Westchester County bills itself as the home to golf in America, dating to the so-called Apple Tree Gang who gathered in Yonkers in 1888 to try out a newfangled set of Scottish sticks. They planted a seed the likes of which Johnny Appleseed could only dream. Less blessed duffers putter around Las Vegas and Miami; golf”™s history and disposition are rooted in this region”™s dales and ridges of bluegrass and white oak. And the public is invited. There is even a public Irish-style public links course in Dutchess County.
Those same Yonkers hills that attracted the first golfers (who would go on to found St. Andrew”™s, the nation”™s oldest golf club) remain very popular with golfers. The Sprain Lake Golf Course south of Jackson Avenue witnessed 51,000 rounds last year and is already bustling this year. The lake-hugging course is between the north- and southbound lanes of the Sprain Brook Parkway, likely constituting the world”™s most beautiful (and widest) median strip.
“We had 200 golfers opening day, March 18,” said starter Mario Iannelli, who has been at Sprain Lake since 1989. That number reached 226 Sunday, March 22.
“We treat our customers like it”™s their own golf club,” said Sprain Lake PGA pro Tom Avezzano. “On a business level, the golfers are always customers. We offer a lot of customer service and our customers love coming here.”
Besides Sprain Lake, Westchester”™s public courses are Saxon Woods in Scarsdale, Mohansic in Yorktown Heights, Maple Moor in White Plains, Hudson Hills in Ossining and Dunwoodie in Yonkers. Tee times and reservations for all the courses are available at (914) 995-GOLF or at westchestergov.com/parks/golf. Greens fees run from $18 (for juniors and seniors with a county parks pass during the week) to $39 for nonresident-pass holders on weekends and holidays.
On a good day at the D. Fairchild Wheeler Golf Course in Fairfield, Conn. ”“ actually two courses and 36 holes ”“ 400 golfers will play 18.
“They run the gamut, top executives to high school,” said course operations manager Alex Head of the clientele. He has been there seven years.
The Wheeler Black Course dates to 1932 and the Red Course, a Works Progress Administration effort, was built in 1934. Both public courses are owned by the city of Bridgeport and take advantage of the glacier-scoured southern Connecticut landscape ”“ the same as in Westchester County ”“ that contributes hugely to the sports regional appeal. “The courses were perhaps neglected in the 1990s, but now we”™re very excited about all the improvements,” said Head. Remedies include a new irrigation system for the entire 36-hole acreage, completed in the last two years, which “really helped with the rough and the fairways”; remade cart paths that were completed last year; and all new bunkers on the Black Course, also completed last year.
Fairfield County boasts 12 public and semi-public (like the Westport Longshore Golf Club) golf facilities, including the E. Gaynor Brennan, H. Smith Richardson, Ridgefield, Sunset Hill, Whitney Farms, Griffith E. Harris, Oak Hills Park, Richter Park, Tashua Hills and Sterling Farms venues.
For the cost of a couple of BLTs at a private course”™s halfway hut ”“ $20 for a resident who wants to walk; $35 with a cart ”“ golfers can enjoy what county resident and author John Feinstein termed “a good walk spoiled” at Wheeler. The Black and Red courses”™ highest rates are for out-of-towners: $39 to walk and $54 to use a cart.
D. Fairchild Wheeler began selling seasonal passes this month. Last year”™s passes will expire May 1. Head said a pass makes sense if a golfer plans to play more than 35 rounds in a year. Assisting in that goal, the courses only close for weather; if it”™s a nice day in January or February, the tees await. (The courses all have Web sites for site-specific information, with, for example, the Griffith E. Harris site part of the larger town of Greenwich site.)Â
Forget those golf tips about keeping your elbow stiff and your weight forward, the real tip is the Rondout Golf Club in Ulster County has tee times aplenty.
Given the economic climate and membership fees for private clubs running into tens of thousands of dollars, Rondout and its public kin ”“ where rounds cost in the tens of dollars ”“ could be in the right place at the right time.
The 40-year-old course in Accord (it went to 18 holes in 1990) saw 18,000 rounds last year, 7,000 fewer than the club pro would like to see.
“We”™re about 20 minutes from everything, which is a good thing because we have a scenic course without houses on it and 360-degrees of mountains around the Shawangunk Valley, but we”™re a little off the beaten path for people to get here,” said 19-year Rondout pro John DeForest. “With no big population center near us, we tend to draw from Middletown, Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, which means 20 minutes to an hour to reach us. We like to say it”™s worth the trip.”
He said the course”™s most-played years were 1999 and 2000 when rounds peaked at about 24,000. “We have a lot of room and we”™re very affordable,” DeForest said. “The course is very good ”“ a very well-conditioned public course with readily available tee times.” (The Web site is rondoutgolfclub.com.)
Rondout is one of 20 golf venues in and near Ulster County, including what DeForest referred to as “the big ones in the area” ”“ Town of Wallkill Golf Club (in Middletown, Orange County) and Highland”™s Apple Greens Golf Club (complete with a monster 610-yard par 5 and an island-green par 3) ”“ that had “mega-opening weekends” last month. Rondout is slower to open ”“ “just getting going now” ”“ but DeForest said the annual pass program for regular rounds “is going pretty well so far.”
Besides the Wallkill Golf Club, Orange”™s public courses include Scenic Farms, Green Ridge, Stony Ford, Hickory Hill and Winding Hills golf clubs.
Putnam County has three public courses: Garrison Golf Club, Putnam National Golf club, and the semipublic (Monday-Friday) Highlands Golf Club.
Dutchess County offers 16 public golf facilities, including a pair designed by noted golf architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. and an Irish links-style course, The Links at Union Vale at 153 N. Parliman Road. The Harlem Valley Golf Course in Wingdale is semipublic and looks to remain open through whatever remake the closed state mental hospital across Route 22 endures.
Rockland”™s courses include two at the Blue Hill Golf Club in Pearl River; the Phillip J. Rotella Municipal Course in Thiells; another two at Rockland Lake State Park Golf Club in Congers (the Executive and Championship courses); and Spook Rock Golf Club in Suffern. Another two courses ”“ Broadacres Golf Club in Orangeburg and New York Country Club in New Hempstead ”“ are semipublic.
