Sebonack Golf Club

The verdict

Sebonack is the rare course where two of the most distinct minds in modern design shared the drawing board. Jack Nicklaus, whose courses tend to be muscular and strategic, and Tom Doak, whose work runs to the natural and the rumpled, collaborated on the routing and the look across a glorious stretch of the Great Peninsula in Southampton, with Great Peconic Bay on one side and Bullhead Bay on the other. The result, which opened in 2006, is neither a pure Nicklaus nor a pure Doak course but a genuine meeting of the two, expansive in scale yet shaggy at the edges, with sandy waste, wild fescue and water never far from view.

It plays as a par 72 of about 7,400 yards from the championship tees, and what makes it special is the land. The site falls toward the water in big, easy movements, so holes finish against the bay and the light, and several greens sit out on points where the wind is the chief defense. The membership keeps Sebonack private, so for a traveling golfer it is reached through a member, but it sits in the densest pocket of great American golf there is, a short drive from Shinnecock Hills and the National Golf Links of America, and it belongs in any serious conversation about the courses worth the trip to eastern Long Island.

The holes worth the trip

Sebonack saves its drama for the water. The closing run toward Great Peconic Bay is the heart of the course, a sequence where the land tips toward the shore and the wind comes hard off the open water, so club selection becomes a guessing game and the bail out is rarely where you want it. The par 3s play out toward the bay on more than one occasion, exposed and beautiful, the kind of one shotters that look gentle on a calm morning and turn fierce by afternoon.

Inland, the course shows the Doak hand in the width and the ground game, fairways that feed and repel, greens that sit in natural hollows and on shelves rather than perched and framed. The Nicklaus instinct shows in the strategic demands, the angles that reward a tee shot flirting with the sand and punish the safe miss. Waste areas of native sand run through the property and give the course its rugged, slightly untamed look, a deliberate counterpoint to the manicured estates that surround it.

What stays with visitors is the sense of space and the quality of the light over the water. Sebonack is big golf, generous off the tee and exacting around the greens, and it rewards the player who can flight the ball and read the wind. For a course barely two decades old, it carries itself like one of the established greats, which is exactly what its founders intended.

Where to stay nearby

The Hamptons supply the lodging, from the inns and boutique hotels of Southampton village minutes from the gates to the larger resorts along the South Fork toward East Hampton and Montauk. It is a summer playground, so book early and expect peak season rates between June and September.

Sebonack sits at the heart of one of the densest pockets of great golf in the world, alongside Shinnecock Hills, the National Golf Links of America and Maidstone, so it anchors a Long Island trip beautifully. We can help with the introductions where possible and build the lodging and transfers around your rounds.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around the Hamptons.