Golf on Long Island

Winter Golf on Long Island: 2020-21 Edition

Sometimes Long Island's winter golf season gets off to a blazing start -- sunny skies, temps in the 60s, a comforting feel of October golf in December.  Other times it's ... well, it's not so great.  And the winter of 2020-21 has started off as one of the latter, only fitting since Mother Nature had been so kind and accommodating through the fall.

What's most important though is that there is a Long Island winter golf season.  It might not seem that way when you're pushing slush and slop off the porch in the lead-up to Christmas, but even after a snowy start, playable fairways and greens are just a big melt away.

Here's the deal -- while many Northeast golfers pack the clubs away once the leaves have fallen, there is a determined minority that still seeks out open tees from January through March.  Long Island's handful of seasonal golf courses typically close sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and reopen around St. Patrick's Day, while the rest remain open year-round and welcome cold-season golfers.

Winter golf on Long Island is chilly and occasionally unpleasant, but there are benefits.  Crowds are sparse, meaning you can work on your game or simply enjoy free time with no pressure.  Green fees are lighter, so you can introduce a newcomer to the course without a blow to the wallet.  Ground conditions tend to resemble autumn until met with prolonged freezing temps and snow cover. 

The big wild card this winter is what role the ongoing pandemic will play -- specifically, will the heightened interest in golf this past summer and fall carry over at all into the cold-weather season?  Whether it does or not, just know that with most clubhouses and indoor dining still closed, there won't be a warm respite throughout the day, no hot chocolate or coffee to restore feeling in your hands.  Just you, your clubs and the elements.  And a quick check of offseason rates reveals that discounts this winter might not be as penny-saving as in the past.

See also: Winter Golf on Long Island overview

Check back with Golf On Long Island throughout the winter for information on special rates and other course offerings.  Also be sure to follow local courses on social media for the latest on weather closures, frost delays and more.

End of season approaching at many Long Island golf courses

December is closing time on the Island, meaning the busiest and most bizarre Long Island golf season in the recent past is coming to an end, at least for those courses that operate on a seasonal basis.  This week is the last opportunity to book rounds at a handful of popular public courses in the area.

This Sunday, December 13, the following courses will close at the end of play:

• Eisenhower Red
• Harbor Links
• Brentwood Country Club
• Holbrook Country Club
• Cherry Creek - Woods Course

The following courses will close later this month:

• Middle Bay (12/20)
• Timber Point (12/27)
• Bay Park (date TBD)
• Christopher Morley Park (date TBD)

Some courses have already shut down for 2020, including:

• Bethpage Black
• Bethpage Red
• Bethpage Green
• Harbor Links - Executive Course
• Oyster Bay

The majority of Long Island golf courses remain open through the winter.  For more information on Long Island's winter season, stay tuned for our annual Winter Golf On Long Island primer.

Fall aeration underway around Long Island

We're at the height of fall aeration season on Long Island's public courses.  Fall maintenance is underway or recently completed at many local courses, so be aware of potentially sandy greens and fairways when booking tee times this month.

The Red Course at Eisenhower Park is currently closed for aeration and will reopen for play on Friday, September 18.  The White will be aerated starting Monday 9/21; Blue on Monday 9/28. 

Bethpage Blue will be closed today and tomorrow 9/16, followed by Yellow, Red and Black later this month.  (See the previous Bethpage aeration post for dates.)  The Green Course was aerated earlier this month.

Timber Point will close one of its nine-hole courses over the next three days, beginning with the Red Course today, Blue tomorrow and White on Thursday.

Sunken Meadow is currently aerating its Red nine, followed by the Green nine next week.  The Blue nine was aerated last week.

The Town of Oyster Bay municipal course will complete two days of aeration this afternoon and reopen for play tomorrow.

Glen Cove's municipal course is closed through tomorrow and will reopen for play on Thursday 9/17.

At Cherry Creek in Riverhead, the Woods Course will close for aeration tomorrow 9/16, followed by the Links Course next Wednesday 9/23.

Pine Hills in Manorville is aerating today and tomorrow 9/16; all tee times must be made directly through the pro shop.

