Golf on Long Island

Bethpage Black opens 2024 season with bunker tweaks, irrigation upgrades

Players who went looking for a one-on-one fight with Bethpage Black on the golf course's opening day were instead met with an ambush by briskly cold temperatures and a brutal, relentless wind.  But the surprises weren't all bad — waiting on the first tee for some of the park's morning players was the Ryder Cup, perched on a pedestal in all its golden glory.  Representatives from the PGA of America were on hand to give away hats and let players from all five courses pose for photos.

The trophy's presence at Bethpage Black's grand 2024 opening was a gleaming reminder that Long Island is just a year away from hosting the famed international tournament and that Bethpage's accomplished staff continues its years-long effort to prepare the course for the global spotlight.

This offseason the Black Course received another set of upgrades, the most important of which, according to director of agronomy Andrew Wilson, was the completion of its irrigation system.  Longtime Black Course superintendent Mike Hadley led the effort to install new irrigation on holes 13 and 18, and with those two holes finished, the staff now has precise control of water usage throughout the course.  "The building blocks of a successful course are the irrigation and drainage systems," Wilson says, "so we are excited for the work to be done."

Up on ground level, players will find one notable change at #13.  Wilson says the crew "leapfrogged" the two fairway bunkers on the bending par-5, filling in the near trap and creating a new one just beyond the far bunker.  The new alignment will better defend against longer drives.  From the tees likely to be used in the Ryder Cup, the two traps will sit between 300 and 350 yards away.  Regular players will encounter them roughly 260 to 300-plus yards from the middle tees.

Also on #13, Wilson says the fairway has been widened by about 10 yards leading up to the traps.  "Over the past year or two we have widened fairways on many holes so running balls will not get caught in the rough," Wilson says.  "Now they could run into the bunkers."

The massive fairway bunker on the par-4 fifth will be even more intrusive this season.  Crews widened that trap a bit and made some improvements designed to prevent flooding.

As for Ryder Cup preparations, Wilson says there will be no changes to the Black Course's routing, as some have speculated.  The course will be played in order, from 1 to 18, starting at the Black's recently built Ryder Cup tee.  Other changes could be in the works as this season progresses.  

"We will see once the Ryder Cup captain is chosen," Wilson says.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Wilson]

Golf Channel Academy with Kelley Brooke steps in as program operator at Hempstead golf courses

The Town of Hempstead golf courses at Lido Golf Club and Merrick Road Park are getting a bit of a refresh at the hands of one of Long Island's most prominent golf figures.

Golf Channel Academy with Kelley Brooke is the new operator of the pro shops and instructional programs at the two Hempstead municipal courses, part of a 10-year contract with the town that also includes new logos, expanded web and social media marketing, and a rebranding of Merrick's course as "The Nine at Merrick."  Brooke, the 2018 LPGA Professional of the Year and longtime contributor to The Golf Channel and several regional golf publications, currently operates similar programs at Bethpage and Montauk Downs.

GCA announced the agreement on social media earlier this week by posting new minimalist-style logos for Lido and Merrick, which will be featured on apparel and other course items, Brooke says.  Players will notice changes immediately as work gets underway to revamp Merrick's long-barren pro shop.  Brooke says the updated shop should be up and running as soon as next week.  New course websites are set to launch this month and, like at Bethpage, there will be a heightened focus on connecting with area golfers through social media.  

At Lido, the Town of Hempstead tore down the course's dilapidated clubhouse facility last season and currently has no permanent structure on the site.  Brooke says a temporary trailer will be used this season to house a moderately sized pro shop.

GCA's wide variety of camps, lessons and other instructional offerings will be available at both sites, including kids' summer camps, adult 101 clinics, PGA Junior leagues and LPGA Girls Golf programs.  Private lessons will be available from GCA pros.

The arrangement does not include any changes to the golf courses themselves or operation of the courses, Brooke says.

