Fuhgeddaboudit! Actually, don’t. Golf in New York City has everything— good, bad, and uddahwise. And it’s all public. ’Natch.
I’m going to go out on a limb: New York City is the worst big city in America to be a public golfer.
Six-hour rounds, green speeds seven, bunkers that either have more sand than the Sahara or are as firm as Broadway, soggy and barren fairways—sometimes on the same hole—and golfers everywhere!
Then there’s the travel. If you don’t own a car, you’re looking at a multi-modal pilgrimage: subways, a bus or two, maybe a taxi from the last stop. Countless times I’ve heard the telltale click-clack of irons echoing between the buildings at 5 am, that distinct steel-on-steel rattle you can hear from a block away. And you know exactly what it means: Someone’s about to schlep their clubs across three boroughs en route to a tee time that was booked against all odds 10 days ago at 12:01 am all while battling the bots.
You think to yourself, “that poor sap.” But deep down, you couldn’t be more jealous.
THE LANDSCAPE
Spread out over four of the five boroughs, New York City has 15 municipally owned golf courses. Five in the Bronx, five in Queens, two in Brooklyn, and three in Staten Island. All are operated by outside concessions that bid for the right to manage the properties for the New York City Parks Department.
A quick perusal of the Parks Department golf page shows one facility that has been closed for more than six years, a link to a soup shop in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a course description that includes helpful gems like “The somewhat hilly course contains both straight and open fairways” and “Par ranges from 3 to 5 strokes.”
So, let’s all be happy that City Hall is not actually running our courses.
THE OG
Public golf—not just in New York City, but in this entire country—started in the Bronx.
Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course, known affectionately as “Vanny,” is the first public golf course in the United States. It opened in 1895, just one year after the USGA was founded. The idea was radical at the time: Golf, a game associated with “gentlemen,” country estates, and private clubs, was suddenly made available to the public. If you could afford it.
In 1900, a single golf ball cost the equivalent of about $15 in 2025 dollars. That same year, the city implemented a pay structure for teachers: $900 for men, $600 for women. Do the math. What percent of your annual salary today equates to one Pro V1?
Also worth noting, New York City wasn’t consolidated until 1898, so, technically, the Bronx alone is the father of public golf in America. Add that to the borough’s already impressive résumé: Al Pacino, Stanley Kubrick, Jake LaMotta, Mariano and the Yanks, Grandmaster Flash, and, of course, Cardi B. Show some respect.
As for Vanny today? It’s scruffy and perpetually overcrowded.
When Golf NYC took over the concession in the mid-2000s, tee times were spaced just seven minutes apart. You could find six groups alone on the 2nd hole. But the course has an unequaled charm—and, in true Bronx fashion, an incredible hot dog at the turn.
Fact: Babe Ruth played Van Cortlandt. He even kept a locker in the historic Lake House clubhouse, which remains in use.
You can walk through the same doors, change your shoes in the same locker room, and try to imagine the Sultan of Swat shaking off a hangover before teeing it up in front of a Bronx crowd.
If you don’t fall in love with “The People’s Country Club,” you might not have a heart.
GOTHAM CC
If Van Cortlandt is the People’s Country Club, the real country club of Gotham lives underneath the Whitestone Bridge. Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.
I’ll be honest. I went to Bally’s with low expectations and even lower hopes that I’d like the place. I grew up on a modest Connecticut muni where junior golf cost $100—for the year! Munis are in my DNA. So, the idea of a Jack Nicklaus-designed city course, built for millions and charging eye-watering fees, felt like an insult to everything I love about golf.
Maybe it’s age, grace, or compromise, but it’s really effin’ good.
Ferry Point was formerly operated by Trump Golf. After January 6th, Mayor Bill de Blasio moved to sever all city contracts with the Trump Organization, including Ferry Point. After legal wrangling, Bally’s took over. For many New Yorkers, the giant TRUMP LINKS in block letters visible from the bridge had become a dealbreaker.
Now, the letters are gone and the course has never been busier.
On any given day, you’ll find the city’s elite battling the wind on a layout that is actually tough and actually good. The greens are fast. The fairways are clean. And the fescue frames every hole like a windswept postcard. Ferry Point is the closest thing NYC has to the kind of spectacular golf you’ll find farther east out on Long Island.
THE REST OF THE BRONX
Not to be left out of the Bronx conversation are Mosholu, Pelham, and Split Rock.
Mosholu is a scrappy 9-holer tucked into the northern edge of the borough. What makes it special—beyond its unpretentious vibe—is that it’s home to the First Tee of Metropolitan New York. Also, Mosholu’s nine-acre driving range sits directly atop the Croton Water Filtration Plant, a $3 billion underground facility that filters a third of the city’s drinking water. At completion, the range was the largest contiguous green roof in North America.
Then there’s Pelham and Split Rock, twin sisters inside Pelham Bay Park, the largest park in NYC. Both courses were shaped by John Van Kleek during the Great Depression under Robert Moses’s WPA initiative. They’re the city’s purest examples of Golden Age architecture—an era when public golf came with vision, scale, and intention.
BROOKLYN
I found myself grouped with three complete strangers: an NYPD cop, an affordable housing expert, and a white-collar criminal defense attorney all playing Marine Park in a No Laying Up Roost event in late June. Talk about a foursome that doesn’t exist but on a public course.
