Adam, I agree with you that “Penal” and “Difficult” are two very different terms. I disagree that a great course can’t be both.
You stated that “Penal and difficult are not synonyms. I can't help feeling that Tillinghast would be turning in his grave at the suggestion that Bethpage Black is of the penal school.”
I think that he would be greatly pleased at its being viewed that way as well as being viewed as difficult since he wrote about the Black being both.
In his article “Man Killers” he wrote, “Every now and again throughout the country there are to be encountered courses that snarl like a Sabre Toothed Tiger. Some of these are just savage because it is the nature of the beast. To be so because of its environment – unusually rugged country or windswept, sand blown stretches that the eyes of the humble golfer regard with something closely akin to error. Yet in other instances the tigers have been goaded to ferocity – in brief they have been made ferocious intentionally. The great course at Pine Valley, renowned as one very exacting round for the top-notch golfers – particularly those in the Philadelphia district. In no manner was it conceived to attract the unskilled players for frequent recreation.
“Certainly no course in America has been so much discussed in past years as the Black Course at Bethpage Park, where the Long Island Park Commission accomplished something never before attempted – the planning and building over the same tract, no less than four courses...
“It was his [Burbeck] ambition to have something which might compare with Pine Valley as a great test and although my continual travels over the country in the P.G.A. work have prevented me from seeing play over Bethpage’s Black since its opening, I am rather inclined to believe from reports from some of the best players that it is showing plenty of teeth…
“But for the more exalted par-shooters, and there are a great many of these lads, too, who want to know exactly how good they are, there are Pine Valley, Old Black and a few others to humble them, and the country may well stand a few, just a few, for this humblin’ operation, which after all, will make greater golfers of them…
“The terrain presents infinite variety. Never quite flat but gently undulating, it grades to impressive ruggedness which is never permitted to suggest arduous playing conditions. It is strongly remindful of the Pine Valley land, that strange freak of rolling country in otherwise flat south Jersey. The character of many of the fairways, too, is similar to that of the famous Pine Valley in their isolation one from the others.
“The swales and valleys, through which the play passes to the the day it was noised through the land that this man eater was loose. From all quarters the underdogs of golfdom travel to take maybe just one snap at the old killer.”
Tilly wouldn't be turning over in his grave, rather, if one can get past the idea that he was cremated and couldn't turn anyway, he would be quite pleased with how the Black has maintained itself as one of the rare courses that can "humble" the "exalted par shooters" day in & day out.
To answer the thread's title, I have a passionate love for the Black and enjoyed well over 400+ rounds on it. For me there is no feeling like walking down the slope off the 1st tee knowing that the adventure is beginning anew. Regardless of how I was playing there has never been a single time that walk didn't ignite my passion for the game and course. Having recently gone through a second spinal fusion in my neck I know that I'll be most fortunate to be able to simply knock the ball around from the most forward of tees on the humblest of courses. Still, every time I find myself back in NY and I visit Bethpage I always wander out on the course for a bit of a walk and a renewal of spirit.