The Best Public Golf Courses in the Tri-State Area
The tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) is home to some of the most storied golf in America, but most of the region's elite golf sits behind private club gates. The good news for the rest of us: there are genuinely world-class courses you can actually book a tee time at. The standout is Bethpage Black, the Long Island municipal that hosted the 2025 Ryder Cup along with two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, and that costs a public golfer a fraction of what a comparable bucket-list course charges elsewhere. Beyond it, the region offers deep public golf from the Bronx to upstate New York, the Jersey shore, and across Connecticut. Here are the best public courses you can play, with notes on how to actually get on them.
I have spent a lot of my golfing life in this part of the country, and the frustrating truth about tri-state golf is that you spend a fair amount of it driving past courses you will never set foot on. The Winged Foots and Baltusrols of the world are right there, behind the trees, members only. This guide is the opposite of that. Every course below is public, resort, or municipal, which means you can play it without knowing a member or holding an invitation. They are ranked roughly by prestige, led by one of the best public courses in the entire country.
The headliners
Bethpage Black (Farmingdale, NY)
The crown jewel of public golf in the tri-state, and arguably the country. Bethpage Black is a brutally difficult A.W. Tillinghast design on Long Island, owned by the State of New York and open to anyone willing to work the system. It has now hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens, the 2019 PGA Championship, and most recently the 2025 Ryder Cup, where Europe held off a furious American comeback. The sign on the first tee is real, and it is not marketing: it warns that the Black is an extremely difficult course that the park recommends only for highly skilled golfers. Take it seriously. The Black is long, the rough is penal, and there is very little relief from tee to green.
Here is the part most lists skip: getting on is its own sport. The Black is the People's Country Club, which means demand wildly outstrips supply. New York State residents with a verified Parks golf ID can book online seven days out and pay roughly $65 to $75 a round; non-residents book five days out and pay around $130 to $150. Bookings on the Black are limited to one every 28 days per player. After years of bots hammering the reservation system, the state added a $5 non-refundable booking fee and a two-step email booking code to make it harder for software to scoop up tee times before real people can. If the online sheet is empty, there is still the legendary walk-up line: golfers park overnight in a numbered lot, and the first block of morning tee times is held back for first-come, first-served walk-ups. Locals will tell you to be in line by early evening the night before for a weekend morning. It is a genuine rite of passage. Tee times and rules: parks.ny.gov/golf/11.
Bethpage Red (Farmingdale, NY)
The Black gets the magazine covers, but the Red is a top-tier Tillinghast layout in its own right, and it is far easier to get on. Plenty of strong players actually prefer the Red as a pure test of golf without the Black's punishing length, and it is the course most regulars point newcomers toward first. If you strike out on the Black, do not treat the Red as a consolation prize. It is a course most golfers would be thrilled to call their home track. Same state park and reservation system: parks.ny.gov/golf/11.
Turning Stone Resort (Verona, NY)
Upstate New York's premier golf destination, with three standout courses under one roof. Atunyote is the headliner, a Tom Fazio design that hosted a PGA Tour event (the Turning Stone Resort Championship) and plays like a tournament course, generous off the tee but demanding on approach. Shenendoah, a Rick Smith design, and Kaluhyat, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout that is widely considered the hardest of the three, round out a genuine 54-hole golf trip. The resort sits on Oneida Nation land and pairs the golf with a casino and full hotel, so it works as a self-contained getaway. If you are building a tri-state golf weekend rather than a single round, Turning Stone is hard to beat. turningstone.com.
Bally's Golf Links at Ferry Point (Bronx, NY)
A Jack Nicklaus links course inside New York City, with the Whitestone Bridge framing one side and the Manhattan skyline in the distance. Built on a capped former landfill along the East River, it is treeless, windswept, and far more demanding than its city-park location suggests. The course opened in 2015 and was renamed from Trump Golf Links to Bally's Golf Links at Ferry Point in 2024 after Bally's took over operations. It is still public, still books tee times online, and still offers a discounted resident rate. The important caveat for planners: a large casino-hotel development is moving forward on part of the property, so this is a venue in transition and worth confirming conditions before you book. Even so, a true links round inside the five boroughs is a rare thing in American golf. casinos.ballys.com/golf-links-ferry-point.
