The post Watch 3 amateurs play one of the most difficult holes in golf appeared first on Golf.

The post Watch 3 amateurs play one of the most difficult holes in golf appeared first on Golf.

Everything about Bethpage Black is contrived to make an already difficult course even more so. It’s a big golf course — with elevated greens, and forced carries. The rough is thick, the greens are fast, and on the day we played it, the cold wind was whipping.

It was all part of my early-season plan to “stress test” my golf game. Along the way, my colleagues Zephyr Melton and Tim Reilly decided to film ourselves navigating the Bethpage Black’s beastly 608 yard, par-5 13th hole, which you can watch above.

Lets break down the key shots for each of us.

Tim’s well-meaning bump-and-run

Tim’s a wily player, the kind who routinely wins matches around the office. The strength of his game is his accuracy, especially off the tee: He’s good at keeping the ball in play, and avoiding big numbers because of it. 605 yards is just a lot of golf hole for Tim, but he progressed the ball well enough to find himself greenside in four shots. His problem was the bump-and-run he played next. Teachers suggest standing closer to the ball, choking up on the club and playing the ball back in your stance. Tim set up to the shot more like a standard shot, which meant it didn’t have enough juice to get back to the hole and leave himself a makeable putt. It wasn’t the wrong shot selection, just the wrong execution.

Zephyr’s clever club-up

Speaking of GOLF Magazine staffers who are good at keeping the ball in play: Zephyr basically never misses a fairway. A drive in the short stuff followed by a 3-wood up the shoot left him 188 yards away for his third shot, with the green elevated and bunkers short that effectively made it all carry. Ordinarily this is a hybrid, but Zeph pulled his 4-wood — which usually carries around 200 yards, he says — and hit a fantastic shot to within birdie range. Zeph isn’t the longest player in the world, but this shot showed why he’s a very good player anyway. He’s clever, and avoids the common mistake golfers make of not taking enough club.

My safe (but unspectacular) drive

It’s a bit odd for me to analyze my own performance, but here we are. I was really pleased with the second shot I played on this hole, but looking back, I think the pivotal shot was my rather boring drive into the far. It’s tempting on long and difficult drives to step up and think you need to swing for the fences; to really get the ball out there. That’s certainly my instinct. But in reality, the upside of of squeezing out an extra 10 yards — at best — isn’t worth the risk of leaving yourself in a difficult spot on an already difficult hole. After all, the good second shot I hit was only possible because I was coming from the fairway, not hacking out of the rough. Ultimately, how far you hit the ball has already been decided by whatever work you’ve put in at the gym (or into your swing) before you step onto the hole. Once you’re there, the best thing you can do is focus on getting your ball in play.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

The post Watch 3 amateurs play one of the most difficult holes in golf appeared first on Golf.

The post What it’s like for golfers of all skill levels to play this Bethpage Black monster par 5 appeared first on Golf.

The post What it’s like for golfers of all skill levels to play this Bethpage Black monster par 5 appeared first on Golf.

We sent three of our staffers, handicaps ranging from 1 to 12, to play Bethpage Black in some of its harshest conditions. On the 608-yard 13th hole, smart course management was the key to success from the championship tees.

The post What it’s like for golfers of all skill levels to play this Bethpage Black monster par 5 appeared first on Golf.

The post Bethpage Confidential: What it’s like playing all 5 courses (and 90 holes) at the People’s Country Club appeared first on Golf.

The post Bethpage Confidential: What it’s like playing all 5 courses (and 90 holes) at the People’s Country Club appeared first on Golf.

Last month, GOLF staffers Zephyr Melton, James Colgan and Emily Haas headed east of New York City to Bethpage State Park for a golf marathon. Over the course of 36 hours, they played all five courses Bethpage has to offer — the Blue, Yellow, Green, Red and, of course, the Black — and documented their entire journey. Here are their takeaways from the 90-hole  Bethpage Gauntlet. 

What’s it like driving into the parking lot at Bethpage for the first time?

Zephyr Melton, assistant editor (@zephyrmelton): It’s strangely … normal? Everyone has heard of Bethpage, so when I went for the first time I was expecting more grandeur. In reality, it’s just like any other muni. It’s welcoming and unassuming. The People’s Country Club moniker is well-earned. 

Emily Haas, project analyst (@emilycarole): Zephyr is right. My first time there, I took the LIRR from Penn Station to Farmingdale then got an Uber to the course — though it’s actually close enough to the train station to make the walk if necessary. When our car pulled up, the lot is pretty much what you’d expect — big enough to fit cars for five courses, a restaurant, and an event venue — nothing out of the ordinary.

James Colgan, assistant editor (@jamescolgan26): If you’re a Long Islander, you’re trained to think first of your parking spot, then everything else. Bethpage is no different. If you’re lucky, though, your first drive will feature a glimpse at one of the park’s all-time great traditions: the post-round tailgate. 

You started on the Blue, what are your thoughts on the course?

Melton: I’m not the biggest fan of the Blue, but I think that can partially be attributed to it kicking my teeth in at 5:45 a.m. There’s lots of elevation change on the course, and it can play a bit long if you don’t hit it to the right spots. The back nine has a nice little stretch of holes from 12-16, but overall I’d say it’s my least favorite of the bunch.

Haas: Yeah, the Blue used to be one of my favorites, but after experiencing all five courses back-to-back, I’d have to say it’s at the bottom of my list. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be back, but the walk is pretty brutal.

Colgan: The Blue earns a lot of acclaim for being the easiest of the three Tillinghast courses on the Bethpage property (an easily attainable honor with the Red and Black courses as competitors), but it’s a true Jekyll & Hyde course. Alfred Tull’s renovation of the front nine in the 50s made way for the Yellow Course and muted many of Tillinghast’s original design features, which is only evident upon making your way to the back nine. The front, which seemingly features nine elevated tees and greens, is target golf. The back? Classic Tillinghast.

The Yellow Course doesn’t get much press, but you all seemed to enjoy it. What’s the skinny?

Melton: I’m a BIG fan of the Yellow Course. It’s fairly straightforward and not too long, but there are still some interesting holes. They also keep the track in great condition. If you can’t get on the Red or the Black, I’d recommend the Yellow to anyone headed to Bethpage. 

Haas: The Yellow Course rocks! It’s like a junior version of the Black — fescue, fast greens, excellent condition. The only difference is it’s super gettable if you’re hitting the ball well, and you’ll walk away feeling extreme confidence. What golfer doesn’t love that?

Colgan: Eh. I’m still pretty lukewarm on the Yellow Course. There’s a whole lot of room to make something happen, which makes it a very fun course for scoring well. But there’s not much else! It’s an amazing course for beginner golfers (a younger me among them), but I’m not sure how much more it adds.

How does the Green Course compare?

Melton: The Green Course is similar to the Yellow in that it’s all right in front of you, but there is far less elevation change. It has a parkland feel to it and there are some interesting green complexes on several holes. It’s perfect for a leisurely day on the links. 

