Golf on Long Island

What to know about Bethpage course schedules, closures and modifications ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup

It's going to be a unique season at Bethpage State Park.  Unlike past years when the Black Course hosted a U.S. Open or PGA Championship before the summer officially arrived, the presence of late September's Ryder Cup will loom over the whole complex for the entirety of the playing season.  Ryder Cup festivities begin on September 23 and the tournament concludes on September 28.

Here's what you need to know about playing golf at Bethpage this spring and summer before the world's international superstars take over at the start of fall:

BLACK COURSE

The Black Course opens for the season on April 12 and is tentatively scheduled to close to the public from August 18 to October 3.  The course will operate under normal procedures until July 6.  From July 7 to August 17, Black will be walk-ups only with no tee times after 12:30 p.m.

GREEN and YELLOW COURSES

Bethpage Green opens for the season on March 15.  Both the Green and Yellow courses will operate with a normal schedule until August 17.  (See below for course modifications.)  Green and Yellow are tentatively scheduled to close to the public from August 18 to October 3. 

RED and BLUE COURSES

Bethpage Red opens for the season on April 1.  Both Red and Blue will operate with a normal schedule until August 17.  (See below for course modifications.)  From August 18 until early September, both courses will remain open for play until 2:00 p.m.  Red and Blue are tentatively scheduled to close to the public from either September 8 or September 15 to October 3.

That means once Bethpage Black closes for final Ryder Cup preparation on August 17, the only courses available for play will be Red and Blue, until their September closing date.

COURSE CONDITIONS

As noted here last fall, the rough on the Black Course will be shorter for the Ryder Cup than it's been for previous tournament play.  In fact, at the planned 2 1/4-inch height, the rough will be shorter than it is for regular public play (2 1/2 to 3 inches).  Black Course superintendent Mike Hadley said in October that the rough will be maintained short throughout the 2025 season.  This way there's no need to cut the entire course back before the Cup.

The only hole modification this offseason, according to park staff, involved moving the left-side bunker on #7 closer to the fairway.  This follows last winter's updates to the bunkering on #5 and #13.

TEMPORARY TEES

Some holes around the park will be shortened to accommodate all the facilities required for the event — merchandise tents, bus parking, full-size driving range and practice areas, and more.  Expect the holes closest to the clubhouse and Black Course to be impacted the most.

The following holes already have temporary tees in place:

• Yellow Course #9
• Yellow Course #10
• Green Course #18

The following holes will have temporary tees put in place sometime in May or June:

• Red Course #1
• Red Course #5
• Blue Course #1
• Green Course #1

TEMPORARY GREENS

A temporary green is currently in use on:

• Yellow Course #18

All scheduling is subject to change as the season progresses.  Bethpage suggests that all players check the park website, social-media outlets and email blasts for any updates to course availability.

2025 golf course reopening dates on Long Island

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

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

The following is a list of tentative 2025 opening dates for Long Island's seasonal golf courses.  (Year-round courses remain open as the weather allows and are not included in this list.)  Courses will be added or updated as information becomes available.  Be sure to check back through March for the latest info.

*All dates listed below are subject to change.  Call the courses directly for updated dates and times.

2025 GOLF COURSE REOPENINGS:

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

DATES TBA:

• The Golf Club at Middle Bay 
• Eisenhower Red 
• Sumpwams Creek

[This post was updated on March 8, 2025.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Bar room photos courtesy of Kelley Brooke.]

Bethpage Black and Red land in GOLF Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play

Another list of top public golf courses, another chance for Bethpage State Park's marquee layout to shine.  Bethpage Black is featured near the top of the latest course ranking, this time GOLF.com/GOLF Magazine's 2024-2025 list of Top 100 Courses You Can Play, though for once the Black Course is forced to step back and cede some of the elite-tier spotlight to another course with Long Island roots.  Well...sort of.

GOLF posted its Top 100 last month, rating America's best public golf courses (and publicly accessible private clubs) from Pebble Beach at #1 to Wine Valley (#100) in Washington.  Bethpage Black and Red, New York State's only representatives on the list, came in at #5 and #65.

