On our 5:30 a.m. drive to the media center this morning, my colleague Brendan Quinn posed the question: Is this Bethpage Black or Bethpage Beige?
As a native New Yorker who has teed it up here many times, I can assure you: This is not the same golf course we pay $80 to walk — the one that kicks you in the teeth for four straight hours.
Keegan Bradley and the U.S. team’s decision to set up a benign Bethpage Black might have cost them the Ryder Cup. No one can control weather patterns, so it’s unavoidable that the greens are soft and receptive. These guys hit it a mile, so yes, there’s always going to be a way to overpower some holes.
But the embarrassingly short rough? That was a factor perfectly within Bradley’s control. A member of the American statistics team explained earlier this week, using the 15th hole, a long par-4 with an approach shot that plays 13 yards uphill, as an example: “No. 15 in the PGA Championship or the U.S. Opens was a must-hit fairway because you couldn’t get your approach up the hill. Now it’s just hit it as far as you can, because of the rough being down so much.”
Since players on both sides are not remotely afraid of missing fairways, they can blast it out there as far as they want, with few ramifications for a wayward drive.
