La Tourette Golf Course

I’m not sure where the golf craze came from in Staten Island but with the recent rates everyone seems to be playing. Or attempting to play. The weekday rates are fantastic if you are a member of the players club. However the pace of play is not up to par.
This is not the course to play a quick 9 or 18 holes.
The Tee boxes could be cleaned up and leveled.

I cannot believe this was my first time playing Latourette being a native Staten Islander. I must admit being a NJ golf course player my expectations for Latourette werent very high however I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to get a great deal with my friend who is a member of a lical golf club. $ 20 with a cart.
Normal cost is approximately $ 50
The course has a great layout not incredibly long nor difficult. It is by all means a fair course, a handful of greens are guarded by slopes or sand. The greens were in excellent condition although I was not putting all that well.
The course has a small pro shop and café. The driving range is large but you have to hit off mats. There is a nice putting and chipping green to warm up on.
If there is one downside the carts are in pretty bad shape and the waits on some holes can be frustrating
I will definitely play there again if invited.

This is by far the worst managed course. I had a tee time but have to wait 30 min b/​c there are no carts and the groups in front of me have been waiting for carts in order to be checked in.

Like the staff and the course. They do a good job taking care of it. If it wasn’t for the Verrazano prices I would go every weekend.

It’s a very decent course compared to other public courses in the NYC area. I found the conditions to be quite good: fairways and greens were all plush and the rough was reasonable too. I’ll definitely play here again.
Some specific comments on the course:
1– I like a course to have a driving range for warming up, which this course has, but the turf mats that you hit from are horrible. It was probably time to replace them years ago. Seriously. But other than that the range is fine. I recommend you cherry pick one of the few mats that are ok.
2– the putting and chipping green are so-​so. Half of it has a really steep slope which makes it impossible to stop a ball anywhere near the holes, and there’s nothing like that out on the course itself. The other half of the practice green is decent, but kinda small and needs more sunlight to be supple.
3– the tee boxes were pretty good and mostly level. A few were maybe a little parched, but otherwise ok and just need some TLC to be perfect.
4– the course plays very fair and most fairways are generous without severe undulations. Average golfers shouldn’t have big problems, but some drives require a little precision otherwise your route to the green is blocked by trees.
5– can’t comment on the bunkers as I was fortunate enough to avoid those.
6– pace of play wasn’t too bad at 4.5hrs.
Overall the value for the cost is average for NYC. Maybe slightly better. It’s expensive to play at lots of places and I didn’t feel ripped off here. Give the course a try… hopefully you’ll be glad that you did. I am.

Course was In great shape. Nice and open fairways. Rough wasn’t too bad, and the greens were really nice. 5 stars if we weren’t backed up even though we had a reservation and if the bar area wasn’t slow as hell lol.

Just terrible. I used to play La Tourette when I called Staten Island home. Back in the late 90s it cost about $ 35 with a cart. At that price, it was fine. Fairly interesting layout (the front nine at least) and in good enough shape for the price.
I went back and played this past weekend for mostly nostalgia. When I heard about the price tag I figured they put in some improvements. Boy was I wrong. Back in the day, if you played in Spring, the course was in decent shape since the local hackers who drive their carts where they want and dont fix ball marks didnt have a chance to completely ruin the course yet. Not anymore.
Its like they gave up. The course is in terrible condition. For almost $ 80 per player (including one from Staten Island) you would think they had some money for upkeep. This has to be the most poorly managed course I have ever played.
The greens are horrendous. Like they have never been treated. Multi-​colored and obviously diseased. One green was so damaged it shouldn’t have been open. And it was obviously damaged by an employee as you can see the cut outs for when they change the pins in about 100 spots in circular lines.
They switched front and back here this year and the back nine is actually the more interesting nine now.
The tee boxes are mostly terrible. The sand traps are full of water. With the record rainfall we had last week this course’s drainage just couldnt handle it and everywhere is soaked, not just low-​lying areas. Elevated fairways were soaked. You would think there would be a cart path only rule to protect the course, or at least a 90 degree rule. Nope. We didnt see one ranger all day.
Fairways were even overgrown to the point where middle of the fairway felt like short rough. There were player-​made cart paths around almost every green (where players are NOT supposed to drive). There were no signs for «NO CARTS» that are normally 70 yards away from greens so every player basically drives right up to the green completely ruining the course.
The sad part about LaTourette is that with proper management and some money for improvements, this could be a very good course. Improve the drainage, maintain the course better, add in some more traps. SOMETHING. Pretend to care about it.

