximately 225,000 fans from around the globe to converge on Bethpage State Park in September 2025, and when they arrive they'll find an "unprecedented" infrastructure setup that dwarfs what was in place for past tournaments at the park.  The facilities will be 40% larger than the 2019 PGA Championship, according to a state press release.

The announcement comes as state commissioners Erik Kulleseid of NYS Parks and Hope Knight of Empire State Development lead a New York delegation to meet with PGA of America representatives and officially receive the Ryder Cup hand-off in Rome this weekend.  "Bethpage Black is considered one of the top golf courses in the world and our Parks team is already working on preparations to showcase ‘The People's Country Club' when the golf world's spotlight shines on our state park in two years," said Kulleseid.

Upon completion of this week's tournament, New York State will begin sponsorship and marketing efforts for the 2025 event.  Regional organizations like Discover Long Island will also begin promotional campaigns dedicated to attracting national and international fans to the area for the tournament.  The PGA of America expects the 2025 Ryder Cup to generate an economic impact of nearly $150 million across Long Island and the Greater Metropolitan New York area.  

Bethpage Black is no stranger to hosting big golf events.  In addition to the 2019 PGA, the Black Course hosted the U.S. Open Championships in 2002 and 2009.  It will become only the second New York golf course to host a Ryder Cup (Oak Hill Country Club, 1995). 

Harbor Links approaching 25 years since its grand opening in a Port Washington sand mine

To the untrained eye, or rather, the eye of anyone who is not a golf-course designer, the big, barren sand mines of Port Washington were exactly as they appeared – big, barren sand mines. 

To Michael Hurdzan and his design team, the excavated pits that drove industry along Long Island Sound for more than a century might as well have been sun-splashed Caribbean beaches, where sand funnels between toes and imaginations run wild with vibrant visions of the future.  These pits were the gritty stuff a designer's dreams are made of.

"We looked and thought, 'This is awesome,'" Hurdzan recalls of his initial experience in the mines beside Hempstead Harbor, nearly 25 years to the day that his Harbor Links Golf Course debuted at the bottom of one of those quarries.  "We didn't have to worry about things like taking down trees.  The land was already destroyed.  We were going to put it back together."

The par-72 Championship Course at Harbor Links opened near the end of July 1998 and was followed later that year by the nine-hole Executive Course. 

Hurdzan left Long Island and the residents of the Town of North Hempstead with a challenging golf course that stands out as one of the region's most unique golfing options.  Tees and greens hover on plateaus built along the tall, once-sandy bluff left over from the property's mining days.  Fairways curl around rejuvenated wetlands.  Rocky features are more American Southwest than North Shore.  (One hole is aptly named "Arizona.")  And it's a case study in using a golf course to reverse an environmental calamity.  Hurdzan is known for creating eco-friendly golf courses, and Harbor Links almost immediately became a member of Audubon International's Signature Program.

"Harbor Links is special," says Hurdzan, who ranks the course in his top 25 of personal course designs, no small claim for someone credited with several hundred original designs and remodels.  Nationally, he says, "it's an undiscovered gem."

It was Hurdzan's previous work at a Massachusetts golf course called Widow's Walk that served as the inspiration for Harbor Links.  There, on a similarly destroyed, stripped-bare mining site near Massachusetts Bay, Hurdzan and a team of environmentalists collaborated on a design and built what he calls the first "environmental demonstration" golf course in the world.

Widow's Walk drew the attention of May Newburger, North Hempstead's town supervisor, who had a nearly identical problem on her hands in Port Washington.  The sandy canyons and the rusting waste dumped in the old Morewood property were an eyesore, and an expensive one at that.  The town purchased the property years prior, but plans to build an incinerator or other industrial and recreational developments had already been scrapped.  Newburger was determined to use the land for the public good, and she knew Hurdzan had a knack for turning a property around through golf.

"She thought if it could be done at Widow's Walk, it could be done at Harbor Links," Hurdzan says.  He credits Newburger as the figure most responsible for bringing the course to the property.  "She was a persuasive person and a very smart politician."  (Part of Hempstead Harbor was renamed "May Newburger Cove" in 2017.)

On the grounds, it took 60,000 cubic yards of compost and a stabilization of the eroded bluffs to make a sustainable golf course possible.  In the town halls and offices, it took cooperation between multiple departments and the golf-design team to ensure the project stayed on track without delays.  The 18-hole course, with its native grasses, wildlife habitats and 50 acres of wetlands, was complete in a little over a year.  "We made champagne out of that lemon, not lemonade," Newburger told the New York Times.

