Golf on Long Island

Observations: Lido Golf Club, now under Hempstead Town control

Lido Golf Club closed for several weeks this past June as the Town of Hempstead took control of the course from longtime operator Double Eagle Golf.  The course reopened just as the summer began with a number of additions and minor changes to the course grounds and facilities.

Last month, Golf On Long Island's Lido veteran Anthony Dimino visited the South Shore course for the first time since its reopening under Hempstead control and documented some of the changes:

• All previously dirt/gravel cart paths have been infilled with recycled glass (pictured)
• Yardage markers added to driving range
• New range balls
• Landscaping, new paint and LED overhead lighting added to the range
• New counter in clubhouse for check-in, separate from the old check-in at the Pro Shop
• Fairway slimmed down on the 10th
• Cart bridges rebuilt -- two on #16 and one between #16 and #17
• No alcohol sold on the course; bar was not in use
• Improvements to exterior of halfway house; bathroom fixtures changed out, metal doors, etc. (includes the bathrooms near the 12th green/15th green)

"Fairways, greens and tee boxes were all in excellent shape.  Rough was thick throughout; a couple of patchy spots, otherwise solid.  Bunkers, as always, need work -- not much change from before.

"Teed off at roughly 8:40 a.m. and finished at 1:20 p.m.  Waited on a few holes, but for a Sunday morning round, under five hours was good."

GOLI reader Steve C. also chimed in via Facebook:  "I have played both courses (Lido and Merrick Road Park GC) for well over 30 years and they are in the best condition I have ever seen."

One downgrade since the change has been Lido's web presence.  Lido's former website -- www.lidogolf.com -- is no longer operating, and its Twitter page only seems to exist to spit out weekly promotions for car-rental discounts.  A basic tee-time interface can be found at a new URL -- www.lidogolfcourse.com.

Observations: Mill Pond Golf Course

Friends of Golf On Long Island made their traditional Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Medford this past holiday, braving the chill to take part in Mill Pond Golf Course's highly competitive annual Turkey Shootout scramble.

On their way to a 7-under team 63, they snapped a few pics of the new tee box at Mill Pond's short dogleg fifth. 

Not long after this Closer Look post in 2014 described the hole and its drive-the-green potential, some readers alerted us to modifications around the tee, including new hedges being installed to discourage players from cutting the corner.  (Shortcuts put players on adjacent tees in the line of fire.)

From the back tees (pictured right), players have little choice but to go straight out, following the conventional route as the fairway turns ninety degrees to the right for a short, wide approach.  But when the middle tees are up near the front of the box (pictured left), the shortcut, evidently, is still open.  Of course, at 250+ yards with no view of the green or its surrounds, it's still not a great play.  In scramble play, though, the group deemed it worth a shot, and one particularly long hitter left a hybrid a bit short of the green.

Mill Pond also lengthened #5 tee and rerouted the cart path around the box.

For more on Mill Pond #5, check out the Closer Look post.

And for more on Mill Pond, see the course flyover.

Observations: Tallgrass Golf Course

Despite all that has transpired off the course in Shoreham, there's still golf to be played at Tallgrass Golf Course -- for how much longer is anyone's guess. 

Tallgrass Golf Course has made it to May despite reports that the course -- the future site of a massive solar farm -- would be closed before the end of April.  Management distributed an e-mail last month urging customers to use gift cards before it was too late, yet play continues as the summer approaches. 

Ray P. of Huntington ventured east last month to take in what he expected would be his final round at Tallgrass, and detailed what he saw for Golf On Long Island:

"I expected to drive up and see the course's belongings out on the curb, but it looked like the same place to me.  There really is no pro shop anymore -- it's just a spare room off the bar area.

"The course itself was the same as always, except the greens were insane.  Fairways played firm, allowing some run on drives.  The greens were maybe the fastest I've ever played on any public course.  I overheard a few guys talking about it before the round, but I still wasn't prepared for the speed. 

"On the second hole, which is hard under normal conditions because it's narrow and has two tiers, I four-putted after leaving a wedge pin-high on the fringe.  The cup was at the bottom of a slope near the back of the green, and I thought I did a good job playing the break for a tap-in two-putt.  Instead the putt just kept rolling and rolling and picking up speed past the hole.

"Fourth hole I putted from the front fringe.  Long story short, I was a little aggressive, and the ball slowly but surely rolled through the green and straight off the back.

"The sixth hole is now a par-3, but they don't list the new yardage on the scorecard or have a marker at the new tee, which might be confusing people.  While on the seventh tee, I looked back and saw a guy tee off on #6 with a wood.  He flew the green and went way down into that gully.

"I really like #9 -- the wind was at our back and I really got into a drive.  I'm going to miss walking up that fairway toward the clubhouse.  That's if the course actually closes.  I know it was supposed to close a while back, too."

