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Most golf courses that host a United States Open golf tournament are private clubs that most golfers will never be able to play. A couple courses where the U.S. Open is played are resorts where the public can play if you have enough money. A round at Pebble Beach Golf Links begins at $300 and a trip around Pinehurst #2 will set you back more than $200.
In the year 2002, however, the United States Open will be played on a truly public golf course for the first time. That course is Bethpage Black, one of five golf courses at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York. Here, anyone who pays the greens fee of $31 can play the Long Island course that will host the greatest golfers in the world.
As you can imagine, there is quite a demand to play. Up until a few years ago, play on Bethpage Black was first-come, first served. The "first" typically came the evening before and slept in their cars for the opportunity to play the fabled course. Today, tee times can be made in advance - for local residents only. But some tee times (one per hour and all the first hour's times) are set aside on a "first-come, first-served" basis.
So golfers still camp out in the Bethpage parking lot. In a far lot, spaces are numbered and each new arrival pulls in - backing in only - to the next available spot. Walking around the grounds is forbidden so the golfers drop back the seats and get whatever sleep they can manage.
Tickets for the first available tee times are handed out about 90 minutes before the first tee times, which begin at 5:30 a.m. on the long days of summer. In the past only one player per foursome was required to spend the night to reserve a time for the entire foursome but these days it is one ticket per man. So one player still needs to get there early for a good time but the others don't need to show up until just before the tickets are handed out.
Once the tickets are distributed and the treasured tee times doled out the order of the day's play is determined long before sun-up. Some with afternoon tee times head home or to work before returning; others head for the grill room for breakfast.
What's all the fuss about?
The five courses at Bethpage State Park were created as a W.P.A. project during the Depression of the 1930s. Over 1800 workers transformed 1475 acres of rolling woodlands into a parkland devoted to recreation with picnic areas, playing fields, horse trails and tennis courts in addition to the five golf courses. A.W. Tillinghast, who has designed some of America's greatest golf courses, designed three of the courses at Bethpage. Bethpage Black was the final course he designed in his luminous career.
Bethpage Black is golf on the grand scale. Bunkers are huge; the course is completely surrounded by trees but the holes are wide open. From the championship tees, the Black Course can play at 7,295 yards. Bethpage Black is on every compiler's list of best courses in America - public or private. A sign on the first tee greets the player: "The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers."
To prepare Bethpage Black for the upcoming United States Open in 2002, the united States Golf Association financed a $2.7 million restoration. The Black course will close in the fall of 2001 to prepare for the Open but will reopen for regular play just five days after the tournament ends. Until then, you can be one of the 48,000 lucky players who tour Bethpage Black annually. All you need is $31 and a comfortable car seat.
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