Tag: Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point

This NYC golf course officially has a new title — and the name Trump has been removed

The course opened in 2014 and debuted at No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best: NY list, trailing only Bethpage Black.

The lengthy process to excise former president Donald Trump’s brand from a New York City golf course finally came to a close on Thursday as leaders from the nation’s largest metropolitan area gathered to unveil a new sign.

Ferry Point, which sits in the Bronx alongside the East River, was officially renamed Bally’s Golf Links on Thursday and NYC mayor Eric Adams was on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Previously, the course had been known as Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point and was under the direction of the Trump Organization.

The links-style golf course opened in 2014 and debuted at No. 2 for New York on Golfweek’s Best: State-by-State Courses You Can Play list in 2015, trailing only Bethpage Black. When Ferry Point opened, the city signed a 20-year agreement with the Trump Organization.

While the course opened beneath the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (on the site of a former New York City landfill) in 2014, a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse, designed by the architectural firm Hart Howerton, was completed in 2019.

But in 2021, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would terminate contracts with the Trump Organization in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, which sent lawmakers running for cover in fear for their lives and left five people dead and dozens injured.

A protracted two-and-a-half-year legal battle came to an end in October, leading to Trump’s name being removed from the golf course. Bally’s, which is hoping to work with the city to secure a valuable gaming license, is expected to assume the previous lease. Trump was in the ninth year of the lease with the city.

The Bally’s deal is similar to the one Trump reached with Hilton to buy him out of his lease with the federal government to operate the old post office in Washington D.C.

While many gathered at the golf course for the new sign unveiling, Trump was across town at his civil fraud case, but earlier in the day Nassau County authorities responded to a bomb threat at the home of state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial. The incident isn’t expected to delay closing arguments in the case.

“There was a threat. I can confirm a bomb threat,” said Al Baker, a court spokesperson. “As of now we are going forward as scheduled and the court proceedings and closing arguments are going ahead as planned.”

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Where to play golf around New York City: Golfweek’s Best 2023 public-access courses

The best golf courses within two hours of New York City include layouts in four states.

nLooking for the best public-access golf around New York City? If you’re willing to drive a bit, there are more than a dozen courses available that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in each state.

But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, because the Big Apple sits at a crossroads of states and golfers frequently cross state lines to find a game. This list includes courses in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

How’d we come up with that? For the purpose of this exercise, we limited driving time to two hours from the city, with LaGuardia Airport as a starting point.

Why two hours? Because it takes awhile to get around New York, of course, and two hours seemed like a reasonable amount of time in a car to reach great golf.

And why LaGuardia? Because that airport is a fair starting point for the courses to the north and those out to the west. (We used Google Maps for its drive times, keying in LaGuardia on a mid-afternoon that showed no significant traffic slowdowns; take all drive times around New York with a grain of salt, of course, as backups can be considerable.)

Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers. These numbers are not intended to be a ranking of the best courses around New York, but simply indicate their position on the map.

However, included with each course is its position in its state on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For courses that appear on other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.

A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

New York City Golfweek's Best map
(Google Earth/Golfweek)