Haas: The Green Course feels like your classic, standard muni. It’s rough around the edges, but in overall good shape and definitely has the slowest pace of play out of every course at Bethpage State Park. That being said, none of our rounds took more than five hours. The greens are super fun — almost wavy (that’s probably not the technical word, but you get the idea).

Colgan: The Green is (surprisingly) the oldest Bethpage Course, which might not show at first glance. Originally named Lenox Hills Country Club, it was absorbed into Bethpage State Park in the late 1920s, shortly before A.W. Tillinghast was hired to complete routings for what are now the Blue, Red and Black Courses. It’s a cunning little course designed by Devereux Emmet with a handful of entertaining holes. Where the Green sticks out is in its … greens, which have a bit more contour than Yellow or Blue.

After surviving a 54-hole day, what are your recovery tips?

Melton: Advil and icy hot. A pint of ice-cold beer also helps. 

Haas: Say no to the birthday drinks you’re invited to the night before. Get lots of rest, drink plenty of water, change shoes between rounds and you’ll honestly be fine. I did not think the 54-hole walk was as bad as it sounds.  

Colgan: Hydrate. Shower. Sleep. Cry. Not necessarily in that order.

The Red Course is universally loved (No. 8 on GOLF’s Best Under $150 List). What are some key takeaways?

Melton: This was my first crack at the Red, and you can count me as a big fan. At par-70 you can card some great scores, but the course is not easy by any stretch. If you want the perfect balance between tough and scorable, the Red is a great bet.

Haas: Red is in my top-three most favorite golf courses to play of all time. I LOVE a good dogleg, and Red has them galore. It’s one of those courses that really makes you think, and requires the right strategy to score well. If you crack the code and execute your shots, you’ll be pretty happy heading into the clubhouse. 

Colgan: It’s hard not to love the Red. It’s beautiful, undulating, quirky and exceptionally well-conditioned. For my money, it’s the second-best public golf course on Long Island, it just happens to fall in the direct shadow of its brutish sibling, the Black.

Shoes

You saved the Black Course for last. Explain what makes the course so demanding.

Melton: Everything is bigger on the Black. The holes are long, the bunkers are deep, and the elevation change is severe. And once you hit your ball in the thick rough, good luck getting it out. The warning on the first tee box should be heeded. Bring your A+ game if you want to play well on the Black. And even then, it might not be enough.

Haas: It’s SOOOOOOOO long, the rough is too thick for my weak little forearms to muster up a shot with anything longer than a pitching wedge and the greens are fast and don’t break like you’d expect!

Colgan: I don’t know Em, for all that “weak little forearms” talk, you sure had no problem making the most impressive sand-save par I’ve ever seen on No. 10. Anyway, what makes the Black Course so difficult is that it never stops pummeling you. From first tee to 18th, you earn every single inch (and for those of us with the misfortune of getting buried in the fescue, that could well mean literally).

What was your favorite hole on the property?

Melton: No. 17 on the Black. The long par-3 is well-guarded by bunkers and the hill behind the green acts as a natural amphitheater. It’s easy to imagine the electricity in the atmosphere around this hole during a major championship.

Haas: What a tough question! I think I need to go with No. 13 on the Red. It’s a split fairway that requires you to decide: do I go for the narrow side of the fairway and risk going into the trees on the left for a better angle to the pin? (Yes.) Or, do I go up the right side of the fairway and contend with the large front greenside bunker and narrow green?

Colgan: The best hole on the entire property is probably No. 4 on Black. The hardest is unquestionably No. 15 on Black. My favorite, though? No. 5 on the Red Course, a delightfully gettable par-5. It’s the sort of hole where good outcomes are accessible, but not necessarily guaranteed. A good drive off the tee and you’ve got a reasonable play into an elevated green in 2. Anything worse than par on this hole, and you’re in for a long day.

What is your favorite memory from the Gauntlet?

Melton: Walking up the hill to the 18th green. After 36 hours of non-stop golf, it was rewarding to finally reach the summit.

Haas: Hmmm, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact moment from the actual golf that stands out as my favorite memory, but I did really love recounting each round with James and Zephyr over a surprisingly fabulous salad in the clubhouse. I typically order the turkey club (which is also excellent), but the salad was giant, fresh, and extremely satisfying after a long morning with another round on the books after lunch. 

Colgan: A weird sunset (we were told from the California wildfires) on the Green Course at the end of our 54-hole day set the perfect scene for the Gauntlet. Two coworkers and great friends walking to an elevated tee box, before us: a blazing red orb descending over the skyline and a perfect vantage point of the property.

Any advice for golfers trying to conquer the Gauntlet?

Melton: Prepare for some mental deterioration. I figured my body would feel most of the effects of a golf marathon, but the most challenging aspect was keeping myself mentally engaged. Safe to say I didn’t have the same mental edge on hole 90 as I did on hole 1. But just remember you’re there to have fun! Bad shots will happen, but the memories from the Gauntlet will last forever.

Haas: It was definitely tough to stay focused for that long. By the end of the challenge, I found myself having to really think about the shot at hand (sometimes even saying my plan out loud) to avoid silly, lazy mistakes. 

Colgan: Time is your friend. Build in more of it than we did. Oh, and that post-Gauntlet beer is exactly as good as it sounds.

The post Bethpage Confidential: What it’s like playing all 5 courses (and 90 holes) at the People’s Country Club appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘The Gauntlet’: Why we played 90 holes at Bethpage State Park in 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘The Gauntlet’: Why we played 90 holes at Bethpage State Park in 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

We called it “The Gauntlet,” and like most other impressive feats of human endurance (see: any word that ends in “-athalon”), it was an exercise in self-loathing thinly veiled as a journey in self-love.

In 36 hours, the three of us played 90 golf holes — five whole courses — in 90-degree heat. We walked for two days, stopping only for food, sleep, restrooms, and (most obtrusively) slow golfers. Armed with little more than foolish determination and an incomprehensible supply of energy bars, we played 2.5 golf holes per hour, or one hole every 24 minutes, until we completed each of the five municipal golf courses at the Mecca of Long Island Golf: Bethpage State Park. Just this week GOLF unveiled its newest ranking, the Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S.: The best courses you can play for $150 or less, with Bethpage’s Black Course headlining the list. But there’s more to Bethpage than just the Black, and we wanted to see (and play) it all.

We left with inflamed joints, impressive blisters, insufficient energy to sit upright, and an immutable picture of the fine lines that separate normal golfers from, well … us.

This is the story of the craziest golf thing I’ve ever done: The Bethpage Gauntlet.

I. ‘Are you sure?’

The first sign to turn back came at the cash register of a 24-hour pharmacy shortly after 11 p.m. on Gauntlet’s Eve.

I’d entered with a mission: disaster prevention. I rifled through the aisles, filling my arms with athletic tape, band-aids, blister spray, Advil, Tylenol, Pedialyte and enough granola to survive a nuclear winter. After bumbling my way to the register, the cashier flashed a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry, but we’re out of shopping bags.”

“Seriously?”

She laughed.