Observations: The Vineyards Golf Club

[NOTE: The Vineyards Golf Club is a private facility, but it will be featured in this Observations post since it has been allowing public play for much of the 2015 season.  Additional course content will be available if the club permanently opens to the public.]

Sandwiched between the public Cherry Creek Links and Woods courses to the east and nine-hole Sandy Pond just south on Roanoke Avenue, The Vineyards Golf Club carries on largely hidden from view in a bucolic stretch of Riverhead farmland.  Known as the Olde Vine Golf Club until the spring of 2014, Vineyards today is a member-owned private facility that for the past several months has made tee times available to the public.

The Vineyards might be neighbors with Cherry Creek's two layouts, but other than the rural scenery just outside its doorstep, the club has little in common with the Woods, where every fairway is closely surrounded by trees.  And at a maximum of 5,873 yards, it offers nothing close to the length and driver-friendliness of the Links across the street. 

However, Vineyards is indeed reminiscent of at least a few eastern Suffolk publics.  The sheer volume of sand traps -- Vineyards has around 100 -- is comparable to Willow Creek in Mount Sinai, not to mention the wide range of styles, from small, circular pot bunkers to massive, multi-lobed pits.  The limited yardage, clever contouring and wide-open feel of the property is on par with Shoreham's Tallgrass.

Secluded and serene, Vineyards leads players through a procession of mid-length par-4s -- from the tips, only one breaches the 400-yard mark, and that's not until the final hole.  Most max out between 300 and 360 yards, with wind, undulating greens and strategic bunker placement their main defenders.  One Golf On Long Island reader who recently logged a 36-hole day at Vineyards noted that the shifting winds from morning to afternoon were significant enough to make a two-club difference on some shots.

Boosting the challenge, especially for high handicappers, is the thick fescue beyond the rough on all holes.  Vineyards sports the more penal variety of tall grass, so dense and unforgiving that anything that even grazes the  heavy stuff is likely lost, buried or awkwardly perched.  In one spot off the 11th fairway, we found 14 lost balls, yet there was no sign of the pulled drive we were searching for.

The first two par-4s are severe doglegs to the right -- #2 offers risk/reward potential with a diagonal line of circular traps guarding the turn; #4 curves around the edges of a water hazard.  From that point on, however, the par-4s straighten out, limiting the strategic questions off the tee to simply whether to stay short of fairway bunkers or go long.  A little more variety off the tee would be welcome on a course of such length.  Approach shots are much more interesting given the contours of the greens and the diverse bunkering around and in front.  Most dramatic of all is the par-3 14th (pictured), an uphill clout with a dramatic false front capable of spitting short attempts 30 yards back toward the tee and far beneath the putting surface.

Homes in the adjacent residential community are largely out of play, though there are a few spots where white stakes signify when playable rough is actually someone's side yard.

It took some time to adapt to the tee colors, since Vineyards eschews the standard black/blue/white/red for what is actually a North Fork-inspired color scheme of purple and green.  The back of the scorecard reveals the tees are, in fact, Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet.

Observations: Eisenhower Park - White Course

Long, straight and a shade under 7,000 yards from the tips, Eisenhower Park's White Course makes it easy for players to choose what to hit off the tee.  And with its trademark gaping bunkers at the mouth of every green, there's added importance on squeezing out every last yard with the driver.

So when you take those attributes and then add what one local golfer describes as U.S. Open-style rough, suddenly a tough but manageable golf course is elevated to a demanding, difficult one. 

Last month, Matt from New York, a 10-handicap with an accurate driver, started his round slightly off-line from the tee.  His drives on the first three holes landed in the rough, not too far off target, but the consequences were drastic thanks to deep, sticky fescue only a few paces from the fairway.

GOLI's Rob Dimino was on hand to help Matt find the balls in the scruff, though the efforts were futile.

"The fact that two of those three drives were lost in the rough was ridiculous," said Dimino, who added that the penal fescue thinned out farther along the course.  "After #4, the fescue was less dense and better for spotting balls."

While the GOLI group viewed the rough as merely a hazardous reality on a course playing tough, local golfer Nick Giroffi sees the setup as problematic and a symptom of poor management.  In a letter published in Newsday on August 1 with the title "Speed Up Golf at Eisenhower," Giroffi contends that the high rough contributes to golf's slow-play epidemic, especially at Eisenhower where rounds typically breach the five-hour mark.

"The White Course is set up for U.S. Open Championship play with narrow fairways," Giroffi says.  "The grass in the first rough is so high that balls disappear, challenging the average player to find them.  It takes too much time to find the balls and the slow play becomes frustrating."

Giroffi compares the knee-high fescue to turn-of-the-century sheep meadows, and also claims that bunkers are filled with "rocks the size of potatoes."

