Marine Park in Winter

The End is near. In desperate uncertain times, the winter golfer cannot be too choosy about where he plays.

Since it's practically on the Atlantic Ocean, Marine Park typically sees the harshest weather conditions of all the city courses. But today it's ridiculous cold anywhere you go, plus I haven't seen the course in a long-ass time, and they've slashed tee times to liquidation prices. Marine Park's probably as good (or bad) a choice as any.

Local Golf News: Some Kid Wins 2015 Brooklyn Open

"Westchester Golfer Wins Brooklyn Open"

The third edition of the Brooklyn Open went down last Saturday. Unfortunately at the time of registration I came down with a serious case of the blahs and was therefore unable to muster an acceptable number of shits to give. In my absence though, the tournament directors decided to press on and hold the tournament anyways. It was the right thing to do.

Ghettogolf Report: Dyker Beach in decline

I finally busted out of my Staten Island rut and made it out to Brooklyn's Dyker Beach, my former spiritual home of golf.

The Weekend Runaround

A flurry of activity lately. Weather's been hitting the sweet spot lately--around 40º with windchills. That's about the line that separates the hobbyists and the truly afflicted. This is what I've waited all year for, right? Time to get out there and get it, by train, bus or boat.

More Fall Splendor, etc.

I had last set foot on Dyker Beach Golf Course in mid-September. After a turgid 34 holes in the span of three days, I decided "no mas" of this place until the cold season started: "Spending ten hours here over the course of two rounds reminded me of why I hadn't been here in a while, and why I won't be back until the temperature dips below 40º."

Chafed

Rough going out there today. The summer temperatures have been moderate lately, but swamp-ass humidity persists. Gad, do I hate summer golf in the city. DBGC is looking as rough as I've ever seen it. The greens are pretty much hybrids of grass and sand at this point.

Ghettogolf: Cup Fever

Okay, so normally I try to avoid weekend golf in the city. But this afternoon somehow boded well. I just had a feeling. A conjunction of some iffy weather and the big soccer final maybe. I called up the Dyker pro shop to make sure I could walk on as a single. He said I could. I asked if it was busy and he said it wasn't. I strained to hear any deception in his voice and decided it was worth a try.

Handi-Capable

Couple things to talk about. First, I am now officially psyched about this upcoming Brooklyn Open golf tournament at Marine Park Golf Course on July 7th--sorry that sounded kind of like a terrible radio ad. But it's all true! I went to the course to play a round, practice some of the little things and to get a general idea of where I'm at and what parts of the game it would behoof me to key in on in these next couple weeks.

The 2014 Brooklyn Open

This year's Brooklyn Open will be played on Monday, July 7th 2014, just eight months after its debut last October. According to tournament director Rich McDonough, the event was moved up to the summer for the better weather and playing conditions and on account of some construction planned for the fall.

Otherwise it looks to be more or less the same format as last year's, with four amateur divisions and one professional. Find out more and register at brooklynopen.com.

Ghettogolf: Just Dropped In... (part 2)

For the next round I thought I'd try Marine Park. The last time I was here a few weeks ago I got brutalized--a 97 was the best I could come up with and I sort of decided not to play here for a while, maybe until conditions improve. But what the hey, I found a deal online that was just too sweet to pass up.

Winter 2014, continued

It feels like we're still in the Little Ice Age of 2014, but at least the snow's gone now which means everywhere's open. However it's still a play-at-your-own-risk situation as I found out over the weekend.

Dark Thoughts vol. 7: Raising the dead

A couple days of warm and rain at the start of the week here turned out to be a gigantic boon--it cleaned up most of the snow cover, which had gone all dirty and granulated and hard. More cold temps followed, but a brief window of opportunity opened up late in the week. Now most people probably wouldn't consider 30° F an "opportunity" but hey it's your old pal Legitgolf. Master of layers.

See, golf's great because it's a winter sport and it doesn't even know it (apologies to the late Mitch Hedberg). Seriously, you tell people around the water-cooler that you just got back from skiing in sub-zero temperatures and that makes you some kind of a cool guy. But talk about playing golf anywhere near the freezing point of water and you'll be considered some kind of lunatic. Where's the logic in that? I don't see it.

2013 Season End Report: Assholes' Last Stand

Well, that looks to be it for 2013 golf. I got in one last hurrah at Dyker Beach, a beleaguered, bitterly cold round in which forces of evil and ignorance repeatedly tried to come at me and derail my fun. A round beset with lunatics, rude foreigners and slow players.

2013 Season End Watch part IV: counting down the seconds

I managed to get in another 18 this weekend, this time at Dyker Beach. The weather was borderline nice, which made me waffle over the matter about a hundred times before finally giving in.

