Breaking Down Bethpage’s Par 5 4th Hole | Great Golf Holes

In the latest edition of our Great Golf Holes series, Garrett Morrison and PJ Clark break down the history and strategy of Bethpage Black’s Great Hazard Hole.

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All right, here we are at Beth Page Black. This is the fourth hole. Spectacular golf hole. PJ, what comes to mind when you think of this golf hole? You’ve played it a number of times. You’re a local. You’re kind of like my expert witness here in a way. I’m going to bring the historical point of view. Yeah, I need that. You’re bringing the local point of view. What comes to mind when you think of this golf? First thing that comes to mind for me is uh don’t go in that bunker up the hill. Uh I’ve been in that bunker up the hill. It’s not It’s not fun. It’s not a good place to be. [Music] So this hole is based on a template that we now know as the great hazard template. And this is a par five design that AW Tillingast, the original architect of this course, according to some historical accounts, oh, used on a lot of his golf courses. The basic idea of the great hazard template is that you had a huge intimidating hazard, usually a bunker. What makes this great? It’s big. The great hazard template is all about carrying the great hazard, but it’s positioned in a way where players are usually trying to get over it on their second shot on a par five. And what that means is that you have to hit your drive well in order to have a chance of carrying the great hazard on your second shot. That’s the essence of this hole. So, the bunker on this hole, which is the main thing that you see when you walk off the third green, you get this great reveal. You look at this golf lot in front of you. It’s beautiful. It’s impressive, but also intimidating. Yeah. Right. You see that bunker there and you’re like, I know that I’m not supposed to go there. If you start off on the wrong foot, if you start off by driving it in the rough, or worse, driving it in that bunker, then you know pretty much that you’re not going to be able to get over the great hazard on your second shot. So then you have to get over the great hazard on your third shot. Then you’re really in trouble. The hole’s on top of you. And it’s a punishing type of template, but AW Tillingast did figure out some ways to introduce strategy into it. Okay. So if you’ve gotten to this point, congratulations. You’ve done a good job. You haven’t done the best possible job. We’re kind of on the right side of the fairway. This is the conservative landing zone, but you’ve hit a good drive. You’re on top of the hill, but still, this is what you’re looking at. This huge great hazard cut into a natural ridge just staring you in the face. And then just over the top of that, you can see the bunkers that are greenside. It looks like you’re going up a mountain. So, as we stand here, you can see kind of the different options that the Hazard is giving you. The more conservative line is over to the left. The carry is shorter. The more aggressive line is over to the right. The carry is longer, but you get that reward of again being closer and having potentially a slightly better angle into the green. Cam Young’s not going to have a problem with this. This is going to be pretty easy. But if I if I’m up here, if I if I make it to the top of the hill, I’m probably feeling myself a little bit. Hit a good shot. I’m I’m taking I’m going hero line. I’m going I think I’m going play it play it right out. Play it play it out toward that that big tree somewhere out there. Aim small, miss small. Take take the uh path of most resistance, but hopefully the least resistance coming in. Okay, so we’re up on top. We’re past the great hazard. We’ve passed through hell’s halfacre, you know, cross the river sticks. I feel great. I feel good, too. It’s a bit of a relief. Um, but we’re we’re here on the most conservative portion of the second fairway here. This is where you end up if you if you hit that kind of more cautious shot over the great hazard. And look at what you got. Lot of sand. Kind of a hard approach to an elevated green with Where’s the green? You don’t know how big the green is. If you cover and you hit the green at the wrong angle and you go down, you don’t know how bad it is on that other side currently, which is my arguably least favorite part of this hole. For somebody who’s not any good at golf, I hit good shots to get up here and I’m hitting into this green and I hit at the wrong angle and I’m just completely gone. It’s mean. It’s mean. Guess what you zoomer? You didn’t take the aggressive line over there. And if you hit it over there, then you’re less likely to go over the back this way. Garrett, I suck at golf. I’m just trying to get through the hole. I understand. I understand. I’m right there with you, man. Okay, we’ve gotten to position A. As long as you’re not on the green, this is probably the best place to be after your second shot. You’ve made the long carry over the long part of the great hazard. And look at this. You’re on more or less the level of the green. You can see more of the green. This is a bit of an easier approach than we saw down there. But it takes quite a shot to get up here. You got to contend with, you know, how many yards of rough in between by the time you even get to the fairway, much less up here to get even with the screen. But this pin, this pin is tucked right over this bunker. You got a free roll to it. Looks like a good shot to me. Okay, we’re up on the green finally. We’re standing on the back edge of the green. And here you can see this drop off behind the green that you’ll catch if you run through if you’re approaching the green from that left side of the fairway. So again, the conservative shot on your second shot, the conservative carry over the great hazard gives you an approach angle where you very well might end up down in this swale behind the green. Whereas, if you’re over to the right here, you’re just the line of your shot does not involve this as much. This is what I was saying, though. You you you take the conservative line over the first bunker and then you have to hit it over these second bunkers, which is especially to this tucked pin today, kind of ridiculous. However, if you land on this half of the green, unless you have a ton of spin on this pole, you’re gone. And you don’t know it until you’re up here. It’s just like a nice nice carrot awaiting you when you thought you were getting a candy bar. All right. Did we learn anything today? Yeah, I I learned that there is a much nicer way to describe the architecture of this hole than just getting onto the tea box and going, “Damn, I hate this much sand.” Well, I would say this is the first time I’ve actually walked this hole. Yeah. What did you learn? I I I have some historical context for the great hazard template, but I had never seen this version in person. And the thing that strikes you when you walk this hole is just how big the topography is, how large scale everything is. You really don’t get that from pictures of this hole. But the Great Hazard is massive. I mean, it it literally might be a half acre and it’s pressed into this natural ridge that is just enormous. And then the green is up even higher. So, it really is intimidating. But then if you look at the scorecard and consider the yardage, you would think it’s 600 yards, but it’s not. And so, I think it’s an achievable golf hole, but you just have to get past the sheer intimidation factor. You think hell’s halfacre could fit on a big letter hat? We’d have to take out some vowels for sure. Never stopped anybody before. I’m sure G4 could do it. [Music]