Brooke and Golf Channel Academy took over pro-shop and instructional operations at Bethpage State Park in 2018 and immediately bolstered the facility's social media presence and marketing reach.  Several seasons later she became operator at Montauk Downs.  Brooke has managed golf facilities across New York City and Long Island and launched programs for children with special needs and the economically disadvantaged, among other developmental initiatives.  

For more on Golf Channel Academy with Kelley Brooke and available instruction, visit the GCA website.

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)

"A World Travelled Sports Writer Plays Lido" - by Ralph Trost, circa 1930s

Few writers, if any, did more to chronicle the growth and development of Long Island and New York-area golf courses than journalist Ralph Trost.  Writing for several New York newspapers, Trost published hundreds of articles and columns on the sport of golf and the local grounds – public and private – on which it was played.  His work, which spanned the 1920s boom period through the post-WWII/1950s course die-off, covered nearly every golf course that existed on Long Island during that time.

One course that Trost wrote about in more depth and frequency than most others was the original Lido Club, and with good reason.  C.B. Macdonald's Lido was considered one of the best golf courses on the planet during its brief run from 1917 to 1942.  

Sometime in the 1930s, most likely, Trost published a pamphlet entitled, "A World Travelled Sports Writer Plays Lido: An Unbiased and Candid Opinion of Lido Golf Course."  In it he compares Lido to olives and clam chowder – items that are "a bit jolting at first," but leave you wanting more once you've acquired a taste.    

A copy of the pamphlet was sent to Golf On Long Island by a member of the Seiden family.  The Seidens owned the Lido Club from 1938 through its World War II-era demise, the losing postwar battle to recover the land and golf course, and the eventual construction of the current Robert Trent Jones course on adjacent ground in the 1950s.  It's not clear exactly when the pamphlet was published or where it was distributed.  

The following is an unedited transcript of Trost's review of the Lido Club, likely written sometime in the 1930s.

+ + + + + + 

A World Travelled Sports Writer Plays Lido
An Unbiased and Candid Opinion of Lido Golf Course

By Ralph Trost
Nationally Known Golf Authority and Sports Writer

A Robin Hood … in reverse

That’s this reporter’s best description of Lido, the course that gives in abundance to the skilled what it takes in super-abundance from the unwise golfers.

Lido, I’ve heard said, is like olives, Scotch whiskey—or New England clam chowder.  All are a bit jolting at first but then a fellow acquires a taste.  Of Lido, I’m certain, all he wants is more.

Looking back over the years I’ve witnessed golf played at Lido, I’ll admit that at first glance Lido looked a bit weird.  Not a tree loomed against the sky.  Nothing broke what seemed a monotony of unrelieved stretches and the course itself rolled like a rumpled pancake sprinkled with sand instead of sugar.  And that, sir, is the same impression striking the golfer who visits the famed British courses at Sandwich, St. Andrews, Troon, Princes or Westward Ho! and Deal.  Why Deal and Lido, insofar as general atmosphere is concerned, are as alike as two peas in a pod.

Just a golf course built upon land that isn’t much good for anything else.  That’s the first reaction at Lido.  It’s a broad, even if unthinking, compliment to Lido.  Lido is not “natural.”  It was made that way.  At the cost of almost $2,000,000 by a group of millionaire sportsmen who had both the inclination and the courage to buy the best.

Having once built a perfect course, those millionaires built another down at Southampton closer to their summer homes.

Lido, one learns, represents not superb scenery of the sort that prints best in pictures.  Lido’s riches are not evident things to be dangled before the eyes like diamond pendants.  Rather are they like a Rembrandt or a Goya; things which must be studied to be understood and such, in the end, are the true treasures.

Lido is a most precise test of real golf ability.  It was built with meticulosity, not thrown up helter-skelter.  It is a persistent challenge to those who want to play golf and not play at it.  It is a course only as hard as the golfer makes it and it can be most difficult for those who would try to bully it when what should be done is cajole it.  Lido will give — not to a slugger but to a golfer.

