Pristine public 9-holer in New York’s first capital topped my 2025

The are many benefits to having an inexpensive, easygoing public course near home. Quick rounds at sunrise, or to beat the dark before sundown. Spontaneous speed-rounds when an unexpected window opens up. Familiarity. Community. No dress code.

With all that to offer, you don’t need to ask much of the course itself. With relatively smooth greens and some grass in the fairways, you’re good to go.

But Green Acres Golf Course in Kingston, N.Y., offers so much more than that. For the price of a goat track, any golfer who arrives at Green Acres will be treated to near-pristine conditions, a friendly and accommodating staff, a short but varied layout and, at least as fall settled in this year, the fastest and smoothest greens I’ve ever putted on.

And that’s why it earns the admittedly minor honor of my favorite golf course of the year.

Green Acres Golf Course in Kingston, N.Y.

Located a few miles off Exit 19 on I-87, just past the green sign declaring your arrival in “Historic Kingston: First Capital of New York,” and at the end of a quiet suburban neighborhood just off a busy business district, you’ll find a modest sign hanging on an open chain link fence letting you know you’ve arrived.

After checking for cars exiting the gravel and dirt road wide enough for only one vehicle, you descend what I think of as Kingston’s own ramshackle version of Magnolia Lane.

But once you reach the end of the road, the scene changes dramatically. With your first glance at the deviously-pitched par-4 9th green, which finishes right next to the gravel parking lot and starter’s shed, you can tell you’re in for a treat.

If I made the 25-minute drive over from my house at any time this year, I was guaranteed to walk right on the course after stopping to pay $22 at the starter’s shed. Or if I arrived early to sneak in a pre-work round and the starter hadn’t arrived yet, no matter. I simply played away and paid up when I was done.

While Green Acres is not long, its design makes up for any lacking length. The short par-4 2nd features a sharp dogleg right, a pond guarding the right side, and trees partially obstructing your view from the tee, forcing the wiser golfers to use an iron. The fairway of sub-300-yard par-4 6th features a tight bottleneck well short of the green, once again dissuading all but the boldest from using the big stick.

And while the par-5 4th and 5th holes are more like long par-4s, they would be very long, very hard par-4s. The devilish 4th green, which tilts severely from the front left to the back right is nearly impossible to hold. The wise move is to get to the back right collar as quickly as possible and put uphill from there.

And while the 5th is dead straight, it’s tiny, lightning-fast green will give you fits. And about those greens. My previous statement in the intro of this story was not a fit of exaggeration. These greens are fast.

While they’ve been quick anytime I’ve played, as the season wound down they went to another level. Ahead of a popular Ryder Cup-style event the course hosted this fall, the small team at Green Acres got the greens into shockingly good shape. And shockingly quick.

The fastest, I think, that I’ve ever played. Again, no hyperbole. The only other time I’ve experienced greens anywhere near as fast was a round a few years back at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, CT, a private, 1929 Charles H. Banks design featuring idyllic template holes and greens that play like ice rinks.

Even if you’re a real sicko and demand a grueling challenge every time you tee it up, Green Acres’ par-3 7th hole will more than please you. It does the opposite for most of us. That’s because the 7th is one of the hardest par-3s I have ever experienced.

Tipping out beyond 200 yards, the 7th’s first test is a pond that runs the length of the hole right up to the green’s edge. And that green, tucked to the right completely behind the pond, is a doozy. The back of the green is raised about five feet higher than the front, sending any and all balls careening down toward the water.

So you want to bail out and avoid the water altogether off the tee? Good luck. The left side of the green is protected by deep, slanted bunkers, from which you have little hope of getting it close. Go long and your return shot will most likely to end up off the front of the green. Leave it right and you’re lost in a marshy native area. Most balls end up in the water.

The best strategy might be to intentionally duff your ball into the pond, then head to the drop area, where you’ll have a direct, dry, 100-yard route to the putting surface to save 4 or 5.

Beyond the slick, pure greens, the fairways at Green Acres showed no sign of the struggle from a summer of drought, and the deluge of rain that followed this past fall. What the small crew is able to pull off on a certainly minuscule budget is nothing short of magic.

The owners made a ton of upgrades in recent years, and more changes are expected in 2026. In other words, the future is even brighter for Green Acres. It’s a pleasure to play, and I have little doubt that by this time next year, it will again be my most-played course of the year.