Riis Park Golf Course, Rockaway Park

On each of the 18 holes at Jacob Riis Park Golf Course, players have three chances to pitch and putt their way to par. Splayed over the 26,000-acre Gateway National Park, holes are kept short—150 yards and less—so as to make accuracy the prime concern, as opposed to driver distance or leaping like Michael Jordan some 400 yards and dunking the golf ball. Since the course's establishment in 1935, this attribute as well as the wide-open format and generous bent-grass greens have made it an ideal place for beginners and rust-banishing veterans to hone short game skills.