New York Guide and Deals

New York magazine reviewed New York Golf Center and named it a Critics' Pick.

Drive495 is more than just an indoor golf course and more than just a gym. The facility consists of a two-story loft space, with video-simulated golf courses above and a swanky gym and café below. Today's golf and fitness package provides two weeks of unrestricted membership to this compact urban country club, including:

Golf Manhattan's virtual-golf facility combines the experience of a day at the links with a wide variety of creature comforts and game-sharpening lessons. PGA tour simulators re-create more than 50 courses from the world over in immaculate detail, while clients swing provided clubs and practice golf-cart wheelies in cushy chairs. The launch monitor and simulator accurately plot the trajectory and physics of each shot onto digitized fairways, and track important statistics, such as ball-spin rate, launch angle, and how many virtual divots each player has to fill in. Lessons with Class-A PGA professionals, PGA apprentices, and teaching professionals correct slices and fades, and a 46-inch television in the golf lounge pipes in the latest news from PGA tours. An onsite locker area equipped with a jacuzzi, sauna, and steam room limbers swinging arms for important skins games.

As part of the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, located at the historic Chelsea Piers, the Golf Club perches over the same port that once welcomed ships into New York City. Now, golfers tee up in the driving range's 52 heated and weather-protected stalls, which overlook the glinting waters of the Hudson River. Automatic tee-up systems position balls for launch across the 200-yard, net-enclosed fairway. A putting green allows patrons to improve their short game, and two Full Swing simulators encourage them to take hacks in virtual environs, transporting them to famous courses across the country or fifth-grade birthday parties where they missed the piñata.

Children and adults alike can enlist in Golf Club at Chelsea Piers’ classes, which stratify students by experience level. The 13-member coaching staff includes PGA and LPGA professionals, and sessions take place in a 2,000-square-foot teaching facility.

Turtle Cove Golf Center sprinkles summer with the pixie dust of outdoor activities ranging from miniature golf to smacking fastballs in batting cages. A course with 18 mini-golf greens peppered between bright flowers and rippling water lures putters, and the 55 hitting stations at the center's 450-yard grass driving range beckon players looking to vent aggression through full-force swings or whispered threats to their tees. After bagging their clubs, guests can swing into batting cages to whack baseballs and softballs or relax at the Turtle Cove Café and munch on a hamburger.

In addition to practice facilities, Turtle Cove offers professional guidance on the art of the swing during lessons. PGA professionals employ high-speed digital-video analysis to break down each pupil’s form and technique as they drive, chip, and drop-kick golf balls into the hole.

A Class-A PGA professional with more than 25 years of experience, Rick Nielsen applies his time-earned expertise to help golfers shave strokes during lessons at Randalls Island Golf Center, where he's been the head pro since 1998. Rick employs the latest technologies to aid in instruction, including The Golfing Machine system⎯which takes a geometric approach to swing mechanics⎯as well as digital-video analysis and FlightScope 3-D doppler radar launch monitor. These sensitive instruments measure each shot on a number of parameters, from club-head speed and launch angle to total distance and nougat ratio of the ball’s core. Meanwhile, Rick observes and isolates specific areas in need of improvement so that players can develop muscle memory and consistently repeat a successful swing motion. Ultimately, with Rick's pointers, players leave lessons equipped with the tools to reach their full potential on the course without temptation to modify their 9-iron into a bedazzled baton.