If one dare suggest that Lido might be played in the 90s by a woman golfer whose ability with wood-headed clubs includes nothing greater than a carry of 125 yards, the suggestion would be scoffed.  But it has been proved true.  Lido is not a slugger’s course and to prove it this reporter obtained the services of a woman golfer whose play had been confined to a public course where bunkers existed in name only, and the 5600 yards assigned to the 18 holes on the score card dwindled to a mere 4900 yards under a tape.

There was one understanding in connection with her round.  She was to attempt to play her shots where directed.  She did her own swinging, her own putting.  The reporter took care of the wagers which ranged from a bet she would beat 115, all the way down to an even $5.00 that she’d break 100.  Her usually golf-wise parent bet against her attaining such scores even though it was he, at the time, who had established the Lido course record in a championship tournament.

As feared, Lido awed the girl at first and a nine had to be penciled on the score card when she holed out on the first.  Yes, a nine where, of all places on Lido, no nine should ever bloom.  But then she played under direction, with the idea of wheedling out a score and not bullying the course into submission.

I can vividly recall her driving carefully down the right edge of the 11^th fairway as she steered a safe course to a five on the second hole.  With no favoring wind, and a shakiness hanging over from that nine on the first, no effort was made to carry the cliff on a straight route down the second.  The third hole called for a full spoon shot but her course was to play a safe mashie-iron shot, dependence being put upon a chip shot.  The chip was perfectly played and lo, down went a five foot putt for a par three.

No hole played provided a simpler looking six than the fourth.  Her drive across the first lagoon was purposely played for the fairway at the left.  Her second, an iron, was popped along toward the neck from whence it was simpler playing a third shot across the second water.  Another iron put the ball on the green and two putts obtained a six.

Hole after hole was played in a similar manner.  Wild gambling was banned.  A hurried second on the 9^th did plant her ball deep in trouble on the left and an eight blossomed where a five looked so simple.  But, all told the score was about what had been anticipated.  The card read:

PAR                        4  4  3  5  4  5  5  3  4 — 37
PLAYER               9  5  3  6  5  6  6  3  8 — 51

And gambling golf was done with.  She played the inner nine in 48 to beat the 100 mark.  The high spots on the nine were her drive down the 10^th which was hit for the first, not the 10^th fairway, her hugging the right of the 11^th fairway all the way, her tacking first right and then left down the 15^th, her playing short on the 16^th and, off the 18^th tee, driving at the broad handkerchief of fairway on the left.

She had one burst of good fortune and that came at the 13^th, of all holes, where, with a chance for a par four presented, the second shot was half-topped, the ball rolling into a bunker back of the green.  From there she most fortunately got down in two to save at least one shot as swiftly as she had thrown away shots on the first and ninth.

Lack of trajectory, and many safe shots, had piled up an eight on the 575 yard 17^th.  That killed all hope of an easy 95 and presented the chance for gambling with a wood second on the 18^th.  That shot, curved off into one of the shallow bunkers, laid the foundation for an ugly seven.  But the 100 score was beaten and all wagers won.

This, remember, all happened to a woman golfer who played from the red markers, not the women’s tees.  It does, I believe, prove my point and that Lido, tough as it can be made for the big hitters who go well back on the blue tees, is a truly reasonable golf course for those who want to play golf.  For ordinary walking and club-swinging, the writer suggests a beach or polo field.

There were but two good putts holed, at the 3^rd and 13^th.  And three taken on the 18^th made a putt total of 35 which no good player counts as better than normal.  The round, all told, was ordinary except in one phase.  It did break 100 and that, as perusal of week-end score sheets anywhere proves, is better than average.  However, the score was about what the reporter thought it would be — a score within reach of some 90% of all golfdom but not attained by more than half that.  That is, if all putts are holed.

Lido is no flatterer.  But one does get what he or she deserves.  And whether the player be strong or weak, each stroke played is a precise golf shot and not just a fling at the ball.

Since the World War days there has been a demand for golf courses of the type that are extremely difficult for the best players but flattering to the poor.  Courses of this type have no carries to be made from the tee, no bunkers to catch weakly hit or poorly judged seconds.  This variety has little more than length from its elevated tees to its closely bunkered greens.  The result is that ordinary golfers drive with abandon; hit second shots without aim or true consideration and do not begin the actual playing of golf until within reach of the greens.