Island's End in Greenport was aerated on September 14.

For information on other aeration/maintenance dates, special rates and more, contact the courses directly.

Nine courses participating in Golfing Mag's 2020 "Free Golf" Program

As the unique, contact-free Long Island golf season of 2020 hums along, a familiar figure of pre-pandemic normalcy -- Golfing Magazine's "Free Golf" certificate -- makes its way to area mailboxes once again.

Golfing Mag's 2020 Free Golf program includes nine Long Island golf courses, ranging from nine-hole munis to the region's most scenic waterfront layouts.  For $54, subscribers to the magazine's annual promotion are entitled to "free" green fees for one round at each of the program's participating courses.  It also includes a one-year digital subscription to Hicksville-based Golfing Magazine.

This year's Free Golf certificates cover rounds at Brentwood Country Club, Gull Haven Golf Course in Central Islip, Holbrook Country Club, Island's End Golf & Country Club in Greenport, Mill Pond in Medford, Peninsula Golf Club in Massapequa, Rolling Oaks in Miller Place, The Golf Club at Middle Bay in Oceanside and Willow Creek Golf & Country Club in Mount Sinai.

Taking advantage of the promotion is simple -- bring your Free Golf certificate with you to the course and all you pay is a cart fee (and reservation fee, in some instances).  The certificate is honored only once at each course, at designated times during the week and on Sundays.  Availability varies by course.  (Specific terms for each course are listed on the certificate and can be viewed at the Golfing Magazine website.)  Be sure to double-check all terms and conditions when reserving your round.  Tee times must be made in advance.

As an added bonus for those who travel across the Northeast, certificates are also valid at dozens of golf courses across upstate New York and New England. 

Players can subscribe throughout the season for only $54.  Certificates are valid until December 31, 2020.  To subscribe online, visit www.GolfingMagLI.com.  And for descriptions of the participating Long Island courses, click the links above to read the course flyovers.

Bay Park, Merrick open for play

The last remaining Long Island public golf courses to start their pandemic-era spring seasons have finally opened for play.

After an extended offseason, Bay Park Golf Course, a Nassau County muni, and the Town of Hempstead's Merrick Road Park Golf Course are open for pre-booked rounds only -- a distinct change for two courses that have long been strictly walk-up. 

Tee times at Bay Park can be reserved on the Nassau County Parks website or by phone at (516) 571-7242.  Rounds must be prepaid by credit card.

Tee times are available at Merrick on the Town of Hempstead website.

[NOTE: Pitch-&-putt golf courses within municipal parks are subject to park openings.  Robert Moses and Cedar Beach are open; Nickerson Dunes (Nickerson Beach) is unconfirmed.  Also, Great Rock Golf Club has still not reopened and appears to be permanently closed.]

All Long Island public golf courses open except two Nassau municipal courses

With tomorrow's scheduled reopening of Harbor Links' Executive Course, all but two of Long Island's public golf courses are back open for play in a 2020 spring season where tee times are scarce and social-distance regulations are firm.

Bay Park and Merrick Road Park, municipal nine-hole courses owned by Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead, respectively, are the last holdouts.  (A third still-closed course, Great Rock Golf Club in Wading River, might be out of business.)

Park personnel confirmed on Friday that the golf courses remain closed.  When asked about a scheduled opening date, an employee at Merrick simply answered, "We're not open."  A phone message stated the course is closed "until further notice."

A representative at the Nassau County parks department said by e-mail that Bay Park's golf course is expected to open sometime next week upon approval of seasonal personnel.  However, an employee in the park's main office said she is unaware of any planned opening date.

The rest of the Nassau County munis -- Eisenhower Park's three courses, plus Cantiague, Christopher Morley and North Woodmere -- reopened in late April.  Hempstead Town's other municipal course at Lido Golf Club opened then as well.

Coronavirus Update: Motor carts permitted at county, town courses

Motor carts for single riders only will be available as soon as Saturday at some Long Island county and town golf courses, according to Newsday's Jeff Williams.