“Yes.”

Now, a smart person might downsize, leaving a handful of items at the register in order to carry the rest safely. Better yet, they might take the moment to reflect upon the actions that led them into possession of enough inventory to challenge Walgreens’ Long Island market share.  

I, however, gleefully snapped a photo of my haul, then sumo-walked out to my car with $60.99 worth of necessities for the golf-insane.

A few minutes later, I returned to my childhood home in New Hyde Park, where I found my parents waiting for me. Just a short drive down the LIE from the course, my house had served as home base for countless Bethpage trips, and the Gauntlet would be no different.

“So James, explain to me what you’re doing again?” Dad asked carefully.

I broke down the plan. I was to play 90 holes in 36 hours with two of my coworkers, Zephyr Melton and Emily Haas. We’d break it out into two days: 54 holes the first day, 36 the day after that. We’d walk all of it — every hole at each of the five Bethpage courses, culminating with our final 18 at the Black Cou—

“Why?” Mom interrupted. “Why are you doing this?”

I paused.

“Because it’s Bethpage, and because people care about Bethpage.”

Dad sat up.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

I nodded.

“I think it’s already too late to say no.”

II. Ouch.

Forget feisty double-breakers and short-sided chips, the truest test of any golfer starts long before a tee time. Rather, it is in the restraint required to ignore the “snooze” button in the moment the alarm beats the sun. (That goes twofold for those of us confronting the reality of a 54-hole day.)

On this day, Tuesday, a crisp 4:40 a.m. wakeup call jolted me into consciousness.

Here we go.

The provisions I’d grabbed the previous night and a small closet worth of golf gear were already in my car when I hopped into the driver’s seat. We decided weeks earlier to wear five different outfits in the corresponding color of each of the five courses — a decision that was as much a fashion statement as it was a self-preservation maneuver on Long Island in July.

By 5:30, I stood on the 1st tee box of the Blue Course with Emily (a project analyst at GOLF’s holding company, 8AM Golf) and Zephyr (a fellow assistant editor at GOLF). It was early, but it was already sticky. The air was heavy and the temperature was only rising. The 54-hole first day of the Gauntlet always seemed destined to test our spirit and the weather wasn’t going to do us any favors.  

The Blue Course was a fitting launching-off point for our Bethpage tour. The easiest of the three A.W. Tillinghast designs on property (Red and Black being the others), Blue is a tale of two nines. The front, which was redesigned in the 1950s by Alfred Tull to make way for the Yellow Course, is a sledgehammer. High, elevated tee boxes and greens are connected by a series of ravines below. A handful of tees are misleading for the average player, pointed toward easily reachable bunkers and waste areas. The back nine, which has remained largely unchanged since its original 1935 design, is quintessential Tillinghast. It’s considerably flatter, more playable and thought-provoking — with comparatively subdued angles, interesting bunkering and a far more congruous routing.

Our opening 18 reflected the course. Pensive and energy-conscious, we sleptwalked to the 10th tee, but by the time we bounded up the 18th fairway, we’d each shaved in the neighborhood of 10 strokes off our outward score.

A few minutes later we headed off to the Yellow Course for our second 18. The Yellow is Bethpage’s newest course — a chipper 63 years in age — and also its easiest. Massive, yawning fairways and unguarded greens make it the ideal spot for beginners and weekend warriors alike. Zephyr (a single-digit handicap working his way down to a stick) and Emily (a former college player) smelt blood. Four hours later, I was the only one in the group with a score north of 80.

The blistering pace of our second 18 was nearly enough to mask the weight of a few pressing issues: through 36 holes, we still hadn’t felt a breeze, and though it was almost 4 p.m., the heat index hadn’t dipped below 95 since the morning. In short, we were gassed and we still had 18 holes to go.

We slunk back to the car to change for the final 18 holes, sipping on Pedialyte and inhaling a power bar or five. Suddenly, I noticed something gravely wrong.

“Zeph, what are you doing?” I asked.

“What?”

“Dude, you’re putting my shirt on.”

“No man, this is my shirt.”

It was in this moment, the Gauntlet’s 36-hole mark, when we learned a core tenet of outfit scripting: sometimes, coworkers receive the same GOLF.com freebies.

After a laugh, we trekked down to the Green Course, the oldest on property. Bethpage Green owes its original design to Devereux Emmet (of Garden City fame), who built Lenox Hills Country Club before it was absorbed into park property in 1932 and renamed. The Green Course is surprisingly well-shaped — a perfect buffer between the gentler Yellow and sterner Blue, though perhaps better enjoyed as a first or even second 18 in one day.

We came upon a brilliant sunset as we reached the end of the Gauntlet’s first day. Up ahead of us, a group of 20-somethings hacked their approaches toward the putting surface. None of the four was better than a 30-handicap, but that didn’t matter much. They sipped beers, listened to music, cackled at one another and had a grand old time as they whipped carts through fairways and rough.

It was the sort of beautifully ugly scene that has defined Bethpage State Park to locals for the better part of the last century. The sort of spectacle that only ever happens on the Bethpage courses no one outside of Long Island seems to care about. This is how The People’s Country Club looks when it belongs to the people.

The next day, the Red and the Black courses would give us the greatest Bethpage had to offer — but I was fairly confident we’d already seen the best.

III. It’s not how hard you hit…

There is a moment when every great trip becomes a journey. On Day 2 of the Bethpage Gauntlet, that moment struck at 1:22 p.m. local time.

To call the rain that fell upon Bethpage State Park a “storm” would be an overstatement. It was little more than a tiny, beat-red blip on the radar. And yet this thunder-bumper was nothing short of biblical.

Water dumped from the heavens in buckets. Thunder and lightning crackled overhead. The wind whipped into a frenzy. All of the sudden, the asphalt made a sharp sound — clack-clack-clack. Somehow, on this 90-degree day, it had begun to hail.

But before we could contemplate grabbing two of every golf club and beginning work on an arc, the storm vanished.

Even without the National Weather Service’s help, returning for Day 2 of the Gauntlet had required a healthy dose of gumption. The previous night’s sleep descended with fury upon the three of us. When we awoke at 6:30 on Wednesday morning for Day 2, our groans were audible from North Jersey.

Our first tee time of the day was supposed to be the most enjoyable of the five. The Red Course might well be the most popular Bethpage routing; a quirky, gettable par-70 that abuts the Black Course’s back nine. Some consider the Red to be Bethpage’s true championship course in that it’s welcoming to high-handicappers but challenging enough to test elite players.

I’m not sure I’d consider myself a “good” player, but I can certainly vouch that the Red Course is testy. A dose of ibuprofen befitting an apex predator wasn’t enough to return my swing to its to pre-Gauntlet form on the Red, which left me quickly in the hole. The round became the sort of four-hour bludgeoning in which mistakes and bad luck bleed together.

We trudged off the 18th green and returned to the clubhouse in disarray. Our bodies were failing us, our games were failing us, even our equipment was failing us … and we still had 18 holes remaining on one of the hardest courses on the planet.

