JOIN NOW
Advertisement
JOIN NOW

More

The best public golf courses on Long Island, ranked by Long Islanders

montauk-downs-thirteengreen

Montauk Downs is one of the best value courses in a region with the highest initiation fees and ultra private clubs.

LC Lambrecht

By Stephen Hennessey
June 18, 2026
Save for later

Long Island should be on the bucket list for every golfer. Eight courses rank inside our most recent ranking of America's 100 Greatest Courses—making the approximately 118-mile-wide stretch of land outside Manhattan one of the most golf-rich destinations on earth. 

Of course, the problem for most golfers: All those courses, aside from Bethpage Black, are private. In fact, they're some of the most exclusive private clubs in the world. We're here to help: We've enlisted the help of our Long Island residents on staff, plus our course-ranking panelists who live out on the island, to see where they enjoy playing their golf on Long Island.

The list starts with Bethpage Black, but the entire Bethpage State Park facility, one of the top muncipal operations in the United States, is worth enjoying. Montauk Downs, all the way out in the Hamptons, also makes our Best in State list. The others might be courses you haven't heard of—but take it from our Long Islanders—they're worth playing if you can't get on one of your bucket-listers.

RELATED: What's with this ultra-private nine-hole course by Shinnecock? A moderately entertaining Q&A

We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and expanded reviews. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher.

More from Golf Digest

Golf Digest Logo
The best golf courses on Long Island
false Public
Bethpage State Park: Black
Farmingdale, NY
4.6
43 Panelists
Sprawling Bethpage Black, designed in the mid-1930s to be “the public Pine Valley,” became the darling of the USGA in the early 2000s, when it brought the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens here. Then it became a darling of the PGA Tour as host of the 2011 and 2016 Barclays. Now, the PGA of America has embraced The Black, which hosted the 2019 PGA Championship (winner: Brooks Koepka) and the 2025 Ryder Cup (winner: the Europeans). Heady stuff for a layout that was once a scruffy state-park haunt where one needed to sleep in the parking lot in order to get a tee time. Now, you need fast fingers on the state park's website once tee times are available—as prime reservations at The Black are known for going in seconds.
View Course
false Public
Montauk Downs
Montauk, NY
3.6
6 Panelists
Situated about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean on the tip of Long Island, Montauk Downs is a challenging municipal course that New York residents can play for under $50. Given the proximity to the ocean, the wind is often strong and can make the course play vastly different from day to day.
View Course
false Public
Bethpage State Park: Red
Farmingdale, NY
4
6 Panelists
A.W. Tillinghast’s Red course opened in 1935—a year before the famed Black—and is considered by many, including us, to be Bethpage’s second-best layout. The challenge of the Red starts on the first tee, where the typical crowd gathered by the starter’s booth watches as golfers try to find the narrow fairway guarded by thick rough. Though the opening and closing stretch of holes are tree-lined, the routing shakes free at the par-4 eighth and breaks into a vast plain littered with fescue and bunkers. Here it emulates the same kind of rugged muscularity and wasp-waist bunkering the Black is known for, though with slightly more room to play off the tee and less dire consequence for missing shots. But in the Red you get the whiff of a major championship design and something far more profound than any run-of-the-mill "second best" golf course.
View Course

