So you want to secure a tee time at Bethpage Black once the Ryder Cup is over? Come prepared because the adventure will be like few other golf experiences you’ve ever had — one that could result in you playing one of the most-famous courses out there.
Getting on Bethpage Black for 18 holes isn’t as easy as walking into the clubhouse and putting your name down or going online and making a reservation. It’s possible to do both, but with the post-COVID golf boom, coupled with the badge of honor that comes with playing the course that has hosted five major PGA tournaments, including two U.S. Opens and the 2019 PGA Championship, acquiring a tee time requires an open schedule, patience and a blanket or two.
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Rated annually as one of the best golf courses in the U.S., Bethpage Black will host this year’s Ryder Cup between the Americans and Europeans. The famous public municipal course is closed to golfers now, but will reopen sometime in October. That’s when the mad rush to grab a tee time will resume, especially before the winter break.
Golfers line up their cars in a parking lot at Bethpage Black golf course for a chance to play ahead of the Ryder Cup. Because the course allows members of the public to secure first-come, first-serve tee times, many sleep in their cars to save their walk-up spots. (Getty Images)
(The Washington Post via Getty Images)
If you’re hoping to play Black at some point and want to be ensured of a decent tee time, have a plan.
Many hopefuls will arrive at Bethpage State Park the day before and grab a numbered parking spot in the lot. Once you’re in your parking spot that’s when the experience begins, and by that we mean the wait. Consider it an overnight tailgating experience.
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You’ll be waiting until the wee hours of the morning for a park employee to come around and distribute numbered tickets, which you will then bring to the pro shop to find out what time you’re teeing off — either as a foursome or an individual who will join with a group.
It’s a time consuming process, but it’s also an experience and, most important for you, the golfer, totally worth it in the end to say you were greeted by the infamous sign at the first hole and played the Black.
The Bethpage Black course warning sign greets everyone at the first hole. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
(Ross Kinnaird via Getty Images)
Playing Black wasn’t a new experience for Chad DeCarlo, a loan officer from Long Island. He was well-versed with the track, but staying overnight and sleeping in his car to get a tee time? That was a first, and the unique method many golfers must go through in order to get a tee time helps play into the allure of the course.
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“To have to sleep in a parking lot is pretty unique,” DeCarlo told Yahoo Sports recently. “I think just that kind of draws people, the blue-collar golfer, and since COVID everybody’s playing golf now it seems. It just makes it for everybody.”
DeCarlo and his group were prepared for their night in the parking lot. Cold cut sandwiches were secured and a truck bed was used to prop up a television that was necessary for some video game play, which included Mario Golf because there’s no better way to prepare to tackle Black than to work on your backswing and develop a few swing thoughts while at Koopa Park.
(Courtesy Chad DeCarlo)
(courtesy Chad DeCarlo)
There’s a lot of time to kill waiting in the parking lot. Video games and snacking are one thing, but it’s not a tailgate without a few beverages, right? DeCarlo and his group made the most out of their overnight stay and maybe, just maybe, the drinks and the very hot summer morning could be blamed for his round of 106.
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But that’s all right. It’s not often you get to grab some shut eye in your car in a parking lot to play a highly-rated golf course with your friends. Yet, for DeCarlo, the overnight Bethpage experience may be a one-time deal.
Unless another major tournament comes to Black, DeCarlo said he’d pass on the parking lot tailgate again. The allure of playing the course with the grandstands lining holes and the course set up a specific way would be appealing enough to go through a night of video games and a few beverages to get in a round.
As for the Ryder Cup itself, the Bethpage Black experience will be a unique one. The U.S. fans will be loud, boisterous and rowdy — everything you’d expect from a New York crowd.
“It’s going to be like nothing we have ever seen,” DeCarlo said. “Some of these guys are in for it, especially a guy like Rory [McIlroy]. It’s going to be wild.”
Bethpage State Park is also known as “The People’s Country Club,” a public municipal course that is open for play.
(Bruce Bennett via Getty Images)
New Hampshirite Brett Bosse had never played Bethpage Black. When he decided he was going to finally make an attempt to grab a tee time in July he did his research and knew an overnight stay was “part of the fun.”
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After attending an afternoon New York Mets game in Queens, Bosse changed his mind. He originally planned to arrive at Bethpage State Park between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., but decided to head to the course immediately after the game.
A food stop was made along the way and Bosse got to the course around 5:45 p.m. and took parking spot No. 27 as a single. A group he spoke with after he arrived told him they had been there since 11:30 a.m. that morning in order to get a round for the following day.
With the night still young and plenty of time to kill, Bosse walked around the park grabbing pictures of the scenery and the ongoing Ryder Cup setup around the grounds. A little after 7 p.m., he noticed a large number of cars were arriving in the parking lot and grabbing up the numbered spaces. These weren’t people coming to play Black the next day — they were dressed in Hawaiian shirts, flip flops and leis ready to enjoy a luau in the clubhouse.
“If I’d shown up when I’d planned to originally, I would have thought, ‘Oh, crap, everything’s already filled. I’m screwed.’ When in reality it was people at this party,” Bosse said.
(Courtesy Brett Bosse)
(courtesy Brett Bosse)
Bosse only managed about 90 minutes of sleep before he got his ticket and learned of his 11:10 a.m. tee time. Too much money was spent in the pro shop before he headed to the first hole to watch the early groups tee off and then venture to the driving range to get dialed in.
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Playing the middle tees, Bosse, a 7-handicap, shot an 89. He knew the challenges that Black presented ahead of time: thick rough, difficult bunkers, a hilly walk. “Nothing overwhelmed me, it was just a tough-ass golf course,” he said.
There aren’t many golf courses that people would sleep in their cars overnight to play, but it’s a badge of honor to do so in order to play the Black. The famous phrase “golf is a good walk spoiled” doesn’t apply here. Everyone knows what they’re getting into.
“It’s such a challenging course with such a history connected to major golf,” Bosse said. “The course itself stands on its own as being a major venue, but it’s ‘The People’s Course’ because it’s a state-run muni.”
So, would Bosse do the whole overnight thing again?
“Oh, in a heartbeat.”