Our local Roost is called RACDGNY—the Royal and Ancient Club of Dishonorable Golfers NY. With over 250 active members, RACDGNY plays many of its games on the NYC munis. And The Shepherd’s Open at Marine Park? That’s their major.
Marine Park sits on Jamaica Bay, across from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s a windy Robert Trent Jones Sr. design built fittingly on a former land fill. You’ve heard of old cars being buried underneath the city munis? This site fits the bill. When I first started playing there in 1999, I’d find old shoes, nails, and debris coming up out of the bunkers. One cold winter day, I was actually shot at off the back of the 13th green. No joke.
In 2009, the Giordano family took over the concession, and after years of neglect, Marine Park finally got the attention it deserved. What followed wasn’t just a new practice facility, but a full-course renovation that brought to life RTJ’s original master plan. From the back tees, Marine Park now plays as a legit championship test across a rugged, no-frills links.
If Marine Park is Brooklyn’s big-league ballpark, then Dyker Beach is its sandlot. Tucked under the Verrazzano Bridge, Dyker has long been the starting point for generations of golfers. When Earl Woods was stationed at Fort Hamilton in 1970, he learned the game here. ’Nuff said.
QUEENS
To understand golf in Queens, start with Bob Smith. He began shagging balls at Forest Park Golf Course when he was 11—61 years ago. He’d sit under a tree near the 15th hole, collecting balls during weekend lessons and earning a dollar every half hour. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was golf. And it was the start of a lifetime.
Smith has managed Forest Park since 1988, even before Golf NYC, its current custodian, was founded. He’s seen clubs come and go, but the steady stream of golfers hasn’t changed. Most now come from Manhattan and Williamsburg, bringing their own foursomes.
If you haven’t played Forest, here’s the deal: it’s hilly, it’s beyond tight, and overtaken with trees older than most players. But the land has movement. I’ve always thought it had some of the most potential of any city muni. And if you get out early—like 5:09 am early—you’ll find it in decent shape and already buzzing with golfers.
When I walked into the clubhouse, I passed the clipboard holding starter.
“You got a tee time?” he asked while blowing smoke directly in my face.
“Not today,” I said.
“Good,” he replied.
I get it. When you’re running a course with over 50,000 rounds a year and sunrise tee times, sometimes you’re just hoping the next person through the door doesn’t need anything from you.
AND MORE QUEENS
If you’ve never played Flushing Meadows Pitch & Putt, you’re missing a rite of passage. Directly under the LaGuardia flightpath, it’s a lit-up, par-3 playground open until 1 am in the summer. Show up with a wedge and a putter and just loop around under the lights. If you’re in a funk, it’s the type of place that will remind you why you love this stupid game. It’s the kind of golf experience that doesn’t exist anywhere else—and probably couldn’t.
Kissena and Douglaston both remind me of the “third tier” UK courses, places like Kilspindie or Luffness. They’re small, a little weird, and you’d never plan your golf trip around them. But skip them and you miss something essential.
As for Clearview, let’s just say that “Par ranges from 3 to 5 strokes.” But it’s golf. Bring three friends and you’ll have a blast.
WHERE THE PLAYERS PLAY
If you’re a stick—or an aspiring one—get yourself to Staten Island, the strange island that gave us Pete Davidson, Gene Simmons, and the late “Franky Boy” Cali.
Staten Island has three munis: La Tourette, Silver Lake, and South Shore. South Shore is a solid track, but La Tourette and Silver Lake are where the players play and where NYC club golf still burns strong. The Swampies play Thursdays. The Morning Group, Mondays. The Esquires, Saturdays. The La Tourette Club, Sundays. The Silvettes, Saturdays. And The Vagabonds? Well, they roam.
But if you want to find the game in all of New York City—the real game—it happens on Sunday mornings at Silver Lake.
The Silver Lake Club has been producing great players since the 1950s. Lee Trevino once called their Sunday game “the best you can find.”
And, believe it or not, Staten Island has produced multiple PGA Tour players and one USGA Executive Director—the late Frank Hannigan.
So, what makes this unlikely corner of the city a hotbed of elite golfers?
“The vision has always been to perpetuate camaraderie, cohesiveness, and competition—while always bringing the youth along,” says accomplished Staten Islander Rodney Stilwell, who was one of those kids 50 years ago.
On Saturdays, the first tee at La Tourette runs like a Swiss clock under the watchful eye of starter Jimmy Bones. It’s where I met the McDermott Group, rounded out a fifth foursome, and minutes later found myself playing a game I’d never heard of: Bizz Buzz Bang. One point each for a fairway, green, or a two-putt.
HOME
Sure, we all chase birdies and lose our minds over missed three-footers. But when the dust settles and you’re riding the subway home at 9 pm with sore feet and a half-eaten egg sandwich in your bag, what you remember isn’t the score. It’s the people.
New York City golf is strong. Maybe stronger than ever. It’s not perfect. It never has been. But it’s real. It’s alive. And it’s holding the line for thousands across the city who need it.
These aren’t just green spaces. They’re community spaces. They offer discipline, joy, and fresh air to kids without backyards. They connect cab drivers with hedge funders, mothers with sons, uncles with goddaughters. They anchor clubs, cultures, and characters you won’t find anywhere else.
Mock our slow rounds, beat-up bunkers, and 5:09 am tee times all you want. We’ll still be out there grinding, laughing, gambling, and returning home with just enough reason to do it all over again next weekend.
