Garden City Golf Club (not to be confused with nearby Garden City Country Club, also off Stewart Avenue, and also a Walter Travis design) is home to one of the top-rated and finest championship golf courses in New York state. The excellent open parkland and links-style layout contains a wealth of wonderfully crafted, memorable and challenging holes. Definitely a course that will challenge your all-round game. However, this is a private course generally playable only by members and their guests.
The Garden City “Men’s Club” is one of the few clubs that not only has only men as members, but men are the only ones allowed to play. This is perhaps the only one club in the world that won’t let women play. But we heard that woman can now play at the discretion of the executive committee. The 1899 course has an old school feel from the moment you step foot inside the clubhouse; a clubhouse that requires the patrons to wear a suit jacket. Old lockers, doors, and photos adorn the property while the unique course layout has features you’d never seen in a course designed today; a 300 yard opening hole and a par three finisher. The course feels like a links course with the intimate layout featuring tees close to greens, wide fairways, and fescue grass lining the rough. However, many people refuse to classify the course as a “true links” due the distance away from the ocean and soil that isn’t as sandy as coastal courses feature. Garden City is relatively flat with some gentle contours with brilliance featured in the relatively deep bunkering and swift moving greens. All in all, this walking-only course feels intimate in the routing, atmosphere and setting and provides a unique old school layout that is both challenging and fun.
Signature Hole: 18th Hole – 190 Yard Par 3 – One of the unique quirk at Garden City Golf Club is that the course ends with a par 3 hole – and its no slouch. The 18th hole plays 190 yards and requires a fairly significant carry over water. There is a deep bunker on the front of the green and over to the left of the green is a bunker known as the Travis Bunker. The hole finishes right next to the clubhouse and provides an intimate finish to this special golf course.
For us the best hole is the 16th. The 16th hole is one of only two holes at Garden City Golf Club with a water hazard. This par 4 plays at 405 yards and has a small pond on the left hand side of the green.