Travel

For a fleeting moment, it actually seemed as if we might survive the Black unscathed. The first six holes, including the famous three-tiered par-5 4th, were a breeze. We weren’t playing by anyone’s standard of “good golf,” but we weren’t hitting the ball off the planet … yet. Emily, experiencing either an endorphin rush or a break from sanity, was even spotted running with bag in tow.

But anyone who’s played the Black Course can tell you precisely where it breaks souls: holes 10-12. On a normal day, those three holes (a trio of par-4s each stretching longer than 420 yards from the middle tees) are impossible. As holes 82-84 in the last 36 hours? I quietly hoped for a ProV1 to the temple from a neighboring group.

By the time we turned for the home stretch, my gait had turned to a limp. On No. 15 — a 430-yard par-4 that is unquestionably the hardest hole on the property — I pulled 7-iron from 140 yards. I hit it 130.

At long last, we made it to the 18th fairway. I powered up a portable speaker I’d tossed in my bag. As we began our ascent to the elevated final green, I queued the theme song from “Rocky.” Zephyr and I broke into a jog.

FLYING HIGH NOW…

GONNA FLY, FLY…

A few seconds later, Zephyr rolled in a three-footer to complete the Gauntlet. For the first time in my life, I hugged my playing partners on the 18th green.

IV. Postmortem

There is a line between genius and madness. As it turns out, there are actually a handful of lines, and if you look hard enough, you can find nearly all of them on a golf course.

The Bethpage Gauntlet was decidedly not genius. It was megalomaniacal. Egoist. An exercise in masochism. One of the most painful things I’ll ever do.

But isn’t that the point?

In a sport sometimes defined by exclusion, elitism and esotericism, Bethpage is proudly, loudly accessible to the world. Its openness is its best quality. I learned to play here with my Dad, walked the U.S. Open here with my Grandpa, and now have seen all of it — every inch of the place — in a day and a half.

For most people, 90 holes in 36 hours is an objectively insane endeavor. But I found something even crazier amid the chaos: Home.

The post ‘The Gauntlet’: Why we played 90 holes at Bethpage State Park in 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

The post The Bethpage Gauntlet: Playing all 90 holes(!) in just 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

The post The Bethpage Gauntlet: Playing all 90 holes(!) in just 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

Three GOLF.com staffers took on the ultimate golf marathon, playing all 90 holes at Bethpage State Park in only 36 hours, culminating at the brutal Black Course.

The post The Bethpage Gauntlet: Playing all 90 holes(!) in just 36 hours appeared first on Golf.

The post Top 100 courses trip planner: 5 incredible East Coast road trips appeared first on Golf.

The post Top 100 courses trip planner: 5 incredible East Coast road trips appeared first on Golf.

Golf can be seriously private, but GOLF’s list of Top 100 Courses You Can Play is not. This year, our expert group of course raters sat down with a simple goal: to build a list of the greatest courses you (yes, you) can tee it up at in a moment’s notice. The end result is list as varied as the courses it encompasses, from Bandon Dunes to Bethpage Black.

But why keep the memories to just one of our 100 greatest tracks? Whether it’s by way of a classic point-A-to-B-to-C road trip, a stay at an iconic resort (with or without side trips) or a stopover in the concrete jungle, knocking three or more Top 100 Courses You Can Play off your wish list is doable in one fell swing. Start packing.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE 2021-22 TOP 100 COURSES YOU CAN PLAY RANKING

Best East Coast golf road trips

Metro New York road trip

Top 100 Courses: Bethpage Black (#5) and Red (#66; Farmingdale, NY), Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point (#95; Bronx, NY)

Drive: Ideally, it’s 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan to Ferry Point and an hour to Bethpage … ideally. With traffic, it could be a lifetime, especially if the Long Island Expressway, aka “the World’s Largest Parking Lot,” isn’t exactly cooperating.

Dine: There’s no shortage of iconic NYC spots, from the bagels and smoked fish at Russ & Daughters (est. 1914) to John’s Pizza (no slices!) to soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, never mind world-class fine dining; this would require a separate Top 100 list.

Diversion: This ain’t the greatest city in the world for nothing, people! Among the endless cultural possibilities, consider the New York Botanical Garden, 10 minutes from …

Detour: … Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The oldest public course in America dates back to 1895 and is a must for golf history buffs.

Resort trip to Pinehurst

Top 100 Courses: Pinehurst (No. 2, #2; and No. 4, #26), Tobacco Road (#35; Sanford, NC), Mid Pines (#41; Southern Pines, NC), Pine Needles (#44; Southern Pines, NC)

Drive: Ease into the Pinehurst Resort’s lap of luxury. Tobacco Road is a mere half hour away, with Mid Pines and Pine Needles even closer.

Dine: The third-generation family-owned Pik N Pig, in nearby Carthage, is the place for authentic, slow-smoked Eastern North Carolina barbecue; the pulled pork, made with just the shoulder rather than the whole hog, isn’t optional, it’s a must.

Diversion: Moore County is chockablock with talented artisans; the most renowned might be the century-old Jugtown Pottery, where you can get a killer keepsake that’s not a golf shirt. The Tufts Archives at the Givens Memorial Library has tons of interesting info on Donald Ross and early golf in America.

Detour: Kyle Franz is currently restoring Southern Pines, a former Elks course now under the Pine Needles Resort’s umbrella; set to be finished in September, it might well make the next Top 100 Courses You Can Play list. Also not to be missed: Pinehurst’s nine-hole par-3 sensation from Gil Hanse, The Cradle.

Road trip to Coastal South Carolina

Top 100 Courses: Kiawah Island (Ocean Course, #6; Kiawah Island, SC), Harbour Town (#16; Hilton Head, SC), May River (Palmetto Bluff, #45; Bluffton, SC), The Dunes (#53; Myrtle Beach, SC), Caledonia (#84; Pawleys Island, SC)

Drive: Heading south, Caledonia’s a little under an hour from Dunes Club. It’s two more hours to Kiawah Island, then another 2:15 to May River and a final 45 minutes from there to Harbour Town. No sweat!

Dine: Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar and Grill in Myrtle Beach would be worth it for the name alone, never mind the suitably tropical, dive-y vibe, but the oysters are a true slurp of the ocean. Between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, See Wee is a must-stop for top-notch Southern comfort food. On Hilton Head Island, the upscale bistro Lucky Rooster Kitchen + Bar offers both comfort food and adventurous fine dining.

Diversion: Hilton Head Island’s Coastal Discovery Museum will deepen your understanding of and appreciation for the area’s natural beauty. If inspired to get on the water, Outside Hilton Head can get you outfitted for kayaking, paddleboarding and fishing.

Detour: Just off Hilton Head Island, you’ll find local hangout Old South, whose water-laden back nine has as much of an island feel as anything on HHI itself.

Resort trip to Streamsong

Top 100 Courses: Streamsong Red (#19), Blue (#27), Black (#39)

Drive: The no-need-to-leave resort is about 90 minutes from the airports in Tampa and Orlando.

Dine: The chops and dry-aged steaks at Restaurant 59 in Streamsong’s Red & Blue clubhouse will make you almost as happy as shooting a 59.

Diversion: Outdoorsmen, behold: The guided bass fishing here is some of the best anywhere. If you catch an eight-plus pounder, you’ll be welcomed into the state’s Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. The 12-station sporting clays range is among the Southeast’s finest, too.

Detour: In February, the new Glove Bar opened out of the Black clubhouse, servicing the two-acre, 18-hole putting course called The Gauntlet, where the tee markers double as drink holders; more practice can also be had at its Roundabout short course.

The post Top 100 courses trip planner: 5 incredible East Coast road trips appeared first on Golf.

The post One nation under golfers: Imagining a utopian America where the game is available to all appeared first on Golf.

The post One nation under golfers: Imagining a utopian America where the game is available to all appeared first on Golf.

This email arrived in my inbox on Tuesday, below this subject line: Deleted material, Inaugural Address. I have not been able to establish who sent it or the authenticity of its contents.

One of my father’s heroes, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, reinvented this country with his New Deal, with WPA projects that employed millions. We still enjoy the fruits of their labors. Post offices. Bridges and tunnels. Public golf courses.

Though anybody who has played Bethpage Black might say joy doesn’t spring to mind.
 
[Pause HERE. Look at Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton.]

Travel

There’s almost nothing good you could say about this pandemic that has gripped our nation these past 10 months, except for this: It has encouraged millions of Americans to seek outdoor recreation. Record numbers of us have visited our parks and beaches, local, state and federal. And our public golf courses.

Public golf has enjoyed a surge in popularity that brings to mind the rush to the tee that Arnold Palmer, with his swashbuckling charm and distinctly American charisma, brought to the game.

And so, my fellow Americans — and my fellow golf buffs! — we announce today, as part of our new New Deal, a goal to have 1,000 more public golf courses in this country before the end of this decade. They will be nine-hole courses and six-hole courses. Short courses for beginners and the elderly and those with physical differences. We will build golf courses on reclaimed landfills. We will use public-private partnerships to buy struggling private courses and turn them into courses that are open to all.

Travel

It was a pleasure to receive a call recently from Tiger Woods, the great golf champion who was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump. Mr. Woods described his plan to build a public course within the city limits of Los Angeles that would become the annual home of a PGA Tour event that he oversees. He said the course would be built by local residents who have struggled to find work, men and women who will learn new skills that they will be able to take into the construction and water-reclamation industries. As future landscapers and heavy-machine operators. He described a golf course that will use no pesticides and a clubhouse that will be powered by solar and wind energy and staffed by our wounded veterans.

American ingenuity is an astounding thing.

I asked Tiger how hard the course would be.

He said, “Easy enough that you’ll be able to play it.”

[Pause HERE for possible laughs.]

I said, “But then it won’t be too easy for you guys, Tiger?”

He said, “That doesn’t matter. We all play by the rules and whoever shoots the lowest score wins.”

That spirit of fair play is fundamental to who we are as a people. Baseball is the national pastime. But I want to encourage my fellow Americans to take up this great game of golf, too.

Working with the United States Golf Association, my administration is going to encourage every middle school in the United States to offer golf as an elective sport in physical education classes.

I’m pleased to say that my wife, Jill, and President Bush have agreed to lead that effort. Some of you may know that President Bush’s paternal grandfather was a president of the USGA, and that Jill has a doctorate in education.

Yes, folks, I’m bullish on golf.

There’s a passage in Isiah that speaks of turning swords in ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks. President Clinton knows something about that. When he was president, he was given something called the Peace Missile, a driver made from discarded Russian and American missiles. Many American golfers will know that the golf term irons comes from Scotland, and that an iron there was once a sword.
 
There’s much we can learn from golf. There are close to nine million avid golfers in the United States. By the end of this decade, our goal should be to have 90 million.

To paraphrase President Kennedy on a different subject, we choose to play golf not because it’s easy, but because it is hard. Because golf will measure our energies and our skills. Because the challenge of golf is one we are willing to accept.

It is a game that will improve you.

As we know, tragically, there are Americans with hate in their hearts. Every one of us who knows such people must try to turn them around, find an outlet for their hate. Connect them with another community, one with sound values and a peaceful mission.

You might start by taking them to a driving range. It’s a start.

[Pause HERE, then start section on family farms.]

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com. 

The post One nation under golfers: Imagining a utopian America where the game is available to all appeared first on Golf.

The post Our staff’s 14 favorite public courses we played for the first time in 2020 appeared first on Golf.

The post Our staff’s 14 favorite public courses we played for the first time in 2020 appeared first on Golf.

From Bandon Ore., to Farmingdale, N.Y. From Nekoosa, Wis., to Scottsdale, Ariz. Left to right. Up and down. 

Golfers, according to National Golf Foundation reports, didn’t just play golf in 2020. They played golf. Our staff included. We played our old favorites. And, as the hefty numbers might suggest, we played some new favorites. 

Below are our staff’s 14 favorite public courses we played for the first time in 2020: 

Michael Bamberger: Jeffersonville, a muni in Jeffersonville, Pa., on the outskirts of Norristown, in the far reaches of Philadelphia. A Ross. Inexpensive. Great people. Easy to walk. Interesting greens. No pretense. Come as you are. Pure golf.

Alan Bastable: I gotta cheat, because I didn’t play any new public courses in 2020 (lean year!), but I did gain a new appreciation for one: the par-3 course at Ash Brook GC, the muni up the road from my central New Jersey home. There’s nothing fancy about this pint-sized nine-holer. The tee boxes are hitting mats, the greens tend to run either shaggy or worn, and a dilapidated starter’s shed overlooks the 1st tee. But here’s the thing: Like a reliable friend, it’s always there for you. That hasn’t been the case with many golf courses during our coast-to-coast quarantine, when golf suddenly became the cool kid with whom everyone wanted to hang. As the game’s popularity surged, tee times became to golfers what Hamilton tickets were to theatergoers: really hard to score. During the spring, summer and fall, the regulation course at Ash Brook was jammed, no doubt just as the munis and public courses in your own towns were.

But the AB Par-3? It was available (no booking required!), and, for the price of a sleeve of ProV1s, always happy to have you. When the mood struck, I’d grab three clubs, jump in the car and less than 10 minutes later, I was on the tee, knocking a wedge toward the 1st green. That my 8-year-old was usually by my side made it all the sweeter. An hour later, we’d be back in the car, with somewhere around 30 or 40 swings and strokes under our belts — and considerably more than that on the occasions when we had the place to ourselves. Fun, fast, unfussy. The best kind of golf.    

Josh Berhow: I played Troon North’s Monument Course in Scottsdale, Ariz., for the first time way back in January, and I can’t wait to go back. It’s desert target golf full of elevation changes and strategic choices. Tee shots are intimidating, but don’t let that fool you — there’s more room out there than it looks. It’s a great layout with big greens and some fun, short par-4s. It also has one of the coolest photo ops you’ll find, because architects Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish simply couldn’t get the gigantic 25-foot boulder out of the way. It’s now in the middle of the par-5 3rd fairway. Don’t hit it.