Unique landscape aside, Harbor Links is known for its three double-fairway holes, including one – the par-5 sixth – that is considered by many the course's signature hole.  It tees off from elevated grounds along the bluff, with players forced to decide between a risky shortcut to a high-side fairway and a safer but longer route down the valley.  The green sits up on a plateau.  The preceding par-4 fifth asks golfers the same question.  Stay low with safety or go for the daring target up top?  Hurdzan used these designs to find both golf and construction solutions.

"We worked with the contours on the site and made the different levels work for the double-fairway holes," he says.  "In the process we minimized the earth-moving and solved a golf problem at the same time."

The bluff, always in the background and sometimes part of play, gives the course the feel of an amphitheater, something that Hurdzan wanted to "celebrate."  On the back nine, two holes curve around its base, followed by the par-5 16th, where downhill drives tee off from a set of tiers built into the hillside.  Earlier, sandy mounds remain near the 13th tee ("The Dunes") as a tribute to the site's industrial past.

Not much has changed about the course since it opened a quarter century ago, other than a new set of elevated tees on the par-3 17th.  Time has transformed the sandy bluff into a high hill covered in trees and foliage.  First-time players likely have no idea they are playing 18 at the bottom of a sand mine.

Hurdzan is proud he was able to give town and Long Island residents such an asset, and he recalls fondly the cooperative effort between his group and local government.

"I didn't even mind the Long Island traffic to get there," Hurdzan says.

[PICTURED: TOP RIGHT – #4 green with the once-sandy bluff in the background; ABOVE LEFT – Hempstead Harbor's sand mines as seen in the 1920s/1930s.  The Harbor Links site is at top center.  (Photo courtesy Ian Zwerdling); ABOVE RIGHT – The par-4 10th and double-fairway 13th, with the bluff and sand mounds in the distance.]

Bethpage Black ranks #7 on Long Island-dominated Golf Digest course list

Golf Digest's measured rollout of its 2023-24 Best In State golf-course rankings made its way to New York last week, and Long Island -- "one of the world's most desirable pieces of golf terrain," according to the mag -- dominates the list.  The top three courses and seven of the top 10 are located right here in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Representing the public side of Long Island golf, Bethpage Black places #7, just ahead of vaunted Sebonack in Southampton and two spots in front of East End royalty at the Maidstone Club.  Golf Digest lists Shinnecock Hills, National Golf Links of America and Fishers Island as the three best courses in the state, followed at #5 by Friar's Head.

In all, 22 Long Island golf courses rank in New York's top 50 according to evaluations by Golf Digest panelists.

"What really sets the Empire State apart from almost everywhere else are the courses of Long Island," write Golf Digest's Derek Duncan and Stephen Hennessey.  "The combination of sand soils, proximity to the ocean and winds on both coasts, and early golf architecture heritage is unmatched in the United States."

The Black Course at Bethpage State Park also ranks #39 in the magazine's list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses and #7 in America's 100 Greatest Public Courses.  In a separate state-vs.-state comparison, Golf Digest's "definitive ranking" puts New York at #2 for best overall golf selection, behind only California.

After hosting several U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, Bethpage Black will be on the international stage in the fall of 2025 when it hosts the Ryder Cup.

For more on Bethpage Black, check out the Golf On Long Island flyover and Golf Digest's variety of rankings (linked above).

New in 2023: Bergen Point shortens #9, makes #18 a par-5

Rounds at Bergen Point Golf Course will have a different feel starting this season, especially as each nine comes to a close.

The Suffolk County municipal course in West Babylon made significant changes to two of its holes during the offseason, trimming its par-4 ninth hole to a mid-range par-3 and stretching its closing hole to play as a reachable par-5.  The modified ninth is using a temporary tee (pictured) while a new box grows in.

The changes at Bergen Point likely stem from safety concerns.  For years the ninth hole, a short and straight par-4 that tops out at just 356 yards, has been at the center of disputes between the golf course and its neighbors.  The tall netting that runs along the course boundary is no match for high hooks and slices from players trying to overpower the hole.  CBS ran a news feature several years ago about complaints from neighbors that golf balls were damaging their homes.

When complete, the new ninth will play in the range of 150 to 170 yards.  Currently the temporary tee is set up around 20 yards shorter.

Meanwhile #18 at Bergen Point no longer ranks among one of Long Island's most grueling public par-4s and demanding closing holes.  To balance the change at #9, the 18th added a slightly longer back tee, which transforms the hole from a daunting 461-yard par-4 (440 from the middle) to the course's shortest par-5.  Instead of hanging on for dear life at the end of the round, players now have a scoring opportunity on #18 and can try to reach the green for eagle if the wind allows.  The deep bunker in front and dramatic falloff over the back set the stage for closing-hole drama.

