Dyker Beach Golf Course

One of the oldest courses in the United States, Dyker opened in the late 1890s as the private Dyker Meadow Golf Club and was redesigned in 1935 as a public facility. Dyker holds a vaunted position in golf history as the place where Tiger Woods' father, Earl Woods, started playing the game, when he was an army colonel stationed at Fort Hamilton in the early 1970s. Consequently, Dyker has become the site of a junior golf facility. Free for kids, ages 6 to 17, the facility features a six-hole course, a driving range and a 4,275-square-foot clubhouse with classroom space. At more than 6,400 yards, Dyker is considered perhaps the best city course for its variety of holes and the integrity of its layout, which retains a pleasing old-school feel. All that, and the views from the course of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge would make Tony Manero proud.