The Black Course cracking the top five of a national ranking is noteworthy, especially when it's slotted directly in front of headliners like Kiawah Island, TPC Sawgrass and Bandon Dunes.  But it's the course ahead of the Black at #4 that's of unique local interest.  The Lido — the Tom Doak reincarnation of the long-lost Long Island club — has been a hit since it opened at Sand Valley in Wisconsin in 2023.  (GOLF ranked Lido #68 in its Top 100 World list during its debut season.)  The course is nearly a down-to-the-inch replica of the vaunted C.B. Macdonald club in Lido Beach once considered among the greatest American golf courses.  For a brief period from the Black's opening in 1936 to Lido's demise in 1942, the two courses were active at the same time, separated by just 20 miles.

Of the two existing Long Island courses on the list, GOLF writes: "The Black enjoys one of the great routings, highlighted by the masterful way Tillinghast placed the fairways and greens from the second hole in a valley all the way through the dogleg left ninth.  The par-5 fourth and its iconic cross-bunkering is a world-beater."

The Red Course "more than holds its own, albeit with much less fanfare than its fellow Tillinghast design.  There’s no warning sign at the first tee like at the Black, the rough is friendlier and the bunkers less dramatic (except for the fistful that split the fairway on the par-4 13th).  But locals know none of that makes the Red a pushover."

2024 closing dates at Long Island's public golf courses

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

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

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

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

Some courses have already closed for 2024, including:

• Bethpage Black

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

Newsday: Kelley Brooke to become new course operator at Harbor Links

Harbor Links Golf Course, a municipal golf facility owned by the Town of North Hempstead, will be operated by Brooke Holdings LLC starting in 2025, according to a Newsday report.  Brooke Holdings LLC is owned by golf professional Kelley Brooke, who also operates the pro shops and instructional programs at several New York State and Town of Hempstead golf courses, including Bethpage State Park.

The agreement between North Hempstead and Brooke Holdings includes a 20-year contract and an expected $18 million in rent and revenue, reported Newsday's Joshua Needelman.  The current contract with longtime operator Century Golf Partners will expire on December 31.  North Hempstead's Town Board voted 4–3 in favor of the new agreement.

Brooke, the 2018 LPGA Professional of the Year and longtime contributor to The Golf Channel, has managed golf facilities across New York City and Long Island since the 1990s.  In 2018 she took over operations of the pro shop and instruction at Bethpage State Park and immediately bolstered the facility's social media presence and marketing reach, then later became operator at Montauk Downs.  Earlier this year Brooke began a 10-year contract with the Town of Hempstead to operate and rebrand the Lido and Merrick Road Park golf courses.  Instructional programs at all four facilities are now marketed under the Golf Channel Academy with Kelley Brooke umbrella.

Harbor Links has been a fixture in Port Washington since its opening in a reclaimed sand mine in 1998.  The 27-hole facility hosts a highly popular series of youth and adult instructional programs.  There is no word yet on Brooke's plans for instruction or marketing at the course.

2024 Thanksgiving golf outings at Long Island courses

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harbor Links will host its 18th annual holiday Turkey Shoot.  Registration and breakfast begin at 8:00 a.m., followed by a 9:00 shotgun tee time.  Golf, cart and breakfast are $75 for Town of North Hempstead residents; $85 for non-residents.  Call (516) 767-4816 to sign up.

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

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

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

Spring Lake Golf Club will host its annual Thanksgiving Day Shotgun, which includes breakfast and 18 holes.  Tee time is 8:00 a.m.  Cost is $80 per player due at registration.  Call (631) 924-5115 for a spot.

Swan Lake's holiday outing begins with 7:00 a.m. breakfast and an 8:30 shotgun start.  Beverages and BBQ will be available until 1:00.  Entry fee is $70 and covers golf and cart only (food and drinks not included in fee).  Call (631) 369-1818 to sign up.

Check back through November for updated information.

Bethpage Black to close November 11, Red and Green to follow

Two weeks to go this season at Bethpage Black before the vaunted course closes down for winter and begins the stretch run toward the Ryder Cup spotlight.  When it opens again next spring, it will be rocking shorter rough, possibly some wider fairways and maybe a few other new tweaks.

The last day to play the Black Course is Monday, November 11.  Its two neighbors, the Red Course and Green Course, will stay open through November and close at the end of play on Sunday, December 1.  As usual, the Blue and Yellow courses will remain open through the winter, weather permitting.