For more on Bergen Point and its interesting backstory along Great South Bay, check out the course flyover.

Bethpage prepping for 2023 season with Ryder Cup changes already taking shape

It won't take long for Bethpage golfers to catch a glimpse of something new when they return to the course for the first time in 2023.  One of the main offseason renovations at the park -- carried out with the 2025 Ryder Cup in mind -- took place right behind the clubhouse near the start of the Black Course.

It's a subtle change, but one that is designed to bolster the already raucous atmosphere at the Ryder Cup's start and finish.  A simple reshaping of the mounding between the first tee and 18th green has opened up the sight lines to allow the Black's future spectators to see every shot.

"The first tee at the Ryder Cup is one of the best experiences a golf fan can enjoy, and the crowd at Bethpage should be epic," says Andrew Wilson, Bethpage's longtime superintendent and director of agronomy.  "The work done means fans will be able to see the first tee and 18th green from every seat in the grandstand."

Whether or not that epic scene will include rolled-back golf balls and players on the LIV Tour...well, uhh, let's not get into that.

Local players will begin to see the offseason course work for themselves when Bethpage Green opens for 2023 play tomorrow, March 18, followed by the Red Course on April 1.  But for the most startling change of all, visitors will have to wait until the Black Course officially reopens on April 15.  That's when players will work their way toward the farthest reaches of the Black and find that one of its landmark hazards -- the overhanging oak tree right of #8 green -- is now a thing of the past.

Wilson says the tree was dying and unable to be salvaged, despite his crew's best efforts to save it.  "It had become a safety issue for players and employees," Wilson says.  "It was sad to see it go."

Its departure means the right side of the green can offer pin placements that simply weren't possible while the tree loomed overhead, another positive when looking ahead to Ryder Cup week.

Elsewhere on the Black Course, maintenance crews renovated about a dozen bunkers with new sod edging.  "That's no small undertaking considering the size of the Black's bunkers," Wilson says.

Crews completed similar sodding projects around sand traps and in areas with soil compaction on the Red and Green courses. 

Meanwhile the Blue and Yellow courses saw plenty of action over the winter, not from work crews, but from players.  The two courses have already hosted close to 10,000 rounds, Wilson says, thanks to mild temperatures and zero snowfall.  The staff has been able to do some minor renovation work amid all that play, though multiyear projects like the continued renovation of bunkers on Yellow #14 have been kept on hiatus until next offseason.

When players prepare to tee off on the Black Course next month, they'll also notice one other significant addition -- a new forward tee on Black's opener.  Wilson says the idea to add a forward tee came as a byproduct of the reshaping work done nearby.

"There's a good chance this new tee will be used during the Ryder Cup as well," Wilson says.

[PICTURED: TOP -- Newly reshaped grounds between #1 tee and #18 green on the Black Course.  BOTTOM -- The oak tree on Black #8, as seen during the 2019 PGA Championship.]

After long delay, X-Golf Westbury preparing for possible February debut

[UPDATE: X-Golf Westbury is scheduled to open March 10.]

Nassau County is about to get its first taste of the modern golf and entertainment experience that recently has popped up farther east in places like Holtsville, Patchogue and Commack.  And it will arrive in a spot that's no stranger to the metallic echoes of drivers smashing golf balls and the thuds of tee shots crashing into screens.

X-Golf Westbury will open within weeks at Samanea New York, formerly the Mall at the Source, in part of the space once occupied by Golf Galaxy.  It will be Long Island's second X-Golf location, following the opening of X-Golf Commack in June 2022.  The California-based franchise is known for its combination of technologically advanced golf simulators, on-site instruction and events, and casual food and drink service.

Once the fire marshal signs off on the Westbury site, owner Chris Sciocchetti says the new facility will be ready to open within days.  The latest target date is February 27.  "I don't care what the actual date is," Sciocchetti says. "I just hope it has a February on it."

It's been a long road from conception and planning to finally preparing eight high-tech hitting bays and a TV-topped bar for use by local golfers.  X-Golf Westbury was initially slated to open in November 2021, but with Samanea's rapid resurrection from ghost mall to indoor shopping and immersive-experience destination, X-Golf found itself caught up in an unforeseen morass of municipal red tape.  First it was sorting out the allotment of parking spaces, then it was a nine-month wait for approval of a variance for the golf facility itself.

