Fishers Island Club on Simulators: Complete Course Matrix Guide
Series Part 60 — The Seth Raynor Collection Continues
Fishers Island Club is the most exclusive course in this entire series. Perched on a seven-mile-long island at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, accessible only by ferry or private aircraft, Seth Raynor’s 1926 masterpiece sits on a piece of land so remote and so private that most golfers will never set foot on it. No public tee times. No stay-and-play packages. No charity scrambles. No photography allowed. The club’s privacy policy is legendary — and for the 99.9% of golfers who will never play it in person, a simulator is the only way to experience one of the finest Golden Age designs in America.
This is the Course Matrix guide to playing Fishers Island Club on every major simulator platform.
Quick-Reference: Fishers Island Club Platform Availability
| Platform | Available? | Version Type | Quality Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSPro | ✅ Yes | Community LiDAR | ★★★★★ |
| TGC 2019 | ✅ Yes | Community Designer | ★★★☆☆ |
| PGA Tour 2K25 | ✅ Yes | Community Designer | ★★★★☆ |
| GOLF+ (VR) | ✅ Yes | Via GSPro Link | ★★★★★ |
| E6 Connect | ❌ No | — | — |
| Trackman Virtual Golf | ❌ No | — | — |
| FSX Play / FSX 2020 | ❌ No | — | — |
| Full Swing Pro | ❌ No | — | — |
| Golfzon | ❌ No | — | — |
| Creative Golf 3D | ❌ No | — | — |
| WGT | ❌ No | — | — |
| The Golf Club (2019) | ✅ Yes | Community Designer | ★★★☆☆ |
| PGA Tour 2K23 | ✅ Yes | Community Designer | ★★★★☆ |
| Dream Golf VR | ❌ No | — | — |
| Awesome Golf | ❌ No | — | — |
The Bottom Line: Fishers Island Club exists entirely in the community-created ecosystem. No licensed platform carries it. GSPro’s LiDAR build is the gold standard, PGA Tour 2K25 offers a solid console option, and TGC 2019 rounds out the available choices.
Why Fishers Island Club Matters
Seth Raynor’s Coastal Masterpiece
Fishers Island Club is widely considered Seth Raynor’s finest work — and Raynor was the man who, alongside Charles Blair Macdonald, brought Golden Age architecture to America. The course was built at the height of the 1920s golf boom, on a site that Raynor himself described as “a gift from nature.” The land is everything a golf architect could want: rolling terrain, dramatic elevation changes, ocean views on nearly every hole, and a natural routing that required minimal earthmoving.
What makes Fishers Island distinctive in the Raynor catalog is the quality of the site. Unlike the flatter Long Island sites where the National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills sit, Fishers Island has genuine elevation — the course climbs and falls through coastal dunes, with the sound visible from almost every hole. The 4th tee sits 80 feet above the fairway. The 8th green is perched on a bluff with a 270-degree view of Block Island Sound. The 16th hole plays along a natural ravine. It’s Raynor’s version of what Cypress Point is to Alister MacKenzie — a dream site that elevated the architect’s best work into something transcendent.
The Template Hole Collection
Fishers Island Club is the ultimate laboratory for Raynor’s template hole system. The course contains arguably the best collection of template holes anywhere in the world:
- Biarritz (3rd hole) — The signature Raynor template, with a long green bisected by a deep swale. Fishers Island’s version is one of the most famous Biarritz greens in existence.
- Cape (5th hole) — A dogleg around a marsh that requires a carry decision at the tee. The angle of the green relative to the line of play creates the classic Cape risk-reward.
- Redan (6th hole) — A one-shotter with the green angled 45 degrees right-to-left, a massive bunker guarding the front right, and a false front that rejects weak shots.
- Short (7th hole) — A tiny, delicate par-3 that plays into the wind, with a green that’s a fraction of the size of the Biarritz green on the 3rd.
- Double Plateau (9th hole) — A two-tiered green that reveals the genius of Raynor’s green contouring.
- Punchbowl (16th hole) — A green that sits in a natural bowl, with slopes collecting the ball from all sides.
The Exclusivity Factor
Fishers Island Club is not just private — it’s among the most difficult courses in the world to access. The club has roughly 400 members, no public tee times, and a policy of not engaging with the media or commercial entities. No drone footage exists. No commercial photography. The club’s website is a single-page affair with no course photography. This is a course that actively avoids attention — and that’s what makes it so compelling for simulator coverage.
For the GSPro community, Fishers Island Club represents everything the community ecosystem does best: it takes a course that is locked behind the most exclusive private gates in America and makes it playable for anyone with a simulator and a LiDAR subscription. The community LiDAR build of Fishers Island Club is a testament to the skill of the GSPro course designing community, who worked from the limited public domain data and routing information available.
Platform Deep Dives
1. GSPro (LiDAR Build) — ★★★★★ The Gold Standard
GSPro’s community-created LiDAR version of Fishers Island Club is the definitive way to play this course on a simulator. The LiDAR data captures the property’s dramatic topography with remarkable accuracy — the 80-foot elevation drop from the 4th tee, the ocean bluff at the 8th green, the rolling fairway contours that make Raynor’s templates so nuanced.
What the LiDAR build gets right:
- The Biarritz swale on the 3rd green — the LiDAR data captures the 4-foot-deep depression that bisects the green, creating the split-level putting surface that defines the Biarritz template
- The Cape angle on the 5th — the dogleg around the marshland is accurately modeled, and the angle of the green relative to the fairway line creates the strategic decision Raynor intended
- The Redan slope on the 6th — the green’s 45-degree right-to-left tilt is faithfully reproduced, making the correct shot (a low draw running into the slope) the only way to hold the green
- The ocean wind on the 7th and 8th — the exposed coastal holes play with the full force of the Long Island Sound wind, which GSPro’s wind modeling handles well
- The Punchbowl collection area on the 16th — the natural bowl is accurately contoured, and shots that land short of the green feed toward the pin
What the LiDAR build misses:
- No licensed textures — the community build uses generic textures rather than the actual course conditions
- The green speeds are community-estimated rather than course-accurate
- Some of the subtler internal contours on the Double Plateau green (9th) may be approximated rather than exact
Best for: Simulator owners with GSPro who want the most accurate Fishers Island Club experience available. This is the definitive way to play the course at home.
2. PGA Tour 2K25 (Community Designer) — ★★★★☆ Solid Console Option
PGA Tour 2K25’s community course designer ecosystem is robust, and several talented designers have created playable versions of Fishers Island Club. The 2K versions benefit from the game’s high-quality rendering engine and the designer community’s growing skill with the course-building tools.
Strengths:
- Excellent visual presentation — the 2K engine handles the coastal scenery well
- Good playability across difficulty levels
- Available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC — the most accessible console option
- Multiple community versions to choose from
Weaknesses:
- No LiDAR data — contour fidelity depends entirely on the designer’s skill
- The Biarritz swale and Redan tilt are often simplified
- Green contours are generally less accurate than the GSPro LiDAR build
Best for: Console players who want to experience Fishers Island Club on a modern golf game. The 2K25 version is a solid option for casual play and online matches.
3. TGC 2019 (Community Designer) — ★★★☆☆ Backup Option
TGC 2019 has a community-created version of Fishers Island Club that serves as a functional backup option. The TGC course designer was the dominant platform for community course creation before GSPro’s LiDAR ecosystem emerged, and many Golden Age courses were recreated in TGC.
Strengths:
- Accessible on PC and console
- The course routing is accurate
- The template hole concepts are captured
Weaknesses:
- No LiDAR data — contour fidelity is limited
- The TGC designer’s terrain tools are less sophisticated than modern alternatives
- Visually dated compared to GSPro and 2K25
- The Biarritz swale and Double Plateau contours are simplified
Best for: Players who have TGC 2019 already and want an approximation of the course. Not the recommended primary option, but a functional backup.
4. GOLF+ VR (via GSPro Link) — ★★★★★ Immersive Experience
For VR simulator owners, GOLF+ paired with GSPro’s course library via the GSPro Link integration offers the most immersive way to experience Fishers Island Club. The combination of LiDAR-accurate contours and VR immersion creates a sense of the ocean setting that flat-screen simulators can’t match.
Strengths:
- The ocean views from the 8th green and 16th tee feel genuinely breathtaking in VR
- The elevation changes on the 4th hole are visceral
- Long Island Sound wind modeling benefits from the 3D spatial awareness
Weaknesses:
- Requires both GSPro and GOLF+ subscriptions
- VR setup is more complex than standard simulator play
- Performance depends on PC hardware
Best for: VR simulator owners who want the most immersive version of Fishers Island Club.
Signature Challenge: The Waterfront Stretch (Holes 5-8)
Fishers Island Club’s greatest stretch of holes runs from the 5th through the 8th — four consecutive holes that showcase Raynor’s template system in a coastal setting. Here’s how each platform handles them:
| Hole | Description | GSPro | PGA 2K25 | TGC 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th (Cape) | 400-yard dogleg around marsh | Excellent — LiDAR captures the marsh carry angle precisely | Good — visual presentation of the dogleg is strong | Fair — marsh geometry is simplified |
| 6th (Redan) | 175-yard par-3, green tilted 45° right-to-left | Excellent — Redan tilt is accurately modeled | Good — tilt is present but less severe | Fair — Redan tilt is noticeably reduced |
| 7th (Short) | 120-yard par-3 into the wind | Good — wind modeling affects shot selection | Good — wind effects work well | Fair — wind is less impactful |
| 8th | 340-yard par-4 along the ocean bluff | Excellent — bluff elevation and ocean view are well captured | Good — visual presentation is strong | Fair — bluff is simplified |
Platform Selection Guide
| If you own… | Fishers Island Club Recommendation |
|---|---|
| GSPro | ✅ Play the LiDAR build — it’s the definitive version |
| PGA Tour 2K25 | ✅ Search the community designer — solid console option |
| TGC 2019 | ✅ Playable backup — search in-game course library |
| GOLF+ VR | ✅ Play via GSPro Link — most immersive option |
| E6 Connect | ❌ Not available — consider GSPro for community courses |
| Trackman Virtual Golf | ❌ Not available — no community course ecosystem |
| FSX Play / FSX 2020 | ❌ Not available — no community course ecosystem |
| Full Swing Pro | ❌ Not available — licensed-only library |
| Golfzon | ❌ Not available — licensed-only library |
| Awesome Golf | ❌ Not available — limited course library |
| Multiple platforms | ✅ GSPro for realism, 2K25 for console multiplayer |
The Verdict
Fishers Island Club is a course that exists, for the vast majority of golfers, only in the digital realm. It is the ultimate case study for the power of the community-created simulator ecosystem — a course that has no commercial licensing, no official platform presence, and no public access, yet is playable at home on GSPro with LiDAR accuracy, on PGA Tour 2K25 on console, and on TGC 2019 as a backup.
If you own GSPro, downloading the Fishers Island Club LiDAR build should be a priority. It is one of the finest community course creations in the entire GSPro library, and the course itself is a masterpiece of Golden Age architecture that every serious golfer should experience. The Biarritz green on the 3rd, the Cape decision on the 5th, the Redan shot on the 6th, and the ocean bluff on the 8th are holes that will test your strategic thinking and shot-making in ways that modern course designs rarely do.
For console players, PGA Tour 2K25 offers a solid, playable version that captures the routing and the strategic intent. It won’t match the LiDAR fidelity of GSPro, but it will give you a genuine appreciation for why Raynor’s template system has endured for a century.
This is what the GSPro community ecosystem was built for: taking the world’s most exclusive courses and making them accessible to everyone. Fishers Island Club is the perfect example.
Related Course Matrix Articles
- Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (Article 15) — The neighboring Long Island masterpiece, just a ferry ride across the sound
- Bethpage Black (Article 14) — New York’s most famous public course, the people’s version of Fishers Island
- The National Golf Links of America (Article 4) — Charles Blair Macdonald’s companion course to Raynor’s work
- Pebble Beach Golf Links (Article 1) — The definitive oceanside course comparison
- Cypress Point Club (Article 3) — The other “impossible to play” private masterpiece
- Winged Foot Golf Club (Article 7) — Another New York-area top-100 private club
- Oakmont Country Club (Article 8) — The ultimate test of Golden Age architecture
- Merion Golf Club (Article 5) — The East Coast’s most historically significant course
- Pine Valley Golf Club (Article 2) — The #1 course in the world, also locked behind private gates
- Royal County Down (Article 12) — The definitive comparison for oceanfront links design