Montauk Downs (Montauk, NY)
A Robert Trent Jones Sr. design at the very eastern tip of Long Island, run as a New York State Park. The setting is pure ocean-edge links weather: wind off the Atlantic, rolling terrain, and very little shelter. What makes Montauk Downs special is the value. You are playing a serious RTJ Sr. layout, in one of the most coveted summer towns in the Northeast, for a fraction of what the surrounding real estate would suggest. It is one of the best public golf bargains in the entire region, and the kind of course that punches far above its greens fee. parks.ny.gov/visit/golf-courses/montauk-downs-state-park-golf-course.
Pound Ridge (Pound Ridge, NY)
This is Pete Dye's first and only design in the state of New York, which alone makes it a pilgrimage for architecture fans. Opened in 2008 on 172 acres of rugged Westchester County hills, Pound Ridge was carved out of the rock rather than around it. Roughly 14,000 feet of stone walls frame the property, and the Dye team deliberately left massive boulders in play. The two holes everyone talks about: the par-5 13th, home to "Pete's Rock," a house-sized boulder sitting in the middle of the fairway, and the par-3 15th, nicknamed "Headstone," where a rock outcropping intrudes into a 9,000-square-foot green. It is a high-end daily-fee experience in an area otherwise dominated by private clubs, and it plays as hard as it is beautiful. Heed the first-tee advice on which markers to choose; the back tees are no joke. poundridgegolf.com.
Saratoga National (Saratoga Springs, NY)
An upscale, immaculately conditioned daily-fee course in one of upstate New York's most charming towns. Saratoga National leans into the high-end experience: caddie program, manicured conditions, and a price tag to match. It is the kind of round you build a weekend around, and it pairs naturally with everything else Saratoga Springs offers in season, from the racetrack to the mineral springs. If you want the polish of a private club with a public tee sheet, this is your course. golfsaratoga.com.
Leatherstocking (Cooperstown, NY)
The resort course at The Otesaga in Cooperstown, a classic lakeside layout on the shores of Otsego Lake. It is as scenic as it is historic, with a closing stretch along the water that sticks with you. Leatherstocking is the perfect golf complement to a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it is the rare resort course that feels woven into the town rather than walled off from it. otesaga.com.
Atlantic City Country Club (Northfield, NJ)
Do not let the name fool you. Despite the "Country Club," this is a public, playable course near the Jersey shore with as much history as anywhere in the state. The layout has been shaped over more than a century by a who's-who of architects, and local lore holds that the term "birdie" was coined here in the early 1900s. The back nine runs along the bay with views toward the Atlantic City skyline. It is a New Jersey institution, and a course you play as much for the sense of golf history as for the round itself. accountryclub.com.
Great River (Milford, CT)
A Tommy Fazio design widely regarded as among Connecticut's very best public courses. Carved through wetlands and rolling terrain along the Housatonic River, Great River earned the nickname "the Augusta of the Northeast" from some local players for its conditioning and presentation, though it is a far more demanding driving test than that comparison suggests, with water and forced carries in play throughout. In a state where the top echelon of golf is overwhelmingly private, Great River is the public standard-bearer. greatrivergolfclub.com.
More great public golf in the tri-state
The headliners are not the only courses worth your time. Here are strong public options across all three states, the kind of tracks locals lean on when the marquee tee times are gone.
New Jersey
- Shore Gate (Ocean View) - a well-regarded public course near the shore, with wide fescue-lined corridors and big greens. shoregategolf.com
- Crystal Springs Resort (Hamburg) - a multi-course resort in the northern New Jersey highlands, anchored by Wild Turkey and the dramatic, quarry-set Ballyowen and Crystal Springs courses, a popular golf-getaway destination. crystalgolfresort.com
- Royce Brook (Hillsborough) - a Steve Smyers design with quality public access and a strong championship pedigree. roycebrook.com
- Ballamor (Egg Harbor Township) - an upscale daily-fee experience in South Jersey, formerly a private club, now open to the public. ballamor.com
Connecticut
- Gillette Ridge (Bloomfield) - an Arnold Palmer Signature design open to the public. gilletteridgegolf.com
- Lyman Orchards (Middlefield) - two strong public courses on a working orchard, one by Gary Player and one by Robert Trent Jones Sr. lymanorchards.com
- Wintonbury Hills (Bloomfield) - a Pete Dye design (with Tim Liddy) that delivers a surprising amount of Dye character at a public price. wintonburyhillsgolf.com
- Richter Park (Danbury) - a long-celebrated municipal course that has spent years on national best-municipal lists, and one of Connecticut's best public values. richterpark.com
- Fox Hopyard (East Haddam) - a scenic Roger Rulewich design in the quiet Connecticut countryside. golfthefox.com
Why the tri-state's best public list looks the way it does
If this list seems heavily weighted toward New York, that is an accurate reflection of the region, not an oversight. The tri-state's most elite golf, the Winged Foots, Baltusrols, Pine Valleys, and old Westchester and Fairfield County clubs, is overwhelmingly private. What separates New York is infrastructure: the state park system, and Bethpage in particular, gives New York a depth of accessible, top-tier golf that is genuinely hard to match. New Jersey and Connecticut both have excellent public courses, but a larger share of their very best layouts are members-only. That contrast is exactly why a course like Bethpage Black is so treasured. It is world-class golf, hosting Ryder Cups and U.S. Opens, that any golfer in the country can play for the price of a nice dinner. There is nothing else quite like it in American golf.