Played here on a Saturday, 10:45 tee time. Not crowded but as with many NY muni courses, if you get stuck behind a group of hackers, or people that don’t know how to keep pace of play, you’re looking at a slow day. Sure enough we got stuck behind one and the round took almost 5:30 hours. But that’s what you get. The starter told us that the earlier you get here, the quicker the pace of play.
The course was actually nicer than i expected. The greens are slow but fairly consistent and at times interesting; the fairways are wide open but has nice slopes and elevation changes; tee boxes are in good shape and fairly even and well kept; i was surprised at some really nice, scenic holes on this course. Overall, the course isn’t hard — not that many trees come in to play, and there are hardly any fairway bunkers (in fact i don’t remember a single fairway bunker), and trouble near the greens are minimal so basically you shoot at the flag every time. It’s a course you want to play on a nice day where you can swing hard off the tee and pepper the flag with your shorter clubs and you’re don’t mind the slow greens. It’s also walkable but i recommend a pull cart.
The course has a nice range with it’s own little pitch area (near 1^st hole), and there’s a putting green near the clubhouse/​18^th. The range seems to have gotten new mats, which was a plus. Clubhouse and Food/​Bar is well kept, with some outdoor eating overlooking the putting green. Parking lot can use some work (it’s dirt and rocks and not outlined) and the road crossing to the 1^st tee/​10^th tee requires some attention/​alertness from traffic when crossing it. The course is bit out of the way, but at the same time, that allows for less people playing it — you basically need a car to get here as there’s no mass transit access from the city.
Overall, it’s a nice course for what you pay you’ll be happy with it if you can overlook the slow pace of play. I’m looking to play some other NYC courses and i’ll update some comparisons later on.

I’d have to say one of my favorite driving ranges compared to the South shore where one feels boxed in. The course is difficult and hilly but it really adds to the challenge. Plus its in a nice area close to the neighborhood also close to decent eateries.
Pros — Very open and friendly
Cons — Hate the amount of silly water consumed areas

Wow, Im surprised Im first here, since I think Latourette is probably the best municipal GC in NYC.
I played here in May 2010, so the good conditions might have been due to the early season. Anyway…
LaTourette is not a very long course, but it has some nice hills and enjoyable terrain.
I found the fairways to be very good condition. And the greens, especially considering this is an NYC public course, were smooth without any problematic patches.
Its actually a pretty nice looking course, and the club house has everything you’d expect to find in a nice suburban public course.
The price, especially for locals duh, is pretty hard to beat.
Ok, now some downsides sort of.
One — you have to drive to get to this course, (no subway access) in which case you may wonder why you shouldn’t just get out of the city to somewhere nicer and less crowded.
Two — Because of the nice conditions and enjoyable challenge, this course seems to get pretty crowded. You WILL get paired up if you’re a twosome, and in general play will be pretty slow. Expect 5 hour rounds or more.
Finally, and I cant stress this enough, if you are a beginner golfer,
DO NOT START HERE.
Not because its too hard but because the crowds will make it unpleasant for you and everyone else. You can expect 6 to 10 people watching you at the first tee, and the rest of the play is already slow enough. You wont enjoy it here with people breathing down your neck.
If you want cheap public golf, and a drive under 35 mins, than LaTourette is the best quality course NYC has to offer.
Expect crowds and slow play, but if your game for that, this is as good as it gets in the 5 boroughs.