Before we leave Bethpage...

[Nicholas Coppolo]

I've played all 5 a ton as well.

Black:  8 (can't give it a 9....it's just not a course that suits a wide variety of players, not a reflection of the design, more of the maintenance)

Red: 6 (I think it would only be a 7 if you had no access to private courses in the Northeast.)

Blue: 5

Yellow: 5

Green: 5

I like the 3 others immensely, but none of them are complete courses.  You get snippets of great holes on each of them but no consistency, for obvious reasons.  There are stretches of real quality, but aside from them, the courses are mundane, and sometimes "mickey mouse".

Blue Love: 2-8, 12,13  

Yellow Love: 3-6,11-14,17

Green Love: 2 (Green),4,5,6,9,10,18

Like I said, I really enjoy them and am glad to play a lot of golf there, but I don't think they are anything you can't see anywhere else in the Tri-state, especially if you have private options.

[Phil_the_Author]

Carl,

I could claim that my use of the word "dearth" was one of sarcasm, but the truth is that I was simply thinking "depth" and somehow my fingers typed "dearth."

Great catch. As the great Roberto Devicenzo said... I am so stupid... 

[Nicholas Coppolo]

I've played all 5 a ton as well.

Black:  8 (can't give it a 9....it's just not a course that suits a wide variety of players, not a reflection of the design, more of the maintenance practices)

Red: 6 (I think it would only be a 7 if you had no access to private courses in the Northeast.)

Blue: 5

Yellow: 5

Green: 5

I like the 3 others immensely, but none of them are complete courses.  You get snippets of great holes on each of them but no consistency, for obvious reasons.  There are stretches of real quality, but aside from them, the courses are mundane, and sometimes "mickey mouse".

Blue Love: 2-8, 12,13  

Yellow Love: 3-6,11-14,17

Green Love: 2 (Green),4,5,6,9,10,18

Like I said, I really enjoy them and am glad to play a lot of golf there, but I don't think they are anything you can't see anywhere else in the Tri-state, especially if you have private options.

[Matt_Ward]

Guys:

C'mon let's all be a bit more honest about how rating numbers are applied -- shall we ?

Are people rating course based on how such a layout fits their game ?

I know people who view the Black in lesser terms because they don't have the firepower to handle
the demands it presents. The uphill approach shot dimension alone, to name just one feature, on the Black takes it further along than
many realize.

One other thing -- I have a huge amount of respect for the Red -- a solid Doak 6 in my book. BB gets no more than a 8 and much of that is tied to the better overall maintenance which has helped enormously in bringing forward a number of the design elements since improved. With a better finishing hole - wider day-to-day fairways and some modifications to 3-4 greens the course can be an E-Z 9.