Nickerson Dunes Pitch & Putt

Favorite Hole

No. 7, par 3, 81 yards

From a tee perched on a small dune, this par 3 plays to a large (by Nickerson standards) green encircled by a trench-like bunker. The green design simultaneously recalls two C.B. Macdonald templates: the Short, for the moat-like bunkering and the blunt, broad dimensions of the green; and the Biarritz, for the swale running through the putting surface, perpendicular to the line of play. A simple but striking hole where below-average pitches lead to tricky putts or recoveries.

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Overall Thoughts

The morning after visiting Bethpage Black this past August, I found myself with an awkward amount of time to fill. I couldn’t play 18 holes on Long Island because I needed to drive to New Jersey for an afternoon round. But I also didn’t want to leave first thing; I had no desire to sit in rush-hour traffic. As I thought it through, I remembered an article we published in 2019, during my third week with Fried Egg Golf. It was by Shaun Smith, currently the superintendent of Sullivan County Golf and Country Club in Upstate New York, and it was about a lovely-looking pitch-and-putt on Long Island called Nickerson Dunes. I had my solution.

Nickerson Dunes doesn’t take tee times, so I just stopped by the trailer that serves as a pro shop, paid my $12, hit a few practice putts, and teed off.

Initially, the course doesn’t impress. The teeing grounds are driving-range mats. The first two holes run along flat land next to a chain link fence and an entry road. The greens, however, give an indication of Nickerson Dunes’ quality. The first green sits in a Seth Raynor-like manufactured punchbowl, and the second runs on a right-to-left diagonal, feeding to the back-left corner, where a small shelf provides an option for a tough pin. Greens like these — slightly unrefined in their shaping, but distinct from each other and designed with intention and energy — differentiate Nickerson Dunes from your average government-owned pitch-and-putt.

The course’s other main strength becomes apparent on the third hole, which enters the dunes on the ocean side of the property. For the next seven holes, the routing takes you up, down, and through a series of sandy moguls. The vegetation is natural and diverse, ranging from the sparse scrub and beach grass on the fourth and fifth holes to the gorse bushes and squat coastal pines enclosing the sixth green. 

The course occupies this terrain humbly. The built features are minimal but blunt and guileless; the player can easily see where earth was and wasn’t moved. The agronomy is very simple: aside from a ring of fringe around each green, there is no fairway cut — just greens, rough, and native. Much of the site has been left in its natural state, with wildlife continuing to thrive. The course has a specific, palpable sense of place, derived from the land itself. In this way, Nickerson Dunes has more in common with the Scottish links than 99% of the American courses that claim the lineage. 

It’s not hard for a golf architecture geek to find shortcomings here. The allusions to Golden Age design are somewhat rudimentary and tentative, not quite bold enough to affect strategy and the ground game as intended. Also, the routing is faintly amateurish, with several counterintuitive green-to-tee transitions and a jammed-in finish.

But these weaknesses are part and parcel of this course’s overall charm. Nickerson Dunes is a community effort, supported by local residents and directed by a pair of enthusiastic county employees. This group may have lacked architectural experience, but they knew what they wanted: a beautiful, engaging, low-maintenance, low-impact, cheap place to play golf before a swim, or during your kids’ baseball practice, or after a few hours lounging on the beach.

In his article, Shaun Smith called it “ambient golf.” That’s exactly right. And we need more of it.

1 Egg

(How We Rate Courses)

Different golf courses have different purposes. Nickerson Dunes is not trying to do what Bethpage Black does, so it would be silly to judge the two courses by the same, abstract standards. I’m giving Nickerson Dunes an Egg not because it is as architecturally sophisticated or agronomically refined as most other one-Eggers, but because of how well it fulfills its particular role in the world of golf. It introduces new players to the game; it provides a fun, affordable amenity for park visitors; and it’s substantially better than it has to be.

Course Tour

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Additional Content

Little Lido: Nickerson Dunes (Article)