These final two weeks will represent one of the last stretches of status quo before next year's tournament and a 2025 season that will be far from normal.  The Black Course will close six weeks before the Ryder Cup, sometime in mid-August, and pavilions, practice areas, parking and other tournament facilities will occupy space on the other four courses, presumably for much of the summer.  A schedule will be released early next year, but you can expect nine-hole play and modified 18-hole layouts during peak season.

Call the Bethpage golf office at (516) 249-0700 for offseason info on course conditions and availability.

Expect short rough and deep tees at next year's Ryder Cup, say Bethpage, Cup officials

Prepare to see massive drives and aggressive lines at next fall's Bethpage Black Ryder Cup.

The Black Course's notoriously lush rough, what the pros typically encounter during championship play at Bethpage, will be rocking quite the buzzcut when the Ryder Cup tees off nearly a year from now in late September 2025.  More notably, it will be clipped shorter than what sleep-in-the-car Bethpage golfers experience when they set out on their Tuesday morning foursome. 

At a press event for members of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association on Tuesday, longtime Black Course superintendent Mike Hadley said he expects the rough will be cut to a "thick but more playable" 2 1/4 inches during the three-day international tournament.  Bethpage Black's rough typically measures 2 1/2 to 3 inches during regular public play, Hadley said, and more than 4 inches for events like the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

"With shorter rough you get more birdies, which means more action," Hadley said.

The relatively tame rough will accommodate Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and the "team of bombers" he is expected to put together on the American side, one that has little interest in gouging irons out of a 5-inch tangle.  Bradley also wants to tee off from as deep as the holes allow, Hadley said, the only exception being the par-3 17th.  There, a stadium-style setup will include bleachers on the back of the teebox that envelop the American and European players and set up a potentially raucous conclusion to the tournament.

At #1, the newly built lower tee should coax many players, especially the Americans, to take a run at the green.  The official Ryder Cup yardage on the dogleg-right opener is 397 yards.

Ryder Cup championship director Bryan Karns said a spacious grandstand will occupy the current #1 teebox and wrap completely around the first tee and 18th green.  The setup will elevate the Ryder Cup's "one-of-a-kind first-tee experience," Karns said.

In addition to the tweaks already made on the Black Course, specifically this spring's bunker expansion and relocation on holes 5 and 13, Hadley said the sixth and seventh fairways could be widened per Bradley's preference.  Rough will be maintained short throughout the 2025 season, meaning Long Island's public players will get a rare break on the course during the spring and early summer.

Bethpage park director Scott Matson said the Black Course will likely close six weeks prior to the Ryder Cup.  Plans and schedules related to the other four Bethpage golf courses will be determined early next year.

The 2025 tournament will be played from September 26–28 and is the second Ryder Cup to be hosted at a New York course (Oak Hill, 1995).

Bethpage Red, Montauk Downs highlighted on Golf Magazine's affordability list

Two of Long Island's top public golf courses known for being hard on scorecards recently earned some praise from Golf Magazine for going easy on golfers' wallets.

Bethpage State Park's Red Course and Montauk Downs both made the cut in Golf Mag's 2024 list of America's best golf courses for $100 or less, "where memorability meets affordability," as determined by Golf's course raters and editors.  The list features 101 golf courses in four different regions of the country where peak-season weekend walking rates do not exceed $100.  The selected courses "represent exceptional bang for the buck."

In addition to the green-fee requirement, selected courses must be open to the public and offer "the kind of golf experience you’d recommend to a friend."  

Of the 19 golf courses representing the Northeast region, five are from New York State.  Bethpage Red and Montauk Downs are joined by En-Joie in Endicott, Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs and Seven Oaks in Hamilton.  The Northeast has the lowest regional representation, mostly due to high costs around metropolitan areas, according to Golf editors.  Approximately 40 percent of the featured courses are municipally owned.  List editors praised "those public officials who understand the value and importance of funding exceptional public golf."

Bethpage Red and Montauk, of course, are fixtures on another annual list, the "Best Courses You Can Play" ranking published by Golfweek.  That list highlights the best publicly accessible golf courses in all 50 states.  In the 2024 Golfweek ranking, the Red Course landed at #6 with Montauk Downs one spot behind at #7.

[PICTURED: The signature par-3 12th at Montauk Downs.]