Friday is the best day this year to play

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Bethpage Red.  The pins will be the same as the final round of the Long Island Open.  I would be willing to wager, that without mowing, they will still stip around 10-11.  The rough is currently close to US Open variety in places.  Hopefully, some of you will enjoy the greatness that I look forward to enjoying every year at this time--I did miss last year because of a conflicting event over in Rye .

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

There have been a couple of changes to Bethpage Red worth noting.  Several new fescue areas on holes 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18.  In addition, there is a new tee on 8 making the formerly 378 yard hole @430 --this new tee brings the right bunker into play in a major way with the left fescue area.  One change I am not enamored with is the use of fescue on the bunker lips--this is a potential safty concern--a club caught in the fescue on the follow through is a bad muscle injury waiting to happen and it is overly penal negating any chance of a great recovery shot.  I hit an aweful drive on 9 and found the right bunker ( not too close to the lip, but could not get anything less than sw above the fescue), the second shot was struck flush  but had to penetrate through the fescue and was left with 103 yards.  A miscue without the fescue would have brought the greenside left trouble into play.  Incidentally, there currently is PGA tour to almost US Open rough in the primarly rough areas.  Greenside rough is unbelievably nasty.  Greens can hang with just about any.. tip top conditioned private club in the US.  By the way,  while waiting on the 5th tee at about 2pm, we saw a threesome play down 16on the Black--singles can get on the Black on hot summer days.

[Kyle Harris]

Glad to hear such good things about the Red. The last time I played BP Black I was amazed at how good it looked and vowed to make my next trip up to be one to play the Red.

Still need to make penance for walking off the fourth hole of the Red my first time there...  

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Still need to make penance for walking off the fourth hole of the Red my first time there...  

Kyle-

  We will fix that next week.  Wednesday it is.  I'll drive (like a maniac) to BSP.  We will stop for lunch, and have--ready--Subs.  And, for dessert, ice cream cones.  With sprinkles.  

I've walked off Green (2.5 hours to play 5 holes, what?!) but no problem.  

However, if you don't pick up the ways of those "East of The Delaware" in the short time we have to drive and play, I have no recourse but to call Matt Ward and let him educate you in the ways of the civilized world (in other words, North Jersey)  

[jeffwarne]

Robert,

The greens at the Red were some of the best I've seen anywhere-and I see some pretty good greens daily.
That said,they were always pretty good.

I'm not sure I'm enamored with the presentation and lengthy changes to the golf course.Sadly,I think it's merely an overreaction to the 1% who drive it long and fairly straight.The warning sign on The Black needs to be copied and placed by the first tee of the Red.
There already is a Black course-not sure they need 2.

I played in the morning in a twosome and waited every shot-5 +hours.Every ball hit in the lush, green ,wiry ,tall rough (in my case a large percentage) was potentially lost-and damn hard to move many of them.
It seems to me when we competed in the Long Island Open there in the 90's the best players always won (albeit it with lower scores).Yet the tournament was not such a stress test for  working club pros and amateurs(in fact I always looked forward to enjoying competing there)-this year's
 event was not a course you wanted to come into ill prepared for.There were some huge numbers shot.

For those who were prepared,it provided an excellent test.
In fact my assistant Rich Terga(who has been a student of mine since age 13)finished second.However he's fresh off 8 months on the Hooter's and South American Tour.

I can't imagine playing there as a paying customer can be any fun.
The Superintendant has done an incredible job carrying out someone's agenda-it's just that that agenda is what is making the game a lot less fun to play for the other 99%.

That said though,The Red is a great course in incredibly great condition.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Robert,

The greens at the Red were some of the best I've seen anywhere-and I see some pretty good greens daily.
That said,they were always pretty good.

I'm not sure I'm enamored with the presentation and lengthy changes to the golf course.Sadly,I think it's merely an overreaction to the 1% who drive it long and fairly straight.The warning sign on The Black needs to be copied and placed by the first tee of the Red.
There already is a Black course-not sure they need 2.

I played in the morning in a twosome and waited every shot-5 +hours.Every ball hit in the lush, green ,wiry ,tall rough (in my case a large percentage) was potentially lost-and damn hard to move many of them.
It seems to me when we competed in the Long Island Open there in the 90's the best players always won (albeit it with lower scores).Yet the tournament was not such a stress test for  working club pros and amateurs(in fact I always looked forward to enjoying competing there)-this year's
 event was not a course you wanted to come into ill prepared for.There were some huge numbers shot.

For those who were prepared,it provided an excellent test.
In fact my assistant Rich Terga(who has been a student of mine since age 13)finished second.However he's fresh off 8 months on the Hooter's and South American Tour.

I can't imagine playing there as a paying customer can be any fun.
The Superintendant has done an incredible job carrying out someone's agenda-it's just that that agenda is what is making the game a lot less fun to play for the other 99%.

That said though,The Red is a great course in incredibly great condition.

Jeff-

  Your points are well taken, however, I have always thought The Red was the most fun to play.  For my handicap, 18 currently, Black will eat me alive if I'm a little bit off.  On Red, I find there are options, and a few more avenues of play; specifically, the ability to run the ball up onto greens, the ability to play just short of greens and have a chip and putt to try to save a par.  

  The comments on the rough are spot-on, though.  I played last weekend, Friday, after playing The Creek in the am, and I took notice of how the ball seemed to settle down in the rough.  Great!  

  When you say "huge numbers", which holes are you speaking of?  I've always felt that there really isn't out of bounds to speak of, and most of the par 4s are short enough where a drive, even if it misses the fairway by a little bit, the player still has the chance to advance the ball a certain distance, and maybe take chances with a wedge.  Holes 1,9,14,15 are all examples that come to mind.

These are my experiences only, and obviously differ from player to player.