"Complaints go nowhere.  The overall fairways are super, including the greens, so some changes would make for excellent golfing," Giroffi says.  "Faster play is the bottom line.  Cut the rough and sift the sand traps."

PICTURED: One of the White's familiar front bunkers (photo taken December 2011)

Observations: Great Rock, Willow Creek, Middle Bay

Golf On Long Island's Rob Dimino has been all over the Island this spring, teeing it up on both sides of the bay on Nassau's south shore, navigating slick greens at Great Rock in Wading River, and finding plenty of fairways in between.

Out at Great Rock, the devilish 11th green may have been renovated a few seasons ago to help players keep their approach shots on the surface, but the nasty left-to-right tilt remains.  The 11th is a short par-4 that bends to the right, and one of Dimino's best drives of the season left him just a few paces short of the green -- close enough for the putter to take over.  That's when the fun began, he describes:

"Pin was middle left -- I aimed a good 6-8 feet left.  Missed just in front of the hole, and I thought I'd have about four feet for birdie.  Then it kept trickling...and trickling...and trickling.  Wound up about 30 feet away.  One of my playing partners was incredulous.  Rapped my next putt up the hill and it just jammed on the brakes about three feet from the hole.  The power lip-out for bogey that followed was just icing on the cake."

[See this Closer Look post for a description and video of Great Rock #11.]

Great Rock will soon feature a new dining destination to help soothe frustration over ill-timed four-putts.  Pure North Fork is opening on site in the remodeled Blackwells space.  The focus will be on craft beers, small-batch liquors and local food and wine, with chef Michael Mandleur, formerly of Jamesport Manor Inn, running the kitchen.  Pure North Fork is slated to open later this month.

Not far away at Willow Creek Golf & Country Club in Mount Sinai, the equally speedy greens drew praise.  "The greens are immaculate," he says, adding that while some courses around the Island have had trouble recovering from the damaging winter, Willow Creek has rebounded beautifully from tee to green.

Back in Nassau, Rob and brother Anthony Dimino continue to be perplexed by the wind at The Golf Club at Middle Bay in Oceanside.  The two have combined to play hundreds of rounds across the bay at Lido, and it's agreed that while the wind might shift or ease up at times at Lido, it simply never ceases at Middle Bay.  Both posted numbers well above the norm in their most recent Oceanside rounds as the gusts wore them down.

Regarding the new hole orientation, Rob says Middle Bay upgraded when it made the former par-5 sixth hole its new 18th (pictured), even though the long, sweeping dogleg plays right into the teeth of the wind. 

"I feel like I always hit two good shots, and I'm still hitting 4-iron into the green," he says.

Observations: Bethpage Red impressive after rough winter

Feedback from readers has been largely positive regarding the greens at Bethpage State Park, which absorbed a heavy beating from the winter of 2015 and needed until the very end of May to get back to full capacity.  For much of the spring, a half-dozen temporary greens were in play on the Black Course, and next door on the Red, the par-3 fourth hole was closed as it bounced back from turf damage.  A U.S. Open qualifier on the Red Course was reduced to 17 holes because of it.

As of last week, all 90 holes are fully open, greens and all.  Golf On Long Island reader Matt K. took a ride out from Manhattan last weekend to check out how the Red fared in its recovery.

"Overall the Red was in great shape," he said.  "The greens were true, but really quick, probably due to the lack of rain."

As for the recently reopened #4, the picturesque one-shotter was in "perfect shape." 

Up ahead at #13 -- Matt's favorite hole -- the play, as usual, was to the blind left side of the split fairway.  "Smoked a drive and had a great angle into the green to set up a birdie opportunity," he said. 

"Just the way Tillinghast designed it."

PICTURED: Bethpage Red #4 (taken 2012)

Sandy Pond's fresh look drawing a mix of first-timers and skilled players

Earlier this summer, on the heels of its "While We're Young" and "Tee It Forward" campaigns, the United States Golf Association introduced "Play 9 Day" to promote all the ways new and experienced players can enjoy the sport in a shorter, more relaxed timeframe.

Meanwhile, before the July sun rose over Riverhead on the USGA's Play 9 Day, Chris Wahlers was out, as usual, cutting the grass at the nine-hole Sandy Pond Golf Course.  Co-owner of Sandy Pond with his brother-in-law Ken Weinstein, Wahlers has found that the most effective way to appeal to players from young and old to beginner and advanced is with hard work and early-morning grass stains.

Wahlers and Weinstein are in their third season as owners, and they’ve had their hands dirty from the start, spending much of their time cleaning out Sandy Pond's namesake hazards, building new tees, repairing greens or beautifying out-of-play areas.  Wahlers knows the work is paying off because new faces are showing up to play the 1,070-yard course.

“We’re noticing more skilled golfers coming to play,” Wahlers said.  “And people from the area are coming by and saying they never knew the course was here.”

