East End Golf Courses Land 5 in U.S. Top 100

The long holiday weekend is coming, and the weather looks good for hitting the links. Where is the best place to tee off? Golf magazine has released its biennial list of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the U.S., and five East End courses made the cut.

Sebonack comes in at number 97, and at number 29 we find the Maidstone in East Hampton, which was celebrated by the editors for its “romantic location” and “an exceptional set of Willie and John Park greens, many of which feature dramatic false fronts.” Fisher’s Island lands at number 9, with its “delightful tumbling terrain and the spectacular views of Long Island Sound, while Southampton’s National Golf Links of America (better known in these parts as the National) shows up at number 4 “as a marvel of strategic design.”

And the site of five U.S. Opens since 1986, Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, came in at number three (trailing only Cypress Point in California and the top-ranked Pine Valley in New Jersey), being hailed by the magazine as “William Flynn’s undisputed design masterpiece. Apart from being handed a magnificent piece of land upon which to work, Flynn was given something else nearly as valuable: time. Work commenced in 1928 and the course didn’t open until 1931. True, the Great Depression commenced during construction but the grace with which the holes flow across the property is a tribute to the hands-on, slow-build process.” Fore!