La Tourette Golf Course, Staten Island, NY

Play here several times a year. always in great shape

Course is in excellent shape, especially considering the recent rains that have washed away many of the other courses in the area. And especially since it is a NYC public course that gets a ton of play.

It is a moderately difficult course with some challenging holes. The back nine is much more interesting and scenic than the front nine. The 16 hole in particular heading out into the woods is nice -- and when the leaves start turning, this hole will be stunning. The greens were running quick and overall were in pretty good shape.

The staff was pleasant also. Most folks have expectations with respect to NYC public course golf is that the staff is gruff and does not give a hoot, but this staff was pleasant from the two ladies in the grill room to the starter. The starter even gave us an area Italian restaurant recommendation (Dominicks in New Dorp) and then went the extra mile for us and wrote down directions on the back of a tee time slip for us (it was worth it!). That was really nice.

The regular price for this course with cart is in the $60 range, but check out www.golfzing.com, which frequently runs specials on the NYC courses that it works with. We only paid $29 for a round and a cart. Great deal.

One huge negative is the pace of play. It is slower than slow. We teed off at 1:15PM and barely made it in before dark at 6:30PM. It took 2:45 to play the front nine and 2:30 to play the back. There is a ranger that drives around occasionally, but he does not seem to be able to speed up play. Huge backups at the Par 3s -- you can make friends with several groups while you wait to tee off. Luckily for pace of play purposes that there are only 3 of them on the whole course. It is a very nice course, but if you are playing on a weekend, be sure to tee off early and budget most if not all of the day for a round of golf -- because you will need it.

In summary, very friendly staff, nice course, reasonable rates if you can find a deal on www.golfzing.com, awful pace of play.

Played here yesterday and overall enjoyed it. Frond nine was ok to walk, back nine became exceptionally hilly. Couple short holes which making scoring low very possible. I played at 7am and there was a lot of dew on the greens which made them really really slow. The greens also looked to be rather long and in desperate need of being cut. After the sun dried them up, putting was more pleasurable. Overall not a bad course, I would play again if I was in the area. Very nice staff and course was in good shape with the exception of a couple greens that had some bare spots.