James Colgan: In October, a few buddies and I scheduled our first-ever golf weekend to New York’s capital region. The first day, we played Saratoga National — a cheeky, TOUGH course set in gorgeous fall scenery. But on day 2, we stumbled into my favorite round of the year. With the help of professional golfer and GOLF senior writer Dylan Dethier, we drove over the Massachusetts border into Williamstown for a tee time at Taconic Golf Club. The course is loaded with history (in perfect New England brashness, a sign out front reads: “No preferred lies, we play golf here”), but I couldn’t get over the golf. Quirky, impeccable and undulating, Taconic is everything great about golf, without any of the manufactured pretension. I can’t wait to get back.

Kevin Cunningham: Marine Park Golf Course in Brooklyn, N.Y. I played Marine Park for the first time in 2020, and I instantly fell in love. As a resident of New York City, it’s often easy to forget you’re living in a beach town. Not so at MPGC. The windswept, linksy course may not be directly on the ocean, but an ocean channel runs along several holes, and you can hear, feel and taste the Atlantic on every hole, with NYC’s most popular beaches waiting just down the road. Pair that with a fun layout, challenging raised greens and views of the NYC skyline, and you can see there is much to love. I must have played MPGC more than a dozen times in the last few months of the year, and I plan to beat that number next year.

Dylan Dethier: I’ve dreamt of playing Chambers Bay for a half-decade, ever since its polarizing appearance as 2015 U.S. Open host threw the golf world into a tizzy, and I got a couple chances this fall to explore that beautiful golf moonscape for myself. Now I just can’t wait to go back. I played a good bit of public golf this year, though, so I should mention that Erin Hills is even better than you’d think, the Golden Horseshoe’s Gold Course in Williamsburg, Va., was my most pleasant surprise, and the University of Georgia course in Athens was the best value I saw all year. 

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Halfway through the year, I made a resolution to play more courses around Connecticut, which is where I live, so one Friday, me and a friend drove up to Simsbury Farms Golf Course just west of Hartford. For $40, we breezed right on without any delay and walked around in under four hours. It’s a short course but undulating, which means you can hit lots of drivers with some room for forgiveness, but you’re duly punished for the really bad ones. It fulfilled all of my three criteria for whether I like a golf course — fun, authentic, not stupid — and I’d play it again in a heartbeat. 

Jessica Marksbury: My little boy was born in March — a true pandemic baby! — so my time for golf has been extremely limited this year. But I did have the opportunity to sneak away for a quick 18 when my parents were in town back in October, and we played the Arizona Biltmore’s Links Course, just 20 minutes from my home in Phoenix. It was the perfect re-entry to the game after a long layoff, with hard-to-miss fairways, and was highlighted by a showstopping view of downtown Phoenix on the signature par-3 15th. 

Zephyr Melton: Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. The Black was the site of the first-ever golf tournament I attended (2009 U.S. Open), and I did so with my grandpa, who inspired my love of the game. I’d always wanted to play the course, and getting to finally test my mettle at one of the toughest courses in the world was a treat. My grandpa is long gone now, but there was something special about sharing that walk with him — even if only in spirit. It helped that I played pretty well, too. Only 80 blows to get around that brute. Not bad for a first-timer. 

Nick Piastowski: Pound Ridge Golf Club in Pound Ridge, N.Y. This is a tough task. Starting at the end of June, I tried to play a different public course every week or so, including quite a few for the first time. Courses in northeast Ohio were great, and Green Mountain National in Vermont was great. But Pound Ridge was the greatest. It was playable — not too hard, not too easy. It was in fantastic condition. It was incredibly scenic. It was memorable. I’ll be back in 2021. 

Tim Reilly: Christman’s Mountain Course in Windham, N.Y. After spending the first two months of quarantine barely stepping foot outside of my NYC studio apartment, the trip to Windham was my first reprieve. The Mountain Course was the first course I stretched my legs on, and the crisp, mountain air was all the more refreshing because of it. It was quiet, shaggy in the best way possible and had just enough twist, turns and elevation changes to keep you on your toes. I literally felt like I was alone on a mountain out there. 

Also, I have to include its sister nine-hole course just across the street: Valley Family Course. I played nine holes nearly every day after work for a week there with my girlfriend, who is just learning the game. I couldn’t recommend it enough for beginners and anyone looking to not take the game too seriously for a little over an hour. 

Josh Sens: I’ve been sidelined with a shoulder injury for six months so I haven’t gotten in much golf this year. But I did make it up to Sheep Ranch in Oregon in May, and it did not disappoint. A mile of coastline. Nine greens on the bluffs. Not a single sand bunker, but all the character and eye candy you could ask for. It was so good, it almost makes up for all the other golf I didn’t play in 2020. Almost.

Alan Shipnuck: Has to be Sheep Ranch, which feels like it could have been airlifted from Ireland and is as much fun as you can have in pleated pants. But a strong honorable mention to Forest Dunes and the Loop — what a spectacular spot and well worth the pilgrimage.

Andrew Tursky: Fun fact about me: I love par-3 and executive courses. I think they’re the perfect way to get out and play some golf without eating up the whole day. They can really help sharpen your short game and iron play. That being said, I played one of my favorite par-3 courses I’ve ever played this year: Mountain Shadows in Arizona. Wow. Great views and some really entertaining/difficult holes to keep you engaged the entire 18. It’s in great shape and really offers a country club vibe. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. 

Sean Zak: Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley in Wisconsin. The fairways are wide, but you can still miss them. The greens are mammoth, but you don’t want these 70-foot two-putts. There are a number of holes where you’re thinking off the tee: “Is it driver, 3-wood or long iron?” It has probably the best forced-carry par-3 without a water hazard that I’ve ever seen (No. 13). Can’t wait to play it again. 

GolfLogix Greens Books

This game-changing product is like having a professional caddie with you to read every green. Find the book for your course today.

Buy Now from store.golflogix.com

The post Our staff’s 14 favorite public courses we played for the first time in 2020 appeared first on Golf.

The post Best golf courses in New York, according to GOLF Magazine’s expert course raters appeared first on Golf.

The post Best golf courses in New York, according to GOLF Magazine’s expert course raters appeared first on Golf.

For every great course that made GOLF’s 2020-21 ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S., dozens of more must-plays were left on the outside looking in — including at least a handful in your home state. Some of these designs just missed out on a Top 100 nomination, others finished deeper down the ranking, but all are worthy of your time. To shed light on the best courses in every state, we broke out the full results of our Top 100 Courses polling into state-by-state lists. Here’s a closer look at New York.