The hilly rectangle of land has long been a quaint setting for low-key local golf -- when the clubhouse is empty, a sign politely requests that players leave their green fee in an envelope before teeing off -- but conditions were in decline when the new owners took over.  Some greens had lost nearly 40% of their turf, Wahlers said, and areas around the ponds and course perimeter had become overgrown. 

Today there is a stronger mix of playability and eye candy.  Mowing lines and contrasting colors form a pleasant vista, while enlarged and refurbished greens allow for real putting on smooth surfaces.  Just a few steps from the gravel driveway, the first tee directs players toward the heart of the property, and along the way to the green they'll pass a stretch of golden-brown fescue that replaced a strand of bushy trees and is part of Sandy Pond's new look.  The fescue and some mounding around the course, Wahlers said, is designed to add texture to the surrounding "rough."

Directly ahead at the downhill fourth, one of several flower-filled garden beds around the course freshens up the foot of a large tree behind the green.  Alongside the hole, the course perimeter has been tidied up, though there's more work to be done in the area, Wahlers said.

In addition to the perimeter maintenance, Wahlers has some other improvements on the agenda, one of which is a new tee that will extend the third hole behind a water hazard and add more aesthetic appeal.  A temporary tee is already in use during league play, but a permanent box is in the works along with some additional landscaping that would separate the hole from a nearby maintenance shed.  Tee shots would then start their ascent over a pond and wooden bridge.  Nearby, there are plans for a new patio behind the clubhouse.

Feedback from the upgrades has been overwhelmingly positive, Wahlers said.  A competitive Wednesday night league began play in June, and a swell in demand led to the start of a second league for ladies on Thursdays.  And, of course, more and more new faces are making their way up the gravel driveway and taking in the view.

For more on Sandy Pond, visit the course flyover.

Cedars Golf Club sees big upgrades on and off the course under new owners

Cedars Golf Club, a serene, old-fashioned fixture on the North Fork, was in good shape but in need of some essential maintenance when Tim McManus and Paul Pawlowski took over earlier this year.  So they dug in and focused on irrigation, bunker renovation and condition of the greens.  And they didn't stop there.  Long story short, today at Cedars you can supplement a nine-hole round with some indoor golf or a trip on a kayak.

The first year at Cedars under McManus and Pawlowski is wrapping up, and thanks to the staff's hard work, the nine-hole course tucked away south of Main Road in Cutchogue looks and plays much different than before.

"I believe the most noticeable changes are to the greens," McManus told Golf On Long Island this summer.  Two aerations this season and a full-time crew dedicated to the putting surfaces have turned soft, spongy greens into smooth ones that players would normally find elsewhere. 

"The days of wedge shots plugging three inches deep are over," McManus added.  "The greens are now relatively firm and comparable in speed to most 18-hole public courses."

Around the greens, the Cedars staff devoted plenty of time to renovating, repairing or filling in many of the course's bunkers.  New sand was brought in to replenish the traps, while eroded edges were strengthened on some and beach grass was planted in others.  As the season progressed, a new irrigation system was installed from tee to green.

The perimeter of the course got a facelift as well.  The staff cleared areas where dense, thorny brush had taken hold.  Not only does this improve the look of the course, McManus said, it "also makes it much more friendly to juniors and beginners, who can now quickly find their ball and play on."  In addition, new artificial-turf forward tees have proven to be a hit with less-experienced players.

Water comes into play on the course's final holes, though nowadays it operates not only as a hazard, but also as a source of recreation.  Cedars partnered with Bayview Tours to offer kayak and stand-up paddleboard rentals and lessons in the creek next to the ninth hole.  When the birdies aren't dropping, at least you can catch real fowl in action at home in North Fork waters.

Indoors, where the quaint, retro-style clubhouse used to be filled with stacks of VHS golf tapes and other throwback goods, the facility has been modernized with a new high-definition simulator room, which has received positive feedback from regular players and this summer's junior campers. 

"We think it will be a great year-round addition to the North Fork golf community," McManus said.

For more on the course, visit the new Cedars website, and for a general overview of the (pre-renovation) course, check out the Cedars flyover.

PICTURED: The recently installed irrigation system in action and a new patio overlooking the course. (Photos courtesy of Cedars Golf Club)

Observations: North Woodmere Park Golf Course

Rates are up (or on their way up) at North Woodmere Park Golf Course and its four Nassau County sister courses at Bay Park, Cantiague, Christopher Morley and Eisenhower.

At least there are a few nice things to look at.

Golf On Long Island reader Tony sent along a photo of North Woodmere's new hole signage.  It's certainly an improvement over the small, faded markers that have been attached to the ball washers for the last decade or so.

North Woodmere is a nine-hole course tucked away in the Five Towns area of Nassau County.  It mixes short and long par-3s with some mid-length par-4s.  For more on the course, check out the North Woodmere flyover.