I Slept in My Car to Play America’s Hardest Golf Course

I Slept in My Car to Play America’s Hardest Golf Course

The other day, someone asked me what I thought was the hardest golf course in America. And I thought about it for a while, and I decided that it was the black course at Beth Mage. Not only is black statistically one of the hardest golf courses on Earth, it’s everything that leads up to the first tea that to me makes it the hardest. You have to show up the day before and camp in the parking lot and wait in line to get your tea time. And this week, because the Black Horse is hosting the Riner Cup, players have to get there two days in advance, including us. Each parking spot has a number, and every day at 4:30 a.m. they hand out deli tickets, and that will be the order they able to book your reservation in. The kicker is getting a ticket doesn’t guarantee a tea time. They’re first come, first serve, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. So, everybody you see out here in this parking lot is camping for a chance to play Beth Page tomorrow. Before playing Beth Page Black, you’re faced with some very not so subtle intimidation tactics. First of all, the Beth Page sign. The black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers. What is a highly skilled golfer? It would be great if there was some actual like, you know, useful information here. Like is it like you know in your heart if you are cuz I certainly don’t. Yeah. So, fun fact, nobody knows where this sign came from or who put it up. It’s a complete mystery, but more on that later. Are you a highly skilled golfer? [Laughter] Ah, that’s a good boy. Of course he is. Of course he is. Famously, you’re not allowed to practice swinging. They literally will kick you off the course. I I don’t know about that. I don’t think they will. I think they’ll just tell you you can’t practice swinging, but it’s a rule. It’s a It’s a real rule. You can ask them. And if all of that wasn’t enough, after the camp out, after the sign, after the first T- box, you have to play one of, if not the hardest golf courses in the world. The black horse touts a course rating of 77.5 and a slope of 155, which is the literal maximum slope designation a golf course can have. And for you non-golf nerds, it just means it’s hard. So hard, in fact, that back in 2002 when Beth Paige Black hosted the US Open, there was only one player who finished under par, Tiger Woods. I made a devastating realization when I showed up at JFK today. I am down one driver. We have about We have about 12 hours before our 4:30 a.m. wake up. So, our first mission is to go find a replacement. So, we obviously don’t want to lose our spot in line. We have spot number six. So, I’m about to call an Uber and we’re going to go get a replacement driver. But, of course, it can’t be that easy. Apparently, this week there are rules about leaving. Yeah. I found out you can’t leave for more than an hour. There are exactly two golf shops that we would be able to buy a driver from and make it back to the parking lot in an hour. After the flights, expenses, food, and the tea times we plan to book tomorrow, we have roughly $150 left in our production budget. So, the driver will have to be used. Well, I’m just wondering if you sell on like old like some old used drivers. We do not. We don’t have any used selection at Kindly pay attention as our menu options have changed for our Okay, thank you. I don’t know what you’re going to do. Do you need a driver, brother? The good news is there’s a ton of drivers on Facebook Marketplace in Long Island. The bad news is that most of them were either out of our price range or the seller would not meet us in the parking lot. And just as we were about to give up, we found the right driver at the right price. Appreciate you coming through with the club. What time did you say? 6:30 is okay. Yeah, it’s 6:30. You’ll see a lot of tents. We’re right by the tents. Yep. Diego. Yeah. Hey, how’s it going? Good. How are you? Good. Nice to meet you, buddy. This is Diego. He’s a caddy at nearby Glenhead Country Club and the only person who agreed to meet us in the lot. He also greatly overestimated my skill level. Are you play for the for the riders? Are you I’m not playing for the writers. You know, we’re uh we’re camping here overnight to play tomorrow. You sleep you sleep in the car. He had two drivers for sale. A Ping G10 and a Titus 913D. I ended up going with the Ping. It was closer to the loft and the shaft length that I was used to. I got to give it to you this one. What? What? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. True. Diego, look at this. This is a really old death page blackhead cover. And you’ve never played back black before? Uh, no. I carry it. Would you want to play tomorrow? We might have an extra spot. Tomorrow I I got to go work tomorrow. So, I I carry it. So, tomorrow is busy. All day. I am busy all day. I understand. Yeah, got to work. I felt the need to give Diego my head cover as a thank you. It’s an RGC Grail from a few years ago and I hope he likes it. Thank you. Thanks again. Thank you. With a new driver secured, it was time to meet our neighbors and get a taste of the Beth Page car camping lifestyle. And today’s video is brought to you by Element. I am so dehydrated. Oh, you got the good stuff. You got the lemonade salt. What are the benefits of drinking Element? Well, Element helps you sleep better, which needed that last night. Element keeps you hydrated. It lets you go longer, which tomorrow from a fatigue standpoint, this is one of the hardest walks in golf in America. It also tastes really good. There’s zero sugar. Who uses Element? Well, besides the Federal Snipers, US um Olympic athletes, powerliffters, weightlifting team, athletes across disciplines. me, uh, my mother, Keffer, Keffer’s mother. You can get a free sample pack of Element, eight flavors. Just go to drinkelement.com. That’s lm nt. Drinkle element.com/rgc. Free with any purchase. I recommend this flavor right there. Lemonade zone. Uh, so what spot did you get? Last night I was 40 and today five. Spot two. Spot two. Wow. Yeah. Actually, we missed it last week. We tried camping out. We were spot 30 and we got cut off by one. So, we tried it again this week. And what what spots do y’all have? 10 10 11 12 I got here around 2:00. I post up in spot 41 and then saw this opening at 28 or 27 and uh made it home. Not interested. Don’t want to do it. Okay. No worries, dude. No worries. So, what what’s y’all’s like sleeping setup like? Who’s in the tent? I can show you mine. Three different sleeping mats and a sleeping bag. And if you come around here, you can see like the the gap. I’ve just got like a cardboard box that I’m using to to prop myself up on. So, it’s it’s pretty jank. I’m cuddling with my clubs. But, first of all, the sticks won’t be in there. You got to take the extra clubs out. Most important bath mats. Okay. Just a little bit of foam underneath. We lay four of them out. You got to get at least a couple fans going cuz it gets hot. Real hot. Blankets, pillows, up. Couple fans, and a couple beers. And couple beers. Yeah. Always. Cheers, boys. I’m a pretty shy dude, so it was really good to make some new friends. But now that I have a new driver, the only thing I wanted to do was go test it. No practice wings at that age. Just walk up in your bucket, tap a card, get balls. Yeah, this is good. If we need more, we’ll get more. But if we need more, we have problems. And how’s that swing going to feel after a night in the car? You know, I’m not here to warm up for a round. I’m going to play 12 plus hours in the future. I’m here to test my driver. And right now, I’m deciding if I’m going to break the rules or not. What spot are you guys? Five. All right, there you go. I was like, you guys get here. Yeah. Yeah. No, we just came to try to get out on Twilight and they were like they were like booked, which has never happened before either. ride. That’s crazy. Yeah, I guess it’s packed here. And then I’m going to set some TE’s up and break the rules. Really? Yeah. Look, I know this makes me look like a jackass, especially at a golf course like this. I just really wanted to try the driver before the first tea tomorrow. No, no drivers. It’s It’s gone. And if you’re hitting it that far with that good swing, get take it over the yellow flag. It’s only 220 that fence. Anyway, sorry. I won’t do it again. Two cars hit last year. One lady got really hurt and she’s suing the out of us. She is? Yeah. She wound up her car ran off the road and she was on up on the the second hole on the green course. Wait, the green course is there. That’s her first street. That’s the second hole of the green. Man, you must have seen some stuff over the years. Yeah. My swing got so bad working here. I’ve seen some classic. I know, I know. But with the driver tested, there were only two things left on my list before turning the car into a bed. One, take a shower. And two, talk to somebody about the mystery of the Beth Page black warning sign. I’ve been playing golf here since early 80s. I’ve always seen that sign there. They still don’t know how it started, how it got there. But as long as I’ve been here, that sign has been out there. It’s been stolen a few times and replaced, but yeah. Wow. That’s why