Oyster Bay Town Golf Course & Clubhouse

Tight long course with great green complexes and challenging finishing holes.

I have had my eye on this course since learning it was an early Tom Fazio design and decided to play a Sunday twilight. The course was empty and finished 18 holes in 4 hours which I didn't think was possible for weekend rounds in NY. In terms of layout, the course allows you to play every club in your bag. Although narrow, you can hit driver to wedge or long to mid iron on many of the par 4s. The greens are small-mid size, roll fast and in great condition with extreme undulations making approach shots the key to scoring. Although overall course conditions could be improved, greens and bunkers were in terrific shape, which are the most important in my opinion.

Let me start off with saying the starters were extremely nice and helped us out a lot. Most town courses they are rude and couldn’t care less. They made the round good before even teeing off.

The front 9 is treelined and you really need to be straight off the tee. Don’t let the 6300 from the tips fool you. This is a long course and very challenging. So back to the front, like I said tight, but playable. The signature 4th that is long and is straight uphill for the second shot is kind of a gimmick, not a signature hole. The front 9 will challenge your score.

The back 9 opens up and really feels like a different course. I like the short par 3 that has the tees in the courtyard of the mansion. The routing on the back just doesn’t make sense on a lot of par 4s. My group isn’t the longest off the tee, but we were all hitting 250+ and didn’t even make the doglegs on three of the par 4s on the back. We had blind 220 shots left on a par 4.

Honestly play the whites unless you hit 270 off the tee. I will play the whites next time. The green complexes are some of the toughest on Long Island for public courses and will probably roll nicely after the greens get better from aeration. The course is definitely worth playing and testing yourself. I just would like to see maybe a bunch of trees removed from the front. It’s way too tight for the average player.

This is a very good course if you know what to expect and are in the mood for it. It is a nice property with good elevation changes and interesting layout of holes. The fairway corridors are tree lined and very narrow on the front nine. The back nine opens up a bit. The greens and green complexes are terrific. Lots of broadly sloping swales, ridges, and valleys on the relatively large greens. There are a few blind shots, and many greens are perched up and elevated significantly. Conditioning was very good and the course is decently walkable. Nice large bunkers throughout.

This course was not in good condition. Lots of bare spots, needs maintenance. Stay out of the rough! Greens are fast and hilly. Some tricked up holes too. Narrow fairways. We were a 3-some. No one in sight ahead of us until we hit a wall on #8. This par 3 had FOUR groups on it. Took half hour just to get this hole played. If you had any mojo happening before arriving at #8, too bad... Also, if you are visiting the area, be aware that they consider Friday to be a weekend day and charge you accordingly. Don’t really think they want non residents to play.

Played here the week of U.S. Open 2018 on Long Island - centrally located between NYC and Hamptons, and proximity to MacArthur Airport. We probably should have played the white tees instead of the blues because the fairways are tight enough, and the on top of that several tee boxes are set within tight chutes that allow little deviation off the tee, and really you need to shape your shots accordingly. But we enjoyed the layout and no two holes alike. Also we walked and it was a good workout with several hills and elevation changes but not bad. The staff were very friendly and being from out of town we were out of some basic supplies and they took care of us as special guests! I would play here again, the white tees, and work on target golf and hitting straight and not so much concern about distance. We were able to play in under 4 hours despite a fairly busy course, played through several groups that were very courteous and encouraged us to play through and take our time.

Tight course with challenges off the tees. I enjoyed several of the holes: #4 which everyone talks about, the finishing sequence is challenging as it's so much longer than what you experience on the front 9, but my favorite sequence is probably holes 8-11. A few surprising elevation changes and good conditions overall. Only 3 stars though because it's yet another example of a course that's far too expensive if you're not a resident. It's basically a private course. I don't imagine too many people test their luck commuting the LIRR, but worth sharing. It's a good course for locals, just not worth the non-resident tax.

The fairways and greens were not very good. The tee box had so many divots that I had no room to put my tee. The narrow fairways made the course difficult.

I play here all the time. If you do not hit straight this course will frustrate you. Fairways are very tight and there are plenty of blind shots and elevated greens. I usually am not a straight hitter so this course is challenging for me but forces me to cut down on my swing and play my spots. It is definitely a course you should play well manicured .