Archive for October, 2008

Get yourself to the Bethpage - site of the 2002 & 2009 US Open. This is the ultimate driving guide.

From points east, including New York City

From Manhattan, Northern Brooklyn/Queens & New Jersey
- I-495 East (aka LI Expressway or LIE)
- Exit 44S to Route 135 going south (aka Seaford/Oyster Bay Expressway)
- Exit Powell Avenue going east to Bethpage State Park.

From JFK Airport & Southern Brooklyn/Queens
- Southern State Parkway East
- Exit 28A North to Route 135 going north (aka Seaford/Oyster Bay Expressway)
- Exit 7E and follow signs.

From points west (Suffolk County)

From North Shore & North Folk
- I-495 West (aka LI Expressway or LIE)
- Exit 49S to Broadhollow Rd/RT-110
- Right on Melville Road
- Right on Powell Place
- Slight right to continue on Powell which becomes Bethpage Rd.
From South Shore & Hamptons
- Route 27 West (aka Sunrise Highway)
- Exit 46 to Southern State Parkway West
- Exit 33 for 109 West toward Farmingdale and follow signs to course

To book a tee time on any Bethpage State Park golf courses, including Bethpage Black, you first must register. This involves faxing a copy of your driver license or state issued id. Given that faxes can make small type unreadable, Bethpage additionally requires that you type all the driver license information – from the front your id - plus your telephone number and email address. Download our handy Bethpage Golf reservation request template - it’s a Word Document.

Non-New York State residents are encouraged to include your Social Security number, which will become your reservation system account number. If you don’t want include your Social Security number, Bethpage will assign you a reservation number. Depending on when you send over your information, it take takes one to three days before you’re officially registered the system.

Fax your Bethpage tee time reservation application to 516-753-0413. The tee time reservation line is: 516-249-0707.

Out-of-state residents are restricted to making tee times two days in advance of the intended date of play. That means…you can begin calling at 7 p.m. two days before you’d like to play. For example, if you plan to play on a Saturday morning; call at 7 p.m. on Thursday night. New York residents can reserve seven in advance. Insider tip: if you’re in town, try calling two days and the night before you wish to play - reservations open up all the time due to cancellations.

Footnotes & Citations

• Golf Vaction Insider: Play Bethpage Article

Host of the 2002 & 2009 US Open, Bethpage State Park represents the best public golf in the US has to offer.  Best know of the Black course, Bethpage offer five total courses - Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and Black.  Bethpage is a true test of golf, available to the average player and pro alike.
 
In 1912, the railroad magnate Benjamin Yoakum bought 1,368 acres of woodland and farmland in the Bethpage area. In 1923, the Lenox Hills Country Club, on land leased from Yoakum, opened as a semiprivate 18-hole course designed by Devereaux Emmet, the architect of the Garden City Golf Club. Years later Lenox Hills would be transformed into the Green Course.

Yoakum died in 1930 and four years later, in the midst of the Depression, the Bethpage State Park Authority was created by State Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. Construction of the clubhouse and three courses, under the supervision of the legendary golf architect A. W. Tillinghast, began in 1934 as a federal Works Progress Administration project that employed 1,800 men.

On Aug. 10, 1935, the Red and Blue courses opened, along with a revised Green Course and the Bethpage clubhouse, a Colonial-style building with a circular drive.

Tillinghast, who designed Winged Foot and Baltusrol, is also considered the architect of the Black Course by Bethpage officials despite the claim by Joe Burbeck that his father, Joseph Burbeck, the original Bethpage superintendent, was the Black’s real designer and that Tillinghast was merely a consultant. The Black opened in 1936.

In 1958, the Yellow Course was added. It absorbed some of the holes on the Blue and new holes were added to fill out both courses. In 1982 and again in 1987, the Black Course was refurbished; the bunkers were filled with new sand and restored to their original shape.

But those renovations were merely a touch of rouge and lipstick compared to the architect Rees Jones’s surgery transforming the Black Course into the site of the 2002 US Open.  Playing 7,214-yard and a par 70, Bethpage Black was the longest golf cours in Open history to that point.  Tiger Woods, winner of the 2002 US Open, was the only play to finish under par with a three under (277).

This is a working draft.  If you have news/articles/additions, please send them to me here.

Footnotes

The weather is looking great this weekend. It’s going to be sunny with highs in the 70s. Get out there while the getting is still good.

Here’s our weekly tee time notes:

Nassau- Harbor Links Golf Club
Saturday (10/11/08): 1:29pm
Sunday (10/12/08): 12:17pm
Book Online or call: (516) 767-4816

Suffolk - Spring Lake Golf Club
Saturday (10/11/08) - starting at 7:27am, it’s wide open
Sunday (10/12/08) - starting at 7am, it’s wide open
Book online or call: (631) 924-5115

More Spring Lake News
Starting Thursday, October 9th, Twilight will be 2:00PM
Mon-Fri $25 walk $41 w/cart
Sat-Sun $30 walk $46 w/cart

PING Fitting Van at Spring Lake Golf Club
Saturday, October 11th
10:00-2:00PM
Note that the fitting will happen on the Spring Lake Golf’s grass hitting range.

Welcome to the first weekly ‘Weekend Golf Update”. I hope to get these out on Thursday (latest on Friday). Here’s you’ll find free tee times, weather information and any other news. So, if you have an announcement or a lead on some golf news….drop me a line and I’ll include it here.

Nassau County - Lido Beach Golf Course
Saturday 10/4/08 – First Foursome available at 1:37pm
Sunday 10/5/08 – You can get out at 11:37
Call the pro-shop at 516-889-8181

Suffolk County - Bergen Point Golf Course
Saturday 10/4/08 – Many options starting at 7:45am. More at 8:45am thru 9:15am
Sunday 10/5/08 –First foursome available at 9:52
Call the pro-shop at 631-661-8282

{Tell them you heard about the free tee times here}

Weather: It looks like a great fall day. Make sure to bring an extra layer. Saturday is showing highs in the mid 60s. Mostly sunny with light northwest winds. Sunday is about the same: Partly sunny, highs in the mid-60s. East winds around 5 mph.