we sell them now. I’m going to buy them. You’re going to buy one thing. That’s really funny. What is an a highly skilled golfer to you? Yeah. Um somebody who’s has some golf course etiquette, learns, knows how to play the game, replaces his divots, fixes his pitch marks, and probably a a you know, somebody who’s going to play with purpose, not just go out there for a walk in the park. Sure. You hit your ball, walk to it, play it again, have a good time out there, enjoy it, but treat the place like it deserves to be treated. Don’t treat it like it’s somebody else’s backyard and you don’t give a damn. So to you, it’s more about etiquette and attitude than it is skill level. Listen, in all my years here, I’ve never seen them take anyone off. Maybe once I’ve seen somebody take off the black horse, as long as you move, they’re not going to push anyone out. You know, as long as you maintain a pace of play, that’s the key. Appreciate it. All right. Send me a video. Eh, on our journey, we met this guy. His name is Jim. He’s the night watch here at Beth Page. We tried to convince him to let us take a shower in the locker rooms, which were closed. He said no, but he did offer to give us a tour of them, which is almost as good. Looks like we got a wedding going on down here. Indiana. [Music] [Laughter] Indiana James. She is creative. Most of these trees are gone. And in between all of these sand traps, they have red fescue. Beautiful. Nice hardwood moldings. Remarkable. I mean, 6-inch moldings. And if you look closely, you’ll notice there’s no knots. I mean, this was premium stuff in 75. You can rent a locker for 100 bucks a year. Five bucks a day. 100 bucks a year. You can just have your own locker. Yeah. In some ways, you could pay $100 a year and be a member at Beth Black. You can’t even get a hotel room for 100 bucks. But since so many people sleep out here, if they’re smart, they ask about it when they call from wherever they’re calling from and say, “What do you got to do to get a, you know, so I can take a shower?” Because it’s nice to live like a human being. Absolutely. I haven’t showered in two days. But in here, a seat on it. Still feels good. I mean, in 1932, how do you beat that? It is nice. If I had to choose one word for the people we met today, it’s passion. Passion for a building and the land that they manage. Passion for a game that convinces grown-ups to trade a bed for an SUV and a ceiling for the stars. As night settles in, we share stories, food, and beer before retreating to our own corners of the lot for a few hours of sleep. [Music] All right, it is 12:22 a.m. We have set an alarm for 4:00 a.m. so that we can get up by the time the ticket people are here. And the next time I see you, we’ll be getting our ticket and heading to the pro shop. So, looking forward to the round tomorrow. Great day. Peace. [Music] You look like you’re ready. It’s hilarious the links we’ll go to to play some good golf. I’d be willing to bet that nobody in this parking lot got more than 4 hours of sleep. What are you? 73. We met these guys who were visiting from South Africa. They didn’t stay the night here, but they arrived this morning in hopes of getting lucky. So, we sort of come this morning to see what it’s what’s going on. It’s pretty pretty weird system. Any way to beat the system and beat the system they did. I have no idea how they did it, but I ran into them during the round at the halfway house. You can hop in your cars. Just uh wait until I pull you out. Hey, good morning. We have three tickets. Don’t take it off again. The stud is going to cut it off. Okay. If you take it off, well, you know, good luck playing somewhere else. All right, we got our spot. We are 19, 20, and 21. I along the wall and straight up. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, sir. We wanted to play the black horse today. You have you have your bracelets on here? We sure do. We’ll do 10 10 a.m. Yeah. How long have you been doing this? Long enough. Long enough. What’s up? It’s future me. I’m back. At this point in the video, I lost my co-pilot and camera. They went to go shoot Break 90 with Eric. That video actually comes out next week, so stay tuned for that. The pilgrimage to Beth Page and sleeping in the parking lot is one of the coolest and most unique experiences in golf. If you like the video, leave a like, subscribe to the channel, and uh I’ll see you on the next one. Peace. [Music]

In today’s video Keffer takes the pilgrimage to Bethpage Black and sleeps in a car in HOPES of playing Bethpage Black ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup.

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