Course Review - Bethpage State Park

Last year Dustin Johnson won a weather-shortened Barclays Championship when the tournament finished after Saturday's 3rd round with hurricane Irene due to touch down overnight. This year the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs moves the 100kms from Plainfield Country Club, New Jersey to Farmingdale on Long Island where Bethpage State Park houses America's toughest and arguably best public golf course.

This New York State municipal facility is home to five courses, three of which were designed by iconic architect AW Tillinghast whose other credits include Winged Foot and Baltusrol. Here, it is his 6825m par 71 Black Course that attracts all the plaudits. First thrust into the spotlight when hosting the 2002 US Open, then again for the 2009 championship, the layout is considered by many to be the finest example of Tillinghast's work.

The course first opened for play in 1936, and over the years has not moved far from the original design. When set up to US Open standards, the course can be brutal as exemplified by only six players bettering par during the course of two National Championships. Even in normal dress, narrow fairways, high rough, well-placed bunkers and small greens make Bethpage a challenging layout.

The round begins and ends with choices – play conservatively off the tee and be left with a mid-to-long iron approach to greens that are not too receptive, or be aggressive with the driver and hope for no more than a wedge to the green as reward. In between there is the beauty and symmetry of the par 5 4th, the super-tough three-hole stretch from 10 -12, and the raucous stadium-like setup of the 185m par 3 17th hole.

Bethpage Black is ranked Top 5 in New York State, Top 30 in the US, and Top 50 in the world, and the layout is a supreme test of golfing skill that is universally acclaimed as one of the finest courses anywhere. And if the weather in anything other than benign, the game's best players will have their hands full trying to tame the beast that the designer himself called The Black Leopard.

A Golf Weather
Editorial