Governors Island hosts Fly Off Course Open amid ferry delays

Planned New York Harbor closures on Friday, July 17, 2026, pushed Governors Island ferry service into two delay windows, 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m., and that made the Fly Off Course Open as much a transit event as a disc golf tournament. Governors Island said the island was open every day, but anyone heading out for the round had to build the ferry schedule into the day.

That logistics wrinkle is what set the event apart. NYCDGA billed it as an 18-hole tournament on Governors Island, played on one custom-designed course built for one day only. The setup gave the open a look that standard park layouts in New York City cannot match: skyline views, the Statue of Liberty in the background, and a course staged on an island reached by public ferry rather than by car.

The structure also suggested a different kind of tournament experience. One listing identified the Fly Off Course Open as a flex-start doubles event, which spread play across the day and fit the island’s public-visit rhythm. Governors Island’s visitor information also directed people to maps, ferry details and permits, reinforcing that access was part of the event design, not an afterthought.

That matters in a city where disc golf still has to fight for visibility. A Reddit post linked with the event said it was meant "to introduce disc golf to as many people as we can in NYC," and the Governors Island setting did the rest. The course sat in a place that draws tourists, commuters and casual visitors as well as dedicated players, making it one of the sport’s more visible New York showcases.

For the players who made the trip, the round was about more than navigating a temporary layout. It was a chance to throw in one of the city’s most unusual public spaces, with ferry delays, harbor traffic and island access all shaping the day around the discs.