djmnyc

My buddy and I have been looking for nice courses within an hour radius of NYC, and this course came up on Golf Now. I'm glad we chose River Vale CC, as it was one of the best we've played. It was in excellent condition, both the fairways and greens, the staff were very helpful and friendly, and the bar afterwards was nice as well.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this course, but ended up being pleasantly surprised how nice the conditions were for a public course in Brooklyn. The course seems to be going through quite a bit of renovations, so a lot of areas were roped off and torn up, but other than that, the place was in great condition. Pin placements and greens were challenging, but not ridiculous.

Granted we played an afternoon round, but the greens were in really bad condition. Several unrepaired divot holes and very bumpy all around. Didn't seem like they were cut recently. The fairways were in good condition and the overall layout was nice.

My buddy and I are beginners. We played Douglaston for the first time this past Friday, and we had a great time. The course layout and conditions of the fairways and greens were excellent ( for a public NYC course that gets a ton of traffic ). One two pair played through us, saying our pace was too slow, but we finished all 18, with four players, in four hours. Our tee time was at 1:30pm on a Friday. Again, we are beginners, so we each took a lot of shots, but I've read about others playing 18 on a public course in over four hours.