The best golf courses in New York? Where do we start? As well as a myriad other attractions, the Empire State also happens to have more world-class tracks than any other city on the planet.
In fact, Long Island alone is packed with more stellar names than you find in the whole of almost any country in the world.
You need the ear of a member to play all but one of our elite 10, but that doesn’t stop us salivating at the prospect…
Best golf courses in New York: Shinnecock Hills
Founded in 1891, this multiple US Open host has a pedigree few in the States can match.
Initially laid out as a 12-hole course by Willie Davis, it was expanded to 18 in 1895 and has since been shaped by ‘The godfather of American golf’ Charles B Macdonald, as well as Coore-Crenshaw and William S Flynn, but remains much as it was when the latter architect renovated the links in 1931.
The most notable change since those days saw many of the trees that had once framed some holes taken out while Coore-Crenshaw tweaked some greens before the 2018 US Open.
Otherwise, you can expect the same undulating, firm fairways and charming green complexes as it has had for nearly 100 years.
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Best golf courses in New York: National Golf Links of America
It kind of has you at the name, doesn’t it?
If it is the ‘National Golf Links of America’ it is either really good, or really deluded. It is definitely the former.
‘The National’ was founded in 1908 and CB Macdonald was again involved, assisted by the lower profile but nonetheless masterful Seth Raynor.
Anglophile Macdonald incorporated famous holes he had seen from his tours around Britain while a student at St Andrews and sure enough the Road Hole and Eden from the Old Course, Sahara from Sandwich, Bottle from Sunningdale, Alps from Prestwick and Redan from North Berwick are in evidence at NGLA.
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It’s one occasion when mimicry actually works, and was a high-class host of the Walker Cup in 2013.
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Best golf courses in New York: Fishers Island
Found on an island at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, it is know locally as ’The Big Club’.
Sitting alongside the Atlantic Ocean and the Sound, it enjoys one of the most spectacular settings in America.
Another to be shaped by Raynor, it opened in 1926 and this classic seaside course features penal bunkers, subtle greens and two Redan greens.
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Best golf courses in New York: Friar’s Head
The first modern course to make our list and also different from the other classic Long Island venues in that it journeys through meadowland and farmland as well as dunes.
This Coore-Crenshaw design can feel like three courses in one but enjoys a consistently pleasing ambiance and is bursting with memorability.
Friar’s Head has made a big impact on US rankings list since opening in 2002 as a result of its variety – boasting short and long par 3s, drivable 4s and risk-reward 5s.
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Best golf courses in New York: Sebonack
A second modern course follows our first, this time an on-the-face-of-it unlikely collaboration between Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus.
The professional designer and the player-turned-architect usually have very different styles but have come together at this neighbour to NGLA to produce a modern masterpiece.
The water’s edge holes are terrific, with stirring views of Great Peconic Bay and Cold Spring Pond from the rolling fairways.
Around the greens of this parkland-seaside hybrid, Doak’s familiar small, funky, fast surfaces are there to test you.
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Best golf courses in New York: Oak Hill (East)
A Donald Ross design from 1925 that was renovated by the Fazios but is now aiming to return more towards what the great Scottish architect intended.
It is a classic parkland and its major-hosting pedigree demonstrates it is plenty tough enough – via fairways narrowed by trees, modern-day length and water hazards – to test even the strongest players.
Expect thick rough, mature trees, regular elevation changes and immaculate conditioning.
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Best golf courses in New York: Bethpage State Park (Black)
The only public course in our list is part of a public golf mecca of five 18-hole courses at the club.
The Black is the best known, not only because it is the host of the 2019 PGA Championship, the 2002 and 2009 US Opens, and the Ryder Cup in 2024, but also because it is one of the world’s most feared courses.
Many of you will have seen the sign (everyone who plays here obviously takes a picture next to it) warning how hard it is… and it indeed is acutely difficult.
This 1936 AW Tillinghast design – albeit it with significant input from Joe Burbeck – has narrow fairways, penal rough, huge bunkers and plateau greens. Enjoy!
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Best golf courses in New York: Maidstone
Minimalist in every sense – from the club’s website to a seaside course that has been taken back to basics by Coore-Crenshaw.
Founded in 1891, it gives us a new architect in the shape of the well-travelled Willie Park.
The Scot incorporated exactly the sort of slopes, ridges and false fronts so common in his homeland here and when she was looking a little tired, Coore-Crenshaw were hired to offer a makeover.
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They introduced new bunkering but also created sandy waste areas by removing bushes and turf to produce a vintage look.
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Best golf courses in New York: Quaker Ridge
Quaker Ridge was designed in 1918 by Tillinghast out of the previous nine-hole Metropolitan nine-holer.
Tillinghast and Robert Trent Jones made modest alterations before Gil Hanse conducted a more thorough review this Millennium, taking out trees and returning the greens to their original form.
A classic old school parkland with stand-out two-shotters, Masters champion-turned-architect Ben Crenshaw said: “It is so much of a treat to play. There is such a beautiful mix of holes at Quaker Ridge; it is truly a Tillinghast gem.”
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Best golf courses in New York: Garden City
Opened in 1917, it was designed by multiple US Amateur champion Walter Travis, who was also the first American to win our Amateur.
It sits on sandy soil but isn’t next to water, which has led to it being compared to our heathlands.
It certainly has an old school feel, with small greens and a subtle design. It finishes with a par 3.
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Best golf courses in New York: Winged Foot (West)
Tillinghast again. AWT designed both the East and West at this Mamaroneck club, which is close to Quaker Ridge geographically
Founded in 1921, the West hosts the championships but it is the East that really charms. Hilariously, the East is used as a parking lot during major championships held on its sister.
More playable, with more variety and a lot more nuance than its ‘championship’ sibling, Hanse has been praised for a sympathetic renovation of a course with outstanding short holes.
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