RELATED: The best A.W. Tillinghast golf courses, ranked

false Public
Eisenhower Park: Red
East Meadow, NY
3.3
1 Panelists
You’re aware of Bethpage Black’s importance as a public course hosting a major championship. But another New York City municipality hosted the PGA Championship 76 years before Bethpage did. Eisenhower Park’s Red Course, then part of the Salisbury Golf Club, was the site of Walter Hagen's 1926 PGA victory, his fourth of five PGA Championship victories. Eisenhower Park, now a 54-hole facility part of the Nassau County Park system, also hosted a senior tour event up until 2008. Designed by Devereux Emmet, one of the most strategically brilliant architects of his day, there are bones of his interesting bunker complexes and philosophies, though decades of lengthening and the loss of green size show just signs of the great design. A significant renovation would reveal a course thought at one time to be among the best championship layouts in New York—and perhaps bring tournament golf, though at 7,100 yards it’d be too short for the highest levels of the men’s game, back to another storied NYC public golf course.
View Course
false Public
Harbor Links
Port Washington, NY
3
1 Panelists
Built on a former sand mine by Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, Harbor Links is a links-style design that has unique features, including several split fairways and a large, rocky bluff. Conveniently located just west of New York City in Port Washington, Harbor Links is a quality public option in the metro area.
View Course
false Public
Willow Creek Golf and Country Club
Mount Sinai, NY
Built by Stephen Kay on former farmland where potatoes were grown, Willow Creek Golf and Country Club in Mount Sinai opened in 2005 as part of a real-estate development and remains a semi-private course. Articles at the time likened some of the qualities to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, showing the architecture de-jour of the time. Kay moved nearly 1.6 million cubic yards of excess material to lower the level of the course by 15 feet—and some of the features include a split fairway, water hazards, a circulating man-made creek, waterfalls and an island green on the signature 16th hole, somewhat reminiscent of Shadow Creek.
View Course
false Public
The Golf Club at Middle Bay
Oceanside, NY
3.3
1 Panelists
This former private club on the South Shore of Nassau County is as good of golf that you will get close to New York City. This course is always in fantastic shape and has a great routing with some signature holes right along the water as well as some more sheltered holes inland, and I think besides Bethpage Black has the fastest greens of any public course on Long Island. —Patrick Andrews, audience development analyst
View Course
false Public
Mill Pond Golf Course
Medford, NY
Built in 1999, Mill Pond is a faux-links layout built on 200 acres of rolling topography with built-up dunes and water hazards. It’s a great, modern test of golf that can get windy and difficult— one of the best for public golfers on Long Island.
View Course

More from Golf Digest

Golf Digest Logo
10 hidden gems near bucket-list golf courses
false Public
Pine Hills Golf & Country Club
Manorville, NY
Located in Manorville, Pine Hills offers a classic golf experience in Suffolk County with its routing weaving in and out of the Pine Barrens on the east end of Long Island. The course just went through a renovation over the offseason and offers a sleeker look with some tree removal and new manicured waste area bunkers that make it even more visually appealing to the player. As good of value you will get on the Island.
View Course
false Public
Rock Hill Golf & Country Club: Rock Hill
Manorville, NY

Also located in Manorville, Rock Hill offers a challenging test of golf on Long Island. The front and back nines are quite different, with the front 9 rolling through elevated terrain in the Pine Barrens of Suffolk County while the back nine drops down into a flat meadow area with some unique holes, eventually rising back up to the clubhouse on the 18th with a very challenging finisher. Home of Golf Digest's top teacher in New York, Michael Jacobs, Rock Hill is a fantastic track on Long Island.

View Course
false Public
Cherry Creek Golf Links
Riverhead, NY
2.5
2 Panelists

Home to one of the only legitimate par-6 holes in the Northeast (the finishing hole tips out at 644 yards and plays 572 yards from the 6,000-yard tees), Cherry Creek Golf Links is a hidden gem on the east end of Long Island. The course is very well maintained with reasonable greens fees—down the street from Friar’s Head. —Greg Chatzinoff, senior director, business development and partnerships

View Course
false Public
Crab Meadow Golf Course
Northport, NY
Located on the shores of Northport, Crab Meadow Golf Course offers a great balance of challenge and forgiveness for golfers of all abilities. In addition to its well-conditioned course, Crab Meadow features practice facilities, an on-property restaurant, and scenic views of the Long Island Sound—with many holes situated right on the marsh or the water. A single can walk for just $37 and their nine-hole twilight deals are perfect for a quick nine after work or school. —Kevin Gelabert, social media coordinator
View Course

More from Golf Digest

Golf Digest Logo
America's 100 Greatest Public Courses

Explore our brand-new course reviews experience with individual course pages for bonus photography, drone footage and expanded reviews of top international courses and all 17,000-plus courses in the United States. Post your own ratings for courses you’ve played … and tell us where it should be ranked.

Share story

Trending Now