Sciocchetti is confident the pandemic-fueled enthusiasm for both regular golf and the indoor variety will make the long buildup worthwhile.  During the pandemic, Sciocchetti spent two or three days each week playing the courses at Eisenhower Park and Bethpage.  He had visions of opening an indoor facility somewhere near his Merrick home, and the pandemic only accelerated his plans. 

"I've wanted to do this for a really long time," he says.

Visitors at X-Golf Westbury will find a row of hitting bays along a wall to their left, steps away from a bar that will turn out draft beer and light bites from at least one area pizzeria.  Other bays, all of which include TVs and tables, are set up in corners and on the opposite side of the bar.  Separating the two sides is a wall decorated with colorful golf-course artwork, Bethpage included, that Sciocchetti's wife Kathryn found on Etsy.  Also featured are neon and turf-clad X-Golf Westbury signs well-suited for Instagram posts.

X-Golf facilities are known for their state-of-the-art simulators that feature more than 50 golf courses and advanced innovations like automatic ball retrieval, personalized tee heights and adjustable ground slope.  The short-game technology also elevates the level of play in X-Golf bays, allowing players to chip and putt on virtual greens with accuracy.  Westbury will offer local in-house leagues and a schedule of national and regional competitions that are part of the X-Golf network.  (The franchise has locations in 32 states.)  Sciocchetti is working out the specifics for instruction and fittings as well.

Hourly rates range from $55 on weekday mornings and early afternoons to $75 on weekends. A full 18-hole round takes about 45 minutes to an hour per player.

After Samanea does its own marketing push to promote its new sites, Sciocchetti says most of his own promotion will be done on social media, much like Commack, Topgolf in Holtsville, Birdies in Patchogue and Simplay in Hauppauge, all of which are active and highly visible on Instagram and Facebook.  The Westbury site has already developed a following even while building permits still cover the front door.

"I get calls here every day asking when we are going to open," Sciocchetti says.

Rebranded Sandy Pond Links to reopen in March under new ownership

Riverhead's Sandy Pond Golf Course is taking a rare winter break this offseason, and when it reopens in March, it will do so with a new name, a modernized logo and an ownership group looking to blend the old with the new.  Brian Stark, one of the new controlling owners of the rebranded Sandy Pond Links, plans to restore some of the features he recalls from his youth, when the small par-3 course on Roanoke Avenue was in its infancy. 

And the way he sees it, one of the most effective ways to bring the course back to its roots is by reaching down and pulling them up.

"We've been in the ponds, removing the reeds from the ground instead of just cutting them back, so the water is clear like it used to be," says Stark, who worked at Sandy Pond while growing up nearby in the late '70s.  "When I was a kid, the third hole had a clear pond, and there were sand dunes and a big green up on the hill."

The 2023 season will be one of change at the course, including in the layout itself, the facilities and the amenities, but it will retain the quaint East End vibe it's been known for since it opened a half-century ago.

Previous owners Ken Weinstein and Chris Wahlers "built a great clientele," Stark says, since they took over operation of the course in 2012.  "They brought in leagues and outings, they have a few members.  There is a real religious following here."

On the course, much of the focus will be on expanding the greens to their original size.  "We're going to bring back the contours of the original greens," Stark says.  "You can still see areas where the contours were lost, and how the greens have shrunk significantly over time.  They used to have more character and pin positions." 

Stark, one of the original owners of the neighboring Long Island National Golf Club, also wants to reintroduce some of the course's original sand-dune features.  Sandy Pond was built out of an old sand quarry, after all.

The orientation of the course will change too, with the ninth hole flipping to the top of the scorecard as Sandy Pond Links' new opener.  (The other eight holes will move down a slot.)  That modification is being made to accommodate a new clubhouse to be built on the north side of the property near the current ninth tee.  Plans there include a simulator, an outdoor patio and beer and wine service.  Food trucks, a common sight at wineries and breweries in the Riverhead area, could eventually be part of the offerings as well.

Most noticeable on that end of the property will be the addition of a miniature golf course, which is currently pending approval by the Town of Riverhead.  Stark hopes it will be ready by the fall.

Even though the course's longtime shack (and its famous green-fee dropbox) will eventually become part of Sandy Pond's past, the new owners don't expect the facility to lose any of its charm.

"Complaints about golf always revolve around three things -- it's too hard, it takes too long and it's expensive," Stark says.  "Sandy Pond is none of those."

[PICTURED: Sandy Pond, as seen in 2014, following upgrades under previous ownership.]