Best of the Bethpage Courses?

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I searched for this topic and didn't find it (if it exists please merge), but since it's apparent some people here don't absolutely love the Black course, my question is this:

For the average golfer, which of the Bethpage courses is the "best" architecturally? Why?

I've only played the Black (I tried a few times to play other courses but my hosts insisted each time), so I'll hang up and listen as I have nothing more to add here.

[Jason Thurman]

The Black is long, but best for the average player as the greens are pretty flat and the narrow fairways make the average player think twice about hitting driver or playing aggressively toward greens. By laying up to good yardages all day and making a few flat putts, the average player might be surprised how good a score he'll shoot. Distance is only a small part of the challenge of golf.

[jeffwarne]

The Red is very enjoyable-lots of land movement and allows much more creativity and working the ball than the Black.
Some of the best holes on the property.

We played the LI Open there for years and was always one of my favorite venues.
Additional "modern" tees were added pre the last US Amateur-and used the last day of the LI Open (too much for me personally but make good sense for modern elite players)


Played the Blue only once years ago-enjoyable and watched my son play at the Green-interesting layout as well

[Nick Ribeiro]

The Black is long, but best for the average player as the greens are pretty flat and the narrow fairways make the average player think twice about hitting driver or playing aggressively toward greens. By laying up to good yardages all day and making a few flat putts, the average player might be surprised how good a score he'll shoot. Distance is only a small part of the challenge of golf.

Very true Jason, hard but fair. Not for the average player but the average player can still play and have a great time testing his game on a course for the highly skilled. The course can also still host a major. I hope we get a good finish to the PGA and the pros don't prove Bethpage to be too easy.

[Kyle Harris]

#10-14 Yellow is one of the best stretches of Tillinghast out there. Yellow and Blue were split from the original Blue to add 18 holes by Alfred Tull.


Blue, well, I'm not much for that golf course over all. The Par-3s have a sameness to them and the middles of each nine seem to fight the land. Yellow integrated the new holes better, but holes like #2 Blue are the best of the Tull contribution.

A Red/Yellow or a Red/Green 36-hole day is time well spent.

Some of the Emmet touches remaining on Green are spectacular - especially greens like #2 and #3 (#16 and #17 in the original Lenox Hills routing).

Both Red and Green feature more interesting opening and closing holes, too. #18 Green is a great short Par 4 that you can see just around the corner from the first tee of Black. Everything on that side of Round Swamp Road was done by Tillinghast.

My love for Red is well-known and I feel it's a better day-in/day-out golf course than Black because there can and will be some variety in setup from day-to-day. The routing is superb, with a giant opener and then two plateau preview holes followed by a great Par-3. The feeling of getting on to the plateau holes (#8-14) on #5-6-7 builds anticipation and the plateau holes feature some attack movement off the tee that really isn't found on Black. #15 and 16 are big holes on the scale of Black.

[Mark Fedeli]

#10-14 Yellow is one of the best stretches of Tillinghast out there. Yellow and Blue were split from the original Blue to add 18 holes by Alfred Tull.


Blue, well, I'm not much for that golf course over all. The Par-3s have a sameness to them and the middles of each nine seem to fight the land. Yellow integrated the new holes better, but holes like #2 Blue are the best of the Tull contribution.

A Red/Yellow or a Red/Green 36-hole day is time well spent.

Some of the Emmet touches remaining on Green are spectacular - especially greens like #2 and #3 (#16 and #17 in the original Lenox Hills routing).

Both Red and Green feature more interesting opening and closing holes, too. #18 Green is a great short Par 4 that you can see just around the corner from the first tee of Black. Everything on that side of Round Swamp Road was done by Tillinghast.

My love for Red is well-known and I feel it's a better day-in/day-out golf course than Black because there can and will be some variety in setup from day-to-day. The routing is superb, with a giant opener and then two plateau preview holes followed by a great Par-3. The feeling of getting on to the plateau holes (#8-14) on #5-6-7 builds anticipation and the plateau holes feature some attack movement off the tee that really isn't found on Black. #15 and 16 are big holes on the scale of Black.

Great post. Well summarized. Speaking of Red 16 and the addition of the 5th course...


The original Red 16 kept bending to the right, and the original green was in the middle of what is now the 18th fairway of Blue, right before the valley. I imagine it was a slightly easier hole, actually, with at least a clearer line to the green.


The biggest defense of the current iteration are the trees overhanging on the left, which come into play on virtually any attempt to go for it in two that isn't played from the far right of the fairway. Something that wouldn't have been an issue on the original.

[Joe Bausch]

Haven't played the Yellow or the Blue.  But here are the Green and Red photo albums I have, I'm pretty sure with KH each time (2008 for Green and 2009 for Red):

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Bethpage_Green/index.html

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Bethpage_Red/index.html

[Kyle Harris]

Haven't played the Yellow or the Blue.  But here are the Green and Red photo albums I have, I'm pretty sure with KH each time (2008 for Green and 2009 for Red):

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Bethpage_Green/index.html

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Bethpage_Red/index.html

Not sure I was with you on Red in 2009 but the 2008 round on Green was one of our more memorable rounds with those two guys from Brooklyn.

[Mike Sweeney]

Posted in February 2019:


Updated Bethpage "fun rankings":

• Yellow

• Red

• Green

• Black

• Blue

I would probably switch Yellow and Green, today, and I reserve the right to change my mind, again. The Blue is the only course that is boring to me.

[Brock Lynch]

Based on the Green and Red course scorecards, doesn't look like it would be much fun for ladies. 5,800 and 6,200 yds from the red tees!! Were there any tee locations not listed on the scorecard?


Cheers