Golf in White Plains

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.

Designed by course architect Dick Wilson, Garrison Golf Club’s 18-hole course covers the tree-lined hills, valleys, and ravines of the Hudson Highlands as golfers drink in sweeping views from 800 feet above the Hudson River. Without disturbing the native birds and wildlife, the course artfully integrates the natural terrain into a challenging layout, featuring multiple shots that must clear deep chasms and rolling fairways that create tricky hill lies and test golf carts’ vulnerability to motion sickness. Stone walls and mature oaks and hemlocks add to the stately scenery as players grapple with testy hazards, such as those encountered at the par three 17th hole, where tee shots must find a putting surface buttressed by sprawling trees, sand traps, and a stream.

An Audubon International–certified course, Garrison Golf Club’s environmentally friendly efforts include a 2-acre organic farm that sprouts heirloom tomatoes, nine kinds of lettuce, and other greens incorporated into dishes at Valley and Terrace Grill, the club’s onsite restaurants. Guests may also opt to wind down at World’s End Bar, a cozy spot ideal for sipping cocktails or interrogating fellow players about the veracity of their scorecards.

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.

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.