Friar's Head

Overview: Friar’s Head is a modern Long Island links that moves between two very different landscapes. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw routed holes through high sandy dunes above Long Island Sound and then back across flatter former potato farmland, using elevation, wind and subtle ground movement to give the course two distinct moods. The design feels natural because the contrast is not hidden: the dunes provide drama, while the farm section demands quieter decisions with width, angles and approach position.

History: Friar’s Head opened in 2003 as a course built around the unusual property rather than around a conventional front-nine and back-nine division. The architects’ challenge was to marry the dune bluffs and the ordinary agricultural ground into one coherent round. Their solution was to move the routing back and forth between the two landscapes, shaping the farm fields only as much as needed to create links-like holes while allowing the native dunes to retain their height and presence.

Did You Know? Friar’s Head is often described through its contrast between spectacular and ordinary land. Some holes sit high above the Sound in dramatic sand dunes, while other important decisions occur on the flatter potato fields, where the interest comes from subtle contour, sand and native grasses. That unusual balance is the central idea of the course, not merely a scenic transition between two groups of holes.