The Suffolk County municipal courses at Bergen Point, Indian Island, Timber Point and West Sayville will allow the use of motor carts for golfers age 65 and over, and disabled players of all ages, beginning this Saturday. 

Town-owned golf courses at Brentwood Country Club, Holbrook Country Club, Gull Haven, Mill Pond, Rolling Oaks and Smithtown Landing will also permit single-rider carts under Suffolk County's guidelines.

In Nassau County, all players can rent single-rider carts beginning Monday, May 11, at Eisenhower Park's Blue and White courses.

Following the reopening of golf courses in late April, seniors and players with disabilities complained that New York State's walking-only restriction prevented them from returning to the course.  Under the state's revised business guidelines, as a non-essential business, golf courses can allow play with only security and maintenance personnel on site.  With no golf employees, facilities like the clubhouse, pro shop and presumably a cart shed are to remain closed.

However, municipal facilities are exempt from the state's essential and non-essential classifications.  There is no word yet on when non-municipal public courses will be able to rent motor carts.

Business regulations are expected to be loosened when the state's "NYS On Pause" shutdown expires on May 15.

Coronavirus Update: State, county munis begin to reopen

New York State municipal golf courses on Long Island -- Bethpage, Montauk Downs and Sunken Meadow -- will reopen for play on Monday, April 27, with social-distancing guidelines in place.

Bethpage's Black Course will follow with its 2020 reopening on Friday, May 1.  Starting that day, four Bethpage courses will be open daily.

On the county level, Nassau County announced that the Eisenhower Park golf courses and driving range, plus the nine-hole courses at Cantiague Park, Christopher Morley Park and North Woodmere Park are currently open.  The Cantiague Park driving range is open as well.  No word on Bay Park.

The Suffolk County municipal course at Bergen Point reopened today.  Its fellow munis at Timber Point and West Sayville are still listed as closed; phone calls to Indian Island were not answered.

[EDIT: The other Suffolk munis will begin to reopen on April 27.]

As previously posted, the Town of Oyster Bay muni reopened on Friday.

State courses will have 16-minute intervals between tee times (18 on the Black) and there will be no motor carts or pull-cart rentals available.  All reservations must be made online and payments must be made over the phone prior to play. 

Full details can be found for each course on the NYS Parks website.

Coronavirus Update: All golf courses now closed through April

Long Island and New York State golf is shut down until the end of the month and in some places longer after the state added golf courses to its ever-changing list of non-essential businesses earlier today.

The announcement seemingly puts an end to the short, strange and bustling early-spring season that saw thousands of golfers take advantage of open golf courses around the Island, even with a host of social-distancing measures in place.  Some courses reported they had to turn away hundreds of golfers on nice days in order to conform to safety measures like stretched-out tee times and reservation-only policies.

While many courses announced they would be closed until April 29 under the state's NYS on Pause policy, the state-park system itself posted that its municipal courses -- Bethpage, Sunken Meadow and Montauk Downs -- will be closed through May 7.

If previous announcements by the state regarding parks and golf courses are any indication, all of this is subject to change.  Be sure to check Golf on Long Island for updates this month.

Coronavirus Update: Bethpage Red, Timber Point open

The local public golf scene continues to represent some semblance of normalcy on Long Island, even with its slew of social-distancing measures that have been implemented at all open courses over the past two weeks.  Bethpage State Park's Red Course reopened on schedule yesterday.  Word from several GOLI readers is that the spaced-out tee sheet was just about full.

Timber Point also reopened for the season yesterday after initially delaying its mid-March return due to the current public-health crisis.  It is walking only and reservations only at the Suffolk municipal course in Great River.

Meanwhile, on the same day that the Red Course reopened at Bethpage, its state-park sister course at Sunken Meadow announced that while the golf courses there will remain open for play, all other services -- pro shop, driving range, cart rentals and more -- have been stopped until further notice.

Harbor Links has once again pushed its reopening date back due to ongoing health concerns.  The new tentative reopen date is Friday, April 24.

After a brief reopening last week, Glen Cove Golf Club -- a city municipal course -- has closed along with city parks and beaches, by order of Glen Cove mayor Tim Tenke.