New York golf by the numbers:

Number of courses and U.S. rank: 832 (5)*
Number of golfers per capita rank: 23*
Average public-course greens fees: $$ out of $$$*
Average daily temp and rank: 45.4 (37)
Annual precipitation and rank: 41.8 in. (25)

*Source: National Golf Foundation

Best New York golf courses (2020/2021)

1. Shinnecock Hills (Southampton) [1, 2]

Venue for five U.S. Opens since 1986, most recently in 2018, this is William Flynn’s undisputed design masterpiece. Apart from being handed a magnificent piece of land upon which to work, Flynn was given something else nearly as valuable: time. Work commenced in 1928 and the course didn’t open until 1931. True, the Great Depression commenced during construction but the grace with which the holes flow across the property is a tribute to the hands-on, slow-build process.

2. National Golf Links of America (Southampton) [1, 2]

NGLA, or “National,” as it’s known, brought Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald together for the first time and what they created still stands as a marvel of strategic design. Some of its template holes, including the Alps 3rd, the Redan 4th, the Short 6th and the Leven 17th, are arguably superior to their namesake holes in the United Kingdom that Macdonald copied. Legendary golf writer Bernard Darwin summed it up nicely when he opined, “The National Links is a truly great course; even as I write I feel my allegiance to Westward Ho!, to Hoylake, to St. Andrews tottering to its fall.”

3. Fishers Island (Fishers Island) [1, 2]

Accessible by ferry or air, this exclusive retreat off the Connecticut coast is populated by the oldest of the Old Money crowd, many of whom still enjoy hoofing it. Why wouldn’t they, given the classic Seth Raynor design that tracks along the island’s northeast edge, the delightful tumbling terrain and the spectacular views of Long Island Sound. Are the 3rd, 4th and 5th holes as intoxicating as any three consecutive holes on this list? It’s a question worth considering.

4. Friar’s Head (Riverhead) [1, 2]

Tree-dotted dunes, open meadows and bluff-top views of Long Island Sound highlight play at this 2003 Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw design. Phil Mickelson opined that it is his favorite modern course. Holes such as the par-5 14th call to mind an East Coast version of Cypress Point. Constant refinements, no matter how small, have helped this course continually power up the rankings. From a presentation perspective, few courses are as dialed-in.

5. Winged Foot – West (Mamaroneck) [1, 2]

Hale Irwin survived the 1974 “Massacre at Winged Foot” U.S. Open to win at seven over par. Geoff Ogilvy didn’t fare much better in 2006, when his five-over total took home the trophy. Mark Brooks, 1996 PGA champion, summed up this Golden Age A.W. Tillinghast design this way: “There are probably six hard holes, six really hard holes and six impossible holes.” Frighteningly contoured, pear-shaped greens, cavernous bunkers and a procession of rugged par-4s define the trouble here. On a “difficulty” scale of 1 to 10, Jack Nicklaus once rated the West course a 12. That said, Gil Hanse’s recent, stunning expansion of all the green pads has brought back an element of creativity with which few parkland courses can contend, all of which was on display at the 2020 U.S. Open won by Bryson DeChambeau.

6. Garden City (Garden City) [1, 2]

Devereux Emmet and Walter Travis share credit for this old-school design that plays across Hempstead Plain on Long Island. The water is 10 miles both north and south, so sea breezes are a frequent companion. Laurie Auchterlonie won the 1902 U.S. Open here with record scores, owing to the debut of the longer, more durable Haskell ball. Garden City’s tilted greens, like the 10th and 15th, are lay-of-the-land architecture at its highest form.

7. Maidstone (East Hampton) [1, 2]

Recently restored by Coore & Crenshaw, Maidstone’s glorious edge-of-the-Atlantic location is once again fully evident. Maintaining coastal dunes is an art form: expose too much sand and it blows away; cover it up and you lose a sense of place. Maidstone has struck the perfect balance. Adding to the pleasure of its romantic location is an exceptional set of Willie and John Park greens, many of which feature dramatic false fronts. A dream course to play on a regular basis.

8. Bethpage – Black (Farmingdale) [1, 2, P]

The Black intimidates golfers with a sign at the 1st tee that recommends the course “only for highly skilled golfers.” Among the highly skilled? Tiger Woods, who won the 2002 “People’s Open,” as that U.S. Open came to be known. Woods was the only golfer to break par for 72 holes, owing to rugged, uphill par-4s, massive bunkers and the wrist-fracturing rough found on this Rees Jones-restored A.W. Tillinghast layout. The Black is one of the great routings, highlighted by the masterful way Tillinghast placed the fairways and greens from the 2nd hole in a valley all the way through the dogleg left 9th. The par-5 4th and its iconic cross-bunkering is a world-beater.

Book a tee time at Bethpage Black.

9. Sleepy Hollow (Briarcliff Manor) [1, 2]

This Westchester County course has always enjoyed a spectacular component to it, courtesy of breathtaking views of the Hudson River. What it lacked was playing interest from 50 yards and in to its greens. That changed in 2016 when Gil Hanse embarked on a two-year project to imbue the greens with a C.B. Macdonald flair that, well, even Macdonald would appreciate.

10. Quaker Ridge (Scarsdale) [1, 2]

This quiet club across the street from Winged Foot has counted Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye as admirers. Its outstanding cluster of gently rolling par-4s, notably the 6th and the 11th, provided a terrific canvas for amateurs such as Justin Rose and Jason Gore in the 1997 Walker Cup. Dating to 1916, the course was made over by A.W. Tillinghast in 1926 and Gil Hanse’s restoration this past decade has the course at peak. The par-3 9th is one of the hidden gem one-shotters in the Northeast, though it may take a few rounds to figure out why.

11. Oak Hill – East (Rochester) [1]

This classic parkland layout has hosted multiple majors and a Ryder Cup. A recent renovation made the suburban Rochester marvel even better, bringing it back in line with Donald Ross’s original design. Architect Andrew Green overhauled the 5th, 6th and 15th holes, cut back trees and re-worked greens throughout the course. The new drainage system allows for faster putting surfaces — expect higher scores (and better sightlines) at the 2023 PGA Championship.

12. Winged Foot – East (Mamaroneck) [1]

Neither as long nor as tough as its illustrious West sibling, the East enjoys its own devoted fanbase for its variety and the encouraging manner in which ground game options are now presented. Great attention has been paid to the mow lines, with short tight fairway grass on the high side of the entrance to all the greens. The dirty secret at Winged Foot is that more than a few consider the 13th and 17th as the best par-3s on the property, an outlandish claim until you play them.

13. Piping Rock (Locust Valley) [1]

Fresh off his work at National Golf Links of America, C.B. Macdonald started adding to his repertoire of template designs at this golf-meets-Gatsby Long Island club. The Biarritz and Knoll holes made their debut here, for instance. Among architecture buffs, Piping Rock’s Knoll 13th with its raised green that falls off starkly on all sides remains its finest iteration. The front nine wraps around a former polo field while the back heads into the hillier portion of the property. The course is also home to one of Macdonald’s finest par 5s, the 6th, which features a bedeviling back plateau ringed by trouble.

