Quick Facts:
- America's Oldest Public Golf Course
- 1 Train to 242nd St walk through the park, under the bridge and to your left for the clubhouse
- Overall Rating: 7
- slow pace of play
- extremely accessible
Introduction:
I feel as though it's only fair that my first public course review is of Van Cortlandt Golf Course. This is the first public course I visited in NYC and I have to say I'm a big fan. In addition to being America's oldest public golf course, Van Cortlandt is probably the most accessible public course for those of us that live in Manhattan.
Directions: Do whatever you have to do to get to 1 train headed northbound. Take the 1 all the way to the end of the line to 242nd St. Van Cortandt Park-DO NOT LOOK WHERE GOOGLE MAPS LABELS THE GOLF COURSE THIS IS NOT WERE THE CLUBHOUSE IS. (our first time there we made the mistake of walking about half way around the course before having to head back in the opposite direction, across the highway, to find the clubhouse) The best way to get there is to head directly into the park off the subway stop and head due East. Keep going until you reach a fork in the path-make sure you stay to the LEFT where you think the trail is going to lead you into the woods where nothing is. Keep walking until you go under a small blue bridge. Take a left and you'll see the clubhouse straight ahead. Google Earth Image below the google map shows where to go.
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Rating:
Now that you know how to get there let me tell you a little bit about how'd I'd like to rate courses. I'm going to start off with some basic criteria and hopefully I can get some other users' feedback and possibly add to the rating system. Let's start with these items on a scale from 1-10, 10 being exceptional, 1 being abysmal:
- Accessibility: 10
- Cleanliness: 9
- Staff: 7
- Difficulty: 6
- Greens: 5 (most of the time)
- Fairways: 7
- Rough: 6
- Tee Time Punctuality: 3
- Pace of Play: 2
- Cost: 10
- OVERALL: 7
I've already mentioned this is probably the most accessible public course for Gothamists, course is clean and pretty well kept-greens are usually in somewhere from rough to not too bad condition, and difficulty I give a 6 (keep in mind I'm a hack golf golfer where I'm quite content shooting below 100!) Even if you have a tee time, I don't think I've ever teed off on time, but you also can't beat the price. If you reserve at least 24 hours in advance you can usually score a "tee time special" from www.golfnyc.com where greens fees and cart are about $48 per person (I have a link at the top of my blog here to this website). All things considered that is not a bad price by NYC standards.
Conclusion:
I think Van Cortlandt will always be one of my favorite courses mainly because it's the first one I've become a regular at since leaving college at the University of Miami-where I started playing golf for the first time. It may not always be in the best condition, and sometimes the staff is looking to go home, but sometimes you can't put a price on convenience. Hop on the 1 train and head up to Van Cortlandt for a nice round of golf by any standards!
***If you've played at Van Cortlandt, please tell us your ratings and opinions of the course***
