Bethpage Black is preparing to host the 45th Ryder Cup between Team Europe and Team USA from September 26 to 29 in Long Island, New York. With just over a month until the highly anticipated tournament with special player/captain rules begins, many golfers are so eager to play that they’ve slept in their cars and waited in line for over two days to play 18 holes before the world’s biggest stars arrive.
A group of golf enthusiasts drove over 13 hours from Michigan to play the course before experiencing a hopeful battle between Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy before the event. After researching, planning, and checking every detail to ensure they played a round before the competition, they still had to wait their turn.
Bethpage Black and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club are considered the most challenging courses in New York. Shinnecock is a private club, while Bethpage is a public course. Its multi-tiered greens, challenging rough, enormous bunkers, and slim fairways make it a premier destination and a dream course for players who want to challenge their skills.
The course is so challenging that it has a famous sign that reads, “WARNING, The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.” People who aren’t golfers tend to stand around the sign as a main attraction even when people are at the course for sessions, and the sign is “probably more photographed than the course.”
According to the Washington Post, the three friends’ wait time was over 44 and a half hours. They spent two nights sleeping in a car, and one of them said they had no regrets about their decision. Reports also indicate there were more than 50 cars ahead of them in line to play the course.
It was also suggested that only 104 golfers can play the course each day, and the friends intended to stay just one night before returning home. Since they couldn’t play on the first day, they adjusted their plans for the “bucket list” item, with some players so impatient that they rehearsed their game in the parking lot.
Others set up tables for games like cornhole, dominoes, and poker, with chairs and tables in front of all the cars. Bluetooth speakers, DoorDash, tents, and TVs were all present as players eagerly waited to enjoy the course.
The 18-hole course costs $70 to play on the black course during the weekdays and $80 on the weekend for in-state residents, and is $140 for players out of state.
DON’T MISS
Golf Digest ranked the course as high as No. 26 as the best in the world and ranked it the No. 8 best public course in the country last year. It hosted PGA Tour events like the U.S. Open Championships in 2002 and 2009, and, most recently, Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship in 2019.