14. The Creek (Locust Valley) [1]

An epic combination of parkland and seaside golf, this McDonald-Raynor classic serves up a greatest hits of the duo’s favorite design elements. After a solid but sedate tree-lined opening five holes, the course explodes into glory at the spectacular 6th, which plays into a famous reverse Redan green. From there, players hit down to Long Island Sound. Hole Nos. 10 through 14 wind through sand and water, an unforgettable trip to the beach highlighted by a massive island Biarritz green.

15. Glens Falls (Glens Falls) [1]

With so much content and information available in 2020, stumbling across a “hidden gem” has become progressively more difficult. Yet, this Ross course 30 minutes north of Saratoga Springs was off the radar as recently as five years ago. Situated between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains, the short par-4 5th with its “top hat” green through the par-3 9th to a Volcano green complex are as good a series of Ross holes as you’ll find. The excitement doesn’t let up with the course finishing with its penultimate hole across hilly land to a green in a saddle and a par-3 finisher played across the edge of a lake.

16. Sebonack (Southampton) [1]

In a pairing of unique talents, Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus teamed up to build this high-end, private course in one of the world’s most hallowed golf zip codes, next door to National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills. The design reflects each man’s influence, including boldly contoured greens and rough-cut sandy hazards. While there’s no ignoring the prime locale, which offers several sweeping views of Great Peconic Bay, the elegance of holes like the uphill par-5 9th underscore the fact that Sebonack’s artistry could hold up anywhere.

17. Whippoorwill (Armonk)

18. St. George’s (Setauket)

19. Atlantic (Bridgehampton)

20. Wykagyl (New Rochelle)

21. Fenway (Scarsdale)

22. Oak Hill – West (Rochester)

23. Westchester – West (Westchester)

24. Monroe Golf Club (Monroe)

25. Hudson National (Croton-On-Hudson)

26. Century (Harrison)

27. Westhampton (Westhampton Beach)

28. Southampton (Southampton)

29. The Bridge (Bridgehampton)

30. Engineers (Glen Head)

SYMBOL GUIDE

1 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the U.S.
2 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the World
3 = GOLF Top 100 Resort
P = Resort/public golf course

Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.

Course spotlight: Atlantic (Bridgehampton), ranked No. 19 in New York. In one of the toughest markets in the world, Rees Jones set out to create an artificial golf course in a potato field. How many routings did the course have in the first few years? Bobby Ranum, the recently retired superintendent, could be the best I have ever seen. Bobby, along with the head pro and Rees, slowly evolved Atlantic over time, removing artificial mounding and adding central hazards that greatly increased strategy. Atlantic can now hold its head high in that very high-rent neighborhood. — GOLF Top 100 Course Rater

How we rank America’s best golf courses

For the newly released 2020-21 U.S. list, each panelist was provided a list of 489 courses. Beside that list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the country, they ticked that box. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10 in the U.S., they checked that box, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on.

Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot (we had fewer than a handful of such additions in the U.S. vote).

Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it invariably produces results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.

For much more on how we rate courses, click or tap here.

Meet our course raters

We empower and hold accountable a group of 97 well-traveled — and well-connected — golfers/aficionados, each capable of expressing their own sense of design excellence at the highest level. The group is seasoned and experienced — we look for raters who know what’s out there, what’s changing and what’s coming down the pike. And from judging posts across four continents, our panelists are positioned to place courses from different regions around the globe into proper context, one of the main reasons GOLF’s Top 100 Courses rankings are the most esteemed in the game.

Other ranking outlets employ thousands of raters. Our less-is-more approach creates a more meaningful and thoughtful list. Think about it: When you plan a golf trip, do you call every golfer you know for their take? No. You contact a handful of people whose opinions you value most.

Meet our full crew of panelists here.

The post Best golf courses in New York, according to GOLF Magazine’s expert course raters appeared first on Golf.

The post 6 U.S. Open host courses you can play (and how much they cost) appeared first on Golf.

The post 6 U.S. Open host courses you can play (and how much they cost) appeared first on Golf.

Many golf fans will salivate at visuals of the rustic, brutally tough, classic course that is Winged Foot this week. The U.S. Open host course is an A.W. Tillinghast design that is one of two Top 100 courses on property.

Unfortunately for you, you probably will never play it. 

The private club is for members, their guests and once in awhile the greatest players in the world. But don’t fret. You can play a number of U.S. Open host courses all over the country, and generally the price isn’t back-breaking. Below is a list of U.S. Open courses and their corresponding greens fees.

Priciest (but maybe the best)

Pebble Beach — $575

Often considered the greatest meeting between land and sea, Pebble is about as good as American public golf gets. And it is often on display via the U.S. Open. Pebble hosted the 2019 Open, where Gary Woodland triumphed, the 2010 Open, where Graeme McDowell won, the 2000 Open, where Tiger Woods made history, and countless others. It’ll cost you a pretty penny to play, but even before you finish the front nine you’ll have worked through one of the greatest stretches of golf holes on the planet. Worth it? Probably.

Less expensive (and maybe just as great)

Pinehurst No. 2 — $305-495

The new home-away-from-home for the USGA, Pinehurst has legitimized its claim as the Home of American Golf. And it has plenty of right to do so. A trip to Pinehurst should be more than just one round — there are nine courses on property — but would be underwhelming without playing the crown jewel No. 2. It will test your short game about as much as it tests your pocket book, but once again, it’s totally worth it. And you’ll probably never lose a golf ball.

Even less, still really good

Chambers Bay — $135-200 (WA resident); $190-275 (non-resident)

The 2015 U.S. Open host had an inauspicious debut on the national scene, but with renewed greens, the reputation of Chambers is sure to continue rising. Play it as the sun sets and you won’t soon forget it. Better yet, you can do it for around $200, but never more than $275. In other words, play it twice for the same price as Pebble once. Not a bad deal!

Erin Hills — $210-320

Brooks Koepka may have made Erin Hills look tiny when he bombed his way to the 2017 U.S. Open, but rest assured this course is a brute. It is walking only and if you find the fescue you’ll have a wail of a day. But are you not up for the challenge? Located just north of Milwaukee, Erin Hills is a must-visit on any Wisconsin golf excursion, whether it starts or ends there. 

The beloved munis (and best deals!)

Bethpage Black — $65-75 (NY resident); $130-150 (non-resident)

This Long Island monster is there for the taking. It just helps to have a New York state resident with you. NY residents have early tee time booking preference, as well as half-priced rounds compared to out-of-state residents. Nonetheless, the most you’ll have to cough up for a round on the Black course is $150 for a non-resident playing on the weekend. You can do A LOT worse for that price. 

Torrey Pines — $63-78 (SD resident); $202-252 (non-resident)

Similar to Bethpage, it’s helpful to have a San Diego resident in your foursome, as they’ll get preference in booking tee times early. This annual PGA Tour track has become world famous and will host the 2021 U.S. Open, so play it now while you still can. It employs multiple holes that stretch out to the cliffy coastline just north of San Diego. Like Chambers Bay, play it at sunset and you’ll remember that round for a long time.

The post 6 U.S. Open host courses you can play (and how much they cost) appeared first on Golf.