Since there was (naturally) a lot of people at the course,  I was placed in a foursome which was a little weird for me. Because I'd played most of my golf alone for the last couple of months, it was sort of like a feral child being reintroduced into civilization. They were distant concepts to me, but I was more or less able to recall the etiquette, politeness and small-talk that I had learned in a previous life. Still I managed to step in someone's putting line a couple times.

Dark Thoughts: vol. 4: 2013 Season End Watch

We got some snow this week, and now it's being followed up by freezing temperatures for the forecastable future. Which means we are now at the point where every round, just might be the final round of the 2013 season. Now I try not to assign too much significance to the passing of Gregorian calendar-based intervals; the more salient point here is that each round played in these precarious times, just might be the last round for a really f'n long time.

I don't really feel that in my gut that it's the end, nor are there any major storm events on the horizon, but you just never know. Back at the end of '10, hard winter came early; the golf season was slammed shut right after Thanksgiving and wasn't revived until March. Really dark times.

Dark Thoughts vol. 3: Scenes from a botched weekender

It was seasonably cold over the weekend. The plan was to arrive two and half hours before sunset, and hopefully blast my way through a super-fast, super-twilight 18. On a day like this, who could be teeing off at that time?

I badly miscalculated the situation though and ended up making a mess of the whole mission.

Dark Thoughts, volume 2: Freeze Warning

Winter doesn't officially start for another five weeks, but we got a preview of it today. Early in the AM hours there was even some light snow, which tapered off into light rain, which dried up before noon.

I was pretty sure the course would be open for the afternoon, but before leaving home I called ahead, just in case. I asked if anybody was out there. Three people, the guy said. All day? All day. I said that I would see him soon.

After a quick express bus ride, I got there just before two o'clock. A few people were teeing off on #1, so I got to start over on the back nine, which was totally deserted. The first swing of the afternoon felt good. A little constricted, but solid. The second felt good, and the third and fourth did too.

I won't lie, it was brutally cold out there. You're-crazy-for-playing-type weather. I had to jog the first couple of holes to get warm. The gusts were enough to stop you in your tracks--bitter, wincing blasts. Near the third green a sudden and rude gust knocked my bag over while I was trying to chip; I let out a primal yell. No one heard it though, I was the only human on that whole back nine.

You don't have to worry about me though, I was fully prepped for the cold. I had all my layering systems operating and was plenty warm. But there were times when even though I felt okay inside my layers, the cold and the wind just made the playing of golf really hard. Well-struck balls got swatted out of the air by gusts, or else shot through greens on tailwinds. I three-putted the fourth hole trying to putt into a stiff headwind that blinded my eyes with tears.

My swing felt good though, and balls were being struck solid, and this gave me the spirit to keep grinding. I hit the first green in regulation, then the second, then just missed the third. The slight bit of bulk from winter clothes actually helped me to swing by making it easier to restrict the backswing, which is something I'm always trying to do.

Here's the 18th hole at Dyker Beach, my ninth hole of the day. From this spot, I chipped in for birdie.

It's a tough chip, about 20 yards, downhill then uphill with a couple feet of left-to-right, so I was really psyched about it. Still am, a little. A perfect shot just about.

Amazing. Somehow the fairways here are still a deep shade of green, and more lush and grassy than I've seen all year. Greens are nice too. The only real downside right now are the billions of leaves covering the ground.

From tee-off, I only had two hours and forty minutes until sunset. But because I didn't wait on a single shot I was able to finish in a ridiculous 2:14. Afterwards I just caught the express bus back home, and made it through the front door just a hair over four hours from when I left it, which has to be a record.

I shot an 84. Looking back I lost several strokes on the greens, but besides the score it was one of my best all-around efforts of the year. No penalties, no lost balls, no winter rules shenanigans. I was so into it, and the game felt unforced, more free flowing than it has in a long time. I did a good job of wrangling the ball around in some difficult conditions--it would've been easy to lose some today. The joy of playing on an empty course, that's still flush with greenery, I can't say enough about it. It's so great that after a little while, the cold doesn't even really matter.

As of now I might be more excited about my next round than I have been all year.

Legitimategolf Diaries: Autumn special

In the last post, I pretty much welcomed in the winter golf season. Early in the week, the temps sunk to around 40 degrees (F) so eagerly I took to Dyker Beach GC hoping to get in a fast one.

To my satisfaction the temperatures kept most people off the course, but when I got there I was surprised to see a still-very lush environment, still in the flush of fall--guess I was a little premature with that last post. So, I thought I'd put up some photos for those who might enjoy a bit of fall foliage.

Brooklyn Open Recap

I got to the course about an hour before tee time. It was still kind of cold out, but the makings of a really nice, clear blue sky fall day. There were a few guys on the range, and the practice greens were packed. A news crew was on hand to cover the opening of the tournament.

Brooklyn Open: results

Brooklyn borough prez Marty Markowitz about to award the trophy. Spoiler: it wasn't to me.

Well, the inaugural Brooklyn Open is now in the books.