Bethpage Black — or more formally, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y. — is not just the most difficult of the five publicly available courses at the park.
It is a brutal challenge even for the world-class golfers participating in this tournament. As The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig writes:
📝 “If you’re into that sort of thing, the Black Course is a brutal test — one of the hardest in the world. It eats you up, spits you out and then does that all over again, whether you like it or not.
“There can be hundreds of yards of dry land in front of you, but there is no shot at Bethpage Black that feels completely comfortable. The course features just one water hazard, but eight acres worth of bunkers. For amateur golfers, it’s an accomplishment in itself just to get to the green.”
An infamous sign before the first tee warns of the course’s difficulty and recommends it only for “highly skilled golfers.”
Jordan Spieth, who is not part of the Ryder Cup this year, said in 2016 that the posting actually under-sold the course’s challenges:
💬 “(It) should say: ‘It’s a risk, even for really good players. The course I’ve played the last two days is up there with the hardest, probably top-five courses I’ve ever played in my life.”
You can read much more from Gabby below, as he profiles the course canvas for this forthcoming Ryder Cup.
GO FURTHER
The guide to Bethpage Black: Why the Ryder Cup host is golf’s toughest test