Little by little these courses are being revamped to fit true golf.  Tees are being moved forward so that the greens will be within reach of the shots ordinary golfers should play.  The result is higher scores but more golf shots.

So too is another idea dying, the one which demanded “scenery” and hills.  Beautiful things, trees.  But they have no place in golf.  Any golf follower who has seen the way trees have ruined fairly good shots from one man’s clubs while acting as billiard cushions for the wild shots of another, knows that trees are golf’s most unfair hazard; a hazard wholly undependable and warranted only as safety measures to direct, never penalize, play.

Hills too, are losing their flavor.  Not entirely because so many players haven’t the heart condition permitting long, steep uphill grinds and sudden down grades, but because golf is becoming wise to the fact that the game requires only gentle rises and slight slopes to introduce the variety of shots in the game.

The reporter whose work takes him to golf courses all over the country finds that other courses change frequently, Lido seldom.  Lido needs no changing with each alteration in golf balls, with each improvement in clubs.  Lido’s charm is not sheer length, it’s subtlety.  Lido is a course for strong minds — not strong backs.

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).

Spy Ring Golf Club in Setauket working its way toward a soft opening this fall

[NOTE: Spy Ring GC is now open.  Read more about the course in the Spy Ring flyover.]

Gone are the sounds of hammering construction and the roar of heavy machinery.  In their place, in a pristine golf and residential complex in Setauket, are the soft whispers of fairway sprinklers and quiet music drifting from an apartment terrace. 

Soon those sounds will be joined by the echoes of a purely struck iron and the cheers from a well-deserved par.

Spy Ring Golf Club, Long Island's newest public course and arguably the most ambitious public-golf project on the Island in a quarter century, is steadily progressing toward a soft opening this fall.  Designed by Tyler Rae, Spy Ring is a modern nine-hole course featuring big, uniquely contoured greens, hefty bunkers and a startling amount of elevation change.  The course plays around newly built Heatherwood residences on a property that for nearly 60 years was the site of Heatherwood Golf Club, an executive-length 18.

Jimmi Conway, the longtime golf director and now vice president of golf operations at both Spy Ring and Pine Hills in Manorville, says the Spy Ring team is taking the opening slow to make sure the grounds are fully prepared for the rigors of play.  Even though the course looks like a finished product, Conway and Heatherwood president Chris Capece say they have the luxury of time to let the course mature ahead of its unveiling to the public.

"We want to do this the right way," Conway says.  "We don't want the course to get beat up before it's ready."

Still, to the naked eye that sees nothing but smooth fairways, freshly cut rough and rippling greens, it's hard to put aside the urge to drop a few balls and give the course a test run.  The par-3 seventh is the looker, a 145-yard shot over a row of four surprisingly large sand traps.  Rae built "fun" greens with plenty of pinnable space, and here on #7, a front-right tongue and a rear plateau set up some very interesting pin positions. 

From #7 tee the entire back half of the course is in view -- the downhill par-3 fifth, the punchbowl-style green on #6, the elevated green on #8 and the down-then-up par-5 closer.  Many of the greens feature broad entrances that allow for running and bounding approaches, a rarity for Long Island publics.  And the sandy base will allow the course to play firm.

A small patio overlooks the first tee and a huge, sloped practice green.  A practice bunker is nearby as well.  Conway loves the intimacy of the pro-shop setup, where he's close enough to the first tee to applaud someone who opens their day with a perfect drive -- or razz someone who needs to take an early mulligan.  Inside, the pro shop offers a small collection of Spy Ring apparel and features a black-and-white mural depicting Heatherwood's original grand opening in the early 1960s.

As for the site's 2023 opening, growing conditions this summer and early fall will ultimately determine when the course sends its first groups out for limited play.  As of yet there is no determination on green fees.

For more on Spy Ring and its design, check out our GOLI feature from last May:
Coming Soon: Heritage Spy Ring GC, Long Island's first shot at the Sweetens Cove model

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.]