A note on prestige versus difficulty, since the two get conflated constantly. A course being hard does not make it prestigious, and a course being prestigious does not always make it hard. Bethpage Black happens to be both. But Montauk Downs earns its place on quality and value, not punishment, and Atlantic City Country Club earns its on history. When you are deciding where to spend a precious tee time, it helps to know which one you are actually chasing.
Track the tri-state courses you've played
Checking a course like Bethpage Black off your list is a genuine golfing milestone, the kind of round you talk about for years. That is the whole reason I built Golfed: a US-focused golf course tracking app built around a permanent, lifetime record of every course you have played. Golfed assigns each course a prestige rating drawn from established rankings and rating data, then builds your personal prestige score from your top 25 highest-rated courses. So you can see not just how many tri-state courses you have played, but the caliber of them, across a season, a decade, or a lifetime. You can also keep a bucket list of the ones still ahead of you, like that elusive Black course tee time. Golfed is launching in 2026; you can join the early access list at golfedapp.com.
For more, see how to keep track of every golf course you've played, what makes a golf course prestigious, and how golf course ranking systems actually work.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best public golf course in the tri-state area?
Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, is widely considered the best public golf course in the tri-state area and one of the best in the country. The state-run municipal course, designed by A.W. Tillinghast, has hosted two U.S. Opens, a PGA Championship, and the 2025 Ryder Cup, and it is open to anyone who can secure a tee time.
Can anyone play Bethpage Black?
Yes. Bethpage Black is a public municipal course within Bethpage State Park, so any golfer can play it, with no handicap requirement. Tee times are competitive and the course is famously difficult, but it does not require a membership. New York State residents receive reduced greens fees and an earlier booking window.
How do I actually get a tee time at Bethpage Black?
Tee times are booked through the New York State Parks online reservation system. New York residents with a verified Parks golf ID can book seven days in advance; non-residents book five days in advance, with slots typically released in the evening. The system now uses a small booking fee and an email booking code to limit bots. If the online sheet is full, the park holds its first morning tee times for a first-come, first-served walk-up line, where golfers often queue in the parking lot the night before. Bookings on the Black are limited to one every 28 days.
How much does it cost to play Bethpage Black?
Greens fees are remarkably low for the quality. New York State residents pay roughly $65 on weekdays and $75 on weekends, while non-residents pay around $130 on weekdays and $150 on weekends, plus a small online booking fee. That is a fraction of what comparable bucket-list courses charge, which is a big part of the Black's legend.
Are there good public golf courses in New Jersey?
Yes. While many of New Jersey's most elite courses are private, there are strong public options, including the historic Atlantic City Country Club near the shore, the multi-course Crystal Springs Resort, Shore Gate, and the Steve Smyers-designed Royce Brook. The Jersey shore and the northern highlands both offer especially good public golf.
Are there good public golf courses in Connecticut?
Yes. Connecticut's top public courses include Great River in Milford, an acclaimed Tommy Fazio design, along with Gillette Ridge (Arnold Palmer), the two Lyman Orchards courses, Wintonbury Hills (Pete Dye), and the long-celebrated municipal Richter Park.
Why are so many of the tri-state's best courses private?
The tri-state area has a high concentration of historic, exclusive private clubs, particularly in Westchester County, northern New Jersey, and Fairfield County, Connecticut. Much of the region's most celebrated golf is members-only, which is exactly why publicly accessible courses like Bethpage Black are so highly valued.
Start tracking every course you play
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