Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course

This historic range is America's first public municipal golf course located in New York City's third largest park.

The positives: it is definitely a golf course in that it has grass, trees and holes. And It's historic I'm told. That's it. The negatives: Where do I begin? If it's your first time here, forget about being treated respectfully. Everyone was cranky and unhelpful, from the pro shop, to the cart man, to the starter, right on through to the club "professional", who I refer to as Professor Ponytail because he's rocking a pony tail like a washed up wrestler/hair metal guitarist, even though he's pushing 50. Guess he stopped maturing senior year of high school back in 1971. This never-quite-good-enough-to-make-The-Tour Katelyn Jenner look-a-like had the audacity to, in the middle of our tee shots on a par 3 ask how many balls we were planning to play off the tee, telling us "this is not a driving range". Mind you my friend and I hit a total of 4 balls, the first two of which ended up in the water hazard. As far as I know the rules of golf allow you to play another ball with a penalty if you lose yours; perhaps someone should explain the rules of golf to him, he seems a bit rusty. Too busy thinking about Wrestle Mania I suppose. Mind you, he was in a twosome on the adjacent green behind us that somehow had 5 balls on it. Talk about playing multiple balls. What a hypocrite. He also admonished us for not replacing divots, even tho I did in fact fixed my divots, but the Ric Flair wannabe would hear none of it. This incident had us fuming for a good 3 holes before we calmed down, so he essentially ruined part of our round. That's not to mention this course layout seems like it was designed by a 6 year old with a learning disability. You end up criss-crossing the course numerous times because one hole rarely leads to the next, and there are virtually no signs. The 9th hole doesn't even take you to the clubhouse, because that would make too much sense. And there's no beverage cart service, so forget about having a cold one in the middle of the round. Also the mysterious "twilight rate" that's posted online apparently doesn't apply if you take a cart since there's an almost $20 cart fee per person added to the $23 twilight fee. So you end up paying $40 no matter what time of day you come if you're taking a cart, which is a virtual necessity, because, again the course was designed by Zach Nicklaus, Jack Nicklaus's failure of a half-brother. So if you enjoy ponytails on club pros, geriatric curmudgeons, and a general don't give a damn attitude, this is the course for you. If not, then don't bother.

Hu

Today was the first day and as you can imagine there were plenty of folks outside enjoying the opportunity to play. Was disappointed at the lack of communication today at the course. Holes 15-18 were closed and a few temporary greens. That wasn't the issue, the fact that there were no signs indicating that specific hole had a temporary green was disappointing.

Vanny is a public 18-hole course with a nice mix of hilly and flat holes. According to NYC data, it is the oldest public course in the US with 6,096 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 70. The course rating is 68.6 and it has a slope rating of 110.
It's located right at the end of the 1 line 242st Street.

For avid golfers: the course isn't well maintained, so be prepared to be on the course for a little longer since it is a slow course. For beginners and for fun: there is no practice range.

Overall, though, for a public course in a public park, it's nice and has some challenging holes.