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Some golf courses make you want to run to the first tee immediately after putting out on eighteen…Bethpage Black is not one of them. You will be well tired after the last putt falls. It is a grueling, punishing, relentless golf course. In fairness, a sign warns you before your first swing:
Warning
The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.
After playing Torrey Pines this past February, I made it my number one priority to get out to Long Island and see Bethpage Black. Both courses have held US Opens and are regarded as two of the best municipal golf courses in the country. The Black was designed in 1936 by A.W. Tillinghast and Joe Burbeck. (Ron Whitten wrote an expose before the 2002 US Open stating Burbeck routed and designed the course while Tillinghast was hired to be a consultant. The whole Bethpage facility was a WPA project with a lot of moving parts. Tillinghast supporters strongly disagree with Whitten’s opinion. Burbeck was the longtime superintendent of Bethpage.)
(The 517/461 yard fourth is one of the best par fives in the world. It climbs uphill with immense bunkering separating the three levels one must scale to reach the green…
…from the fairway this giant bunker is easy to carry but if one should find the sand off the tee, or worse the rough, then a decision has to be made to challenge it…
…once on the upper fairway, the green is perched like Mount Olympus on a higher plateau. Bold, intimidating bunkers make the third shot blind with just the top of the flagstick visible. It is reachable in two shots by the long hitter. For us mere mortals, it is a hole of epic proportions!)
The Black is incredibly difficult! It has monster length, impenetrable rough, and blockaded greens. The narrow fairways are only 22-28 yards wide and several of the holes have sahara bunkers that demand both length and accuracy to find the short grass. The bunkering is magnificent! The complexes are enormous with capes and bays eating into the fairways with wispy strewn rough growing in between. It is filled with heroic tee shots! The greens are tightly defended with large bunkers that trap your ball and scuttle it to middle. This leaves twenty, thirty, or forty yard bunker shots.
The only saving grace is the greens are mostly flat. A good putter and good short game can save a lot of strokes.
(The 478/423 yard par four fifth demands a fade off the tee and draw into the green. The Sahara bunker really forces the issue as one honestly determines his line off the tee. If not hit far enough, or if one chooses a conservative line, the second shot is a layup short of the hill. This uphill beast is a bogey hole for all but the longest hitters.)
(The 408/386 yard par four sixth has a blind tee shot with just the fairway bunkering visible as an aiming point…
…long hitters can carry the inside trap and have the ball run down to flip wedge range. The majority will be on top hitting 150-180 yard approaches. The ball must be struck high in the air to hold the green. There is no room to run the ball on.)
(The 210/191 yard par three eighth has a false front that will repel balls into the hazard short. Taking an extra club will take the big number out of play…
…the rear is significantly raised making a back pin difficult to access. The middle pins can be attacked aggressively. It’s a beautiful hole.)
The Black only has three tee boxes. They are back, middle, and forward. It is walking only. This caveat forces players to be in good shape. It is a terrific hike, climbing up and down the hills, across ridges, making several treks to the highest points of the property. It’s a strenuous round of golf and one’s physical strength along with endurance will be tested as much as one’s golfing skill.
(The 460/385 yard par four ninth has my favorite drive. I love how the entire right side of the fairway bounds everything to the left and hopefully past the trap that long hitters can carry. Just a beautifully natural hole!)
(The 502/434 yard par four tenth has a green atop a slight knoll. Note how the fairway stops well short of the green. Like the fifth, laying up is a fine way to secure a decent score. During the US Open, this was the hole that players raged against because they couldn’t reach the fairway from the tee when the wind switched.)
(The view from eleven green to twelve tee reveals another Sahara bunker that needs carried. The back and middle tees are left and behind the forward tees in the picture. The 516/432 yard par four plays very much like a par five unless one can carry the full length of the hazard. Note how the fairway is well right and works it’s way around the back of the trap. One can completely avoid the trap and play away from it albeit at the cost of an extra stroke.)
(The 158/149 par three fourteenth is the easiest hole on the course. The large green allows players to conservatively hit the middle and two putt for par. A back right pin is the only exception.)
I read that Bethpage is America’s version of the Old Course in St Andrews. It has become a Mecca for single digit handicappers. That is a very interesting comparison. On my first night there, the conversation at the bar was about spin rates and ball flight. I kept thinking how I was finally with my people! This place is pure golf! Any type of golf topic can be discussed ad nauseam. It is a brotherhood here. How else would you describe grown men who are willing to sleep in their vehicle just to secure a tee time?
(The 207/195 yard par three seventeenth is over a sea of sand to an angled green. It’s uphill just enough that gauging the carry distance can be deceiving. The shot must be hit very high to hold the putting surface. A three is a good score.)
(The 411/368 yard par four eighteenth has a downhill tee shot to a fairway lined with bunkers on both sides. The approach is then uphill to a green well protected by sand. In the 2009 US Open, Lucas Glover hit a 6i off the tee to seal his two stroke victory.)
The Black is setup in US Open conditions year round. This makes it, for better or worse, an experience you will remember for a long time. It is challenge after challenge after challenge. You’ll learn how to cherish par, fight for a bogey, and accept a double. Birdies are few and far between although I would classify a handful as birdie opportunities. It is not a course you’d want to play everyday, just on special occasions. Since Rees Jones renovation, it has hosted two US Opens, a PGA Championship, a couple FedEx Cup tournaments, and in 2025, will be the site of the Ryder Cup. I give Bethpage Black a 9 (incredible)(worth planning a vacation around it).
[we spent two days at Bethpage and played the Black twice. Both times we played the middle tees at 6757 yards (I didn’t see a single male in those two days play the forward tees.) It was way too much golf course! I didn’t have an iron approach shot on any par four, and there were five of them that I simply couldn’t reach. For me, the course essentially was a par 76. I wouldn’t mind the length so much except the rough is insanely thick. You’re simply hacking it out. This places a tremendous amount of pressure on your driving. I was in a lot of bunkers, sometimes off the tee and around the green on the same hole. I eked out seven pars and had the chance to make a few others. The green fees at $140 is a great value!]
[Bethpage is a 90 hole golf facility that has five courses named after different colors. The clubhouse serves as the starting point for all five which emphasizes the massive size of the property. It will surprise many to learn that the “Bethpage Inn” where players sleep in their car to get a tee time is mostly for the other courses as opposed to the Black. Locals who have a long standing weekly game will rotate parking lot duty so they can obtain a tee time on the other courses. Out of towners, like myself, are usually the ones camping out for the Black. It’s a simple system where the spots are numbered, and one parks in the first available. The ranger arrives first thing in the morning, 4:30am for my trip, and gives a ticket to each person present for each spot. (If I spend the night for a foursome, my three friends need to arrive before the ranger so we can get a tee time for four people) I reckon many do this before work and get an afternoon time for later. Once you get your ticket, you head to the clubhouse where they call out the ticket number, and you step inside to the ticket window and choose your course and time. All five courses have their own screen with tee times and availability.]
(From the fourteenth green, the view across the valley reveals the monstrous par four fifteenth. Look at that giant bunker guarding the green. It’s thirty feet above the fairway to the putting surface. It’s very difficult to reach in two shots.)
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