After four grueling days at St. George's, Cheryl Brayman emerges as the WCCGA's  Long Island Match Play Champion. In an annual event that attracts some of the finest women golfers on Long Island, and during a week that included a day of tropical force winds, Cheryl Brayman once again proved why she is one of Long Island's finest. Cheryl captured the Beinbrink Trophy in a 36 hole final, 2 and 1 win over Lee Ann Vogel Lewis. The Beinbrink Trophy is sponsored by Carol Beinbrink, an accomplished player from St. George's, now residing in Florida. The consolation match for the Simpson Trophy was won by Sharon Hoffman in a 4 and 3 match with Bette Ann Valick.  

Friar's Head is now set to officially open after a 3 year battle with Long Island environmentalists.  This Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore designed course is sited on the north side of Sound Avenue in Baiting Hollow on some of the most pristine and beautiful acreage on the east end. The Talmadge farming family settled there in 1882 and grew potatoes on much of this land until their recent decision to sell their property to the developer, Traditional Links.

The original plan included 2 golf courses ( 1 public and 1 private ) along with 333 homes. This plan was aggressively opposed by the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, the North Fork Environmental Council and the Long Island Neighborhood Network, among others. The agreement has limited the plan to one private course and 70 homes as well as a commitment by the course owners to limit the use of pesticides and to use organic fertilizers.

Those who have been to Friar’s Head are almost unanimous in their praise of the design. Crenshaw and Coore managed to design a very traditional course that accommodates and celebrates the natural environment and the lay of the land. Friar’s Head promises to join the ranks of Long Island’s most respected and venerable tracts.

This once prestigious and meticulously maintained private club has regained part of its previous glory as a result of a now completed major restoration. It took several years but it was worth the wait. Timber Point now has all 3 of its 9 hole tracts in operation and in the sort of condition not seen at Timber Point for many years. The official re-opening took place July 1^st.

School for Language and Communication Development ( SLCD ) will host its Annual Golf and Tennis Outing at the Mill River Club on Monday, September 22. Golf will begin at 12 noon with a shotgun format.

 SLCD,  located in Glen Cove, Long Island,  services infants, preschool and school age children from Long Island and New York City with severe language disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders

The golf package is $350 and dinner is available for $110. To register call Colleen McShane at 516-609-2000 ext 123 or e-mail:  cmcshane@slcd.org   

How many golf courses are there on Long Island?  

The guy waiting overnight in his car at Bethpage might answer "NOT ENOUGH", while the fellow fortunate enough to have a membership at the Garden City Golf Club might answer "WHO CARES" and a friend of mine from Brooklyn actually said this - "TOO MANY" ( he is the sort of urbanite who sees open space and dreams of paving it over ).   

It does seem like a fairly straightforward question though. After all, you can't confuse a golf course with anything else, they tend to be rather permanent fixtures on our landscape and given their limited number you don't need computing power for the task of counting. 

In order to answer the question one needs to define 2 main variables. 

1)What is the geographic entity that we call Long Island?

2)What constitutes a golf course?

Although Brooklyn and Queens  can make claim to being geographically part of this island, I can't bring myself to include them. We all know that the "island" begins at the western border of Nassau. So for my count I include only Nassau and Suffolk. 

What is a golf course? I define it as at least nine holes and more than a pitch and putt. Executive par 3s count but just barely. I also count a facility with several layouts as one course. For example, Bethpage counts as one not five. So for those of you who like to be technical, you might say I am counting golf course facilities and not courses.  

So how many courses are there at this moment? Allowing for  the recent demise of Poxabogue ( a very modest public course on the east end which I haven't found the heart to take out of my course list yet ) and including the  very newest of courses I can say for complete certainty and without hesitation there are exactly 113 golf courses on Long Island ( I think ).  If I missed any please drop me a line at Editor and let me know. I won't give you a prize but I will give you public credit here at Long Island Golf News ( with your permissions ).   

Note: You can find my complete list under my all courses section.