“WARNING. The Black Course is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.”
What a welcome.
That message is emblazoned on an unmissable sign on the gate before a golfer walks down the steps of the clubhouse patio to the first tee at Bethpage Black — the host course for the 45th Ryder Cup, starting on Friday.
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Across Australia, warning signs at golf courses usually refer to the presence of snakes — or crocodiles if you venture north.
In New York, it is the golf course that will bite if you are not careful.
Despite the intimidating entry to the hardest of its five courses, Bethpage State Park is affectionately known as “the people’s country club”.
Unlike the hallowed turf of Augusta National, anyone and everyone can grace the fairways of the Ryder Cup host venue.
A New York state resident can play for $106 on weekdays and $121 on weekends.
Non-New Yorkers are charged double the price, but gaining a tee time is not as simple as booking through an online portal or calling the pro shop.
Tee times are released a week in advance online, but they are often snapped up instantly and the Bethpage website has been proven to be overrun with bots, securing tee times before golfers even have the chance to reach the checkout.
The way to gain a spot without being at the whim of internet bots is to camp out overnight and set an early alarm.
There are roughly 20 tee times reserved every day for walk ups, and Bethpage’s official starter begins taking count of the line at 4.30am.
It is an experience for the true golf die hards, and they do it all with minimal rest, to walk away feeling like they have gone twelve rounds in a boxing ring after wrestling with the course’s infamously thick rough.
SO WHAT MAKES BETHPAGE BLACK SO HARD?
Only one hole has water.
The tees shots are relatively open.
That doesn’t sound so bad, right?
But golfers are met with, on average, less than 24-metre-wide fairways on those open tee shots.
Miss left or right, and a golf ball gets swallowed up by incredibly thick rough.
It ends up being a long way home from the long grass as the course plays almost 6,800 metres in length from the championship tees.
The water in front of the green on the par 3 eighth also acts as a magnet for golf balls as the putting surface and front fringe slopes down towards it.
“These guys spin it so much, they’re going to have to be careful,” Bethpage course architect Rees Jones told golf.com.
“A couple of them will spin it back into the water.”
Golfers could also be forgiven for feeling as if they have trekked through a desert if they are errant with their approach shots, Bethpage Black boasts a mind-blowing eight acres worth of sand in their 78 bunkers.
12/06/2002. Tiger Woods’ group walks up to the 18th green during a practice round at the US Open Golf Championship at the Black Course of Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York.Source: AP
Once a golfer does get on the well-guarded greens, wicked slopes mess with their mind and leave many a nervy putt.
At the 2019 PGA Championship, players got up and down successfully less than half the times they missed the green.
“These are not typical, perfectly graded championship greens,” Jones said.
“They’re very nuanced, irregular surfaces. Some of the guys are going to be baffled by them.”
It is little wonder that Tiger Woods was the only player to break par at the 2002 US Open, the first major championship held at the venue.
JUNE 16, 2002 : Tiger Woods displays US Open trophy at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York 16/06/02. GolfSource: AFP
The number of players in red numbers has increased over time, however, with five players breaking par as Lucas Glover won the 2009 US Open.
A decade later as Brooks Koepka won the fourth of his fifth major titles, the number of players that broke par rose to six.
But the scores are lower outside of championship conditions.
The venue hosted what was then called The Barclays, now the FedEx St Jude Championship – the opening tournament of the FedEx Cup playoffs – in 2012 and 2016.
Thirty-five players finished better than par in 2012, and 30 players did so four years later.
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK – MAY 19: Brooks Koepka of the United States poses with the Wanamaker Trophy during the Trophy Presentation Ceremony after winning the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 19, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
‘MAYBE THEY’LL SURPRISE US’
The Europeans expected a set up more akin to one of those PGA Tour events when they arrived in New York, and that is exactly what they were welcomed with.
“The rough is not as penal as it would be in a US PGA or US Open that have been played there before,” former European Ryder Cup captain and current team strategic adviser Paul McGinley told The Independent.
“The fairways are pretty generous at the moment, because they’re soft and, you know, they may firm up next week. We don’t know yet.
“Greens as well are pretty soft. They may firm up next week. We don’t know yet.
“Green speeds at the moment are probably running around 12. They’re probably moving up to about 13 and a couple of the tee boxes are moved up.”
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 15: (Top L-R) Vice-captain Alex Noren, vice-captain Edoardo Molinari, vice-captain Francesco Molinari, Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre, Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy, Rasmus Hojgaard, vice-captain Jose Maria Olazabal, and vice captain Thomas Bjorn (Bottom L-R) Team advisor Paul McGinley, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, team captain Luke Donald, Tommy Fleetwood, and Viktor Hovland of Team Europe sit for the official team photo ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on September 15, 2025 in Farmingdale, New York. Andrew Redington/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Andrew Redington / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)Source: AFP
The easing of the course is typical of a Ryder Cup hosted in America.
“The Americans generally set up the golf courses in a very similar way. They like it pretty open. They don’t like tight fairways, and they cut down the rough. They don’t want big, heavy rough,” McGinley said on the Countdown to the Ryder Cup documentary.
“And they do like to have a low scoring Ryder Cup, where players can be on the attack. They feel that’s better suited to the style of player that the American team is.
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“So, we’re expecting that. That’s what they’ve done in every away Ryder Cup.”
European captain Luke Donald has known since leading the continent to victory in Rome two years ago that a different test awaits at Bethpage.
“Maybe they’ll surprise us,” Donald said on the Countdown to the Ryder Cup documentary.
“You know, I think the past would tell us that’s how they’ll set up the course.”
FILE – United States captain Keegan Bradley, left, and Europe captain Luke Donald pose for a photo with the Ryder Cup trophy after a press conference in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File(Source: AP
WHERE WILL THE MATCHES BE WON AND LOST?
The best drivers of the ball will no doubt give themselves a major advantage as the tight fairways demand accuracy off the tee.
The long bombers get the chance to make a statement of intent on the first tee in front of the rowdy crowd as the opening hole is a dogleg right, and Bethpage course architect Rees Jones told golf.com that fans can expect fireworks.
“In foursomes, they might be conservative,” he said.
“But in four-ball, I bet at least one of them will go over the trees.”
Just like on the Sunday of a major, the real fun in match play does not begin until the back nine.
And it may just become a putting contest.
Jones said: “There are a lot of very good hole locations where they can hide the pin”.
If tournament organisers opt to tuck the flags away, the greens on the way home can really test the players’ mettle.
The par 3 14th, par 4 15th and par 3 17th greens at Bethpage Black are ranked among the toughest five percent in the world.
Although Jones expects “lots of birdies” at the 14th as the 147-metre hole is the shortest on the course.
If the pin is put at the narrow tongue at the front of the green however, twos are unlikely to go on many scorecards.
The 15th green sits 15 metres above the fairway, offering “probably the toughest approach on the course”, according to Jones, and the putting surface is lightning fast.
A front pin could even lead to downhill putts rolling back onto the fairway.
FILE – In this June 12, 2009, file photo, Bunkers line the fairway and protect the green on the 18th hole of Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y. Bethpage is hosting its third major when the PGA Championship starts May 16. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)Source: AP
The 17th green is the widest on the course, but it is also the shallowest, roughly 15 metres from front to back.
It is also full of undulation that led to incredibly slippery putts.
It will also be surrounded by massive grandstands, adding even more pressure, at least for the visitors.
If a match goes to the last, the winning putt or the putt for half a point may be the ultimate nerve tester as it is yet another sloped surface.
With seemingly every shot presenting a daunting challenge, no wonder golfers are issued a big ‘WARNING’ before every round at Bethpage Black.
