Explore Long Island

Golf

Building your dream golf course on Long Island
Imagine you could play all 18 of your favorite holes around Long Island in one round. We're in search of Long Island's "Dream 18," a build-it-yourself golf course comprised of the 18 best holes on the Island, as determined by the people who play them. Submit your favorite holes.
Where to play, where to play, that is the question. There are over 160 golf courses on Long Island, from the famous (Shinnecock Hills, Garden City Golf Club, Maidstone, etc.) to the not as famous.

The aforementioned clubs, and a handful of others, take either a winning lottery ticket or some major connections to get on. Still, Long Island offers some of the best options anywhere for the public, or even private, golfer.

A cautionary note: always call ahead. Most of these courses are not a secret to Long Islanders. A list of five is incomplete, but here is a quintet of courses that should not be missed.

Bethpage Black: The wait, which can start at 3 or 4 in the morning, is legendary, as are the stories about trying to crack through on the phone reservation system. And they're so worth it. Most U.S. Open courses – the Black hosted the 2002 U.S. Open and will host the 2009 Open - are not accessible for the public but this one is and for a more than reasonable price. The par-4 15, par-4 16, par-3 17 and par-4 18 comprise one of the best finishing stretches you'll find anywhere. And the famous sign, located just behind the first tee, proclaiming the course's difficulty is still there. It's worth a snapshot, if nothing else.

Eisenhower Red: The Red course will host the Commerce Bank Championship for the third straight year but its legend was established in 1926 when Walter Hagen won that year's PGA Championship there. There are no dramatic views here, as is the case with some of the courses on the eastern end of Long Island, but the course measures over 7,000 yards from the back tees and is a straight-forward, difficult test. The Red was designed by Devereux Emmet, who also designed Garden City Golf Club and the National Golf Links of America, which both make Golf Digest's annual list of top courses in the country.

Tallgrass Country Club: No course was ever more aptly named. Golfers are greeted with a mostly treeless layout, whose primary protection is provided by the thick fescue grasses that wave gently, and sometimes not so gently, in the constant breezes representative of golf on Long Island's eastern end. When the wind really kicks up, and it generally does, some of the holes can be virtually unplayable. Take the 150-yard par-3 seventh hole: A large bunker protects the front of the green and its slopes down severely behind. Good luck hitting the putting surface when the hole plays into the wind with anything less than a 7 or 8-iron.

Montauk Downs State Park: Ok, here's the deal: You'll need to budget an entire day to play this course, as it is located at the furthest point east on Long Island and takes an eternity to get to. If you drive into the Atlantic Ocean, you've gone to far, but not by much. Your reward for the lengthy jaunt along Route 27 is one of the most scenic and fun, not to mention challenging, courses imaginable. The course is tucked on piece of land between the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, meaning wind. Lots of it, all the time. Montauk Downs is annually rated in Golf Digest as one of the top 50 public golf courses in the country. The signature hole? Just about all of them.

Timber Point: There are three nine-hole courses here; the Red, White and Blue. All have their highlights but the 3,168-yard Blue Course is the most picturesque and memorable. There is water on each hole, with holes 4, 5 and 6 running along Great South Bay, which produces strong winds that make all three of the courses a challenge. The Blue Course features one of the most knee-shaking holes anywhere, the uphill 188-yard par-3 fifth, called Gibraltar because its green sits on a bluff resembling the famous rock off the coast of Spain.

Search for Long Island golf courses:

Search for Long Island driving ranges:

Search for Pitch and Putt/Minature Golf: