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One would be hard-pressed to find more than the smallest handful of golf courses that are as thoroughly American as Bethpage Black, host of the 2025 Ryder Cup Matches.
It's big, it's loud, it's tough and it's chaotic, situated as it is on the outskirts of New York, one of the greatest American cities. Call it golf's Empire State Building, an Art Deco-age masterpiece that people gladly wait in long lines to explore.
It came about during one of the most aggressive cycles of investment and rebirth in our country's history: the New Deal, which lifted America out of the Great Depression with a stunning array of public works projects. It is also one of many - one of five golf courses onsite, to be exact. E pluribus Bethpage, baby.
Decades of benign neglect left it a shell of what it once was and once again could be. Then, it helped spark what I have termed the "Munaissance" - an ongoing nationwide movement that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars devoted to making golf courses that everyone can afford to play more friendly and interesting. Now, "The People's Country Club" is ready for the rowdiest event in golf.
What you need to know about Bethpage Black
The first facet that sets Bethpage Black apart from almost all other championship golf courses is its openness to public play. Its reputation for excellence - and brutality - has made it a pilgrimage site for New York-bound golfers, but at its core, it exists for New York residents generally and locals in particular as part of the New York State Parks system. State residents pay as little as $70 to play the course, while out-of-staters' green fees climb as high as $160 - an increasingly reasonable sum for a world-class golf course in the post-pandemic era.
As a result, demand for rounds at Bethpage Black has been colossal for decades, to the point where many golfers will show up up to 24 hours in advance and form a line of parking-lot campers, sleeping in their cars in order to secure a coveted tee time. The online reservations process has been a source of consternation in recent years, with journalist Kevin Van Valkenburg probing a corrupt booking scheme for the No Laying Up podcast, which led to some policy changes in recent months.
As one of five golf courses on one enormous, 1,300-acre golf site, Bethpage Black was intentionally built different. The Red, Blue, Green and Yellow courses at Bethpage serve locals and medium- and high-handicappers well. By design, the Black is a different animal altogether - "an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers," as its iconic sign reads.
Bethpage Black is a double-black-diamond ski run done with 14 golf clubs, brandishing sharp teeth in the form of enormous and deep bunkers (nine full acres' worth), narrow fairways typically choked by gnarly rough and glassy greens. It has always been one of America's longest-playing golf courses owing to a significant number of approaches that play sharply uphill. These and almost all other greens require an aerial attack over yet more of those aforementioned sand pits.
Who originally designed Bethpage Black remains a subject of spirited debate among golf historians, mostly coming down to the question of parceling out credit between Golden Age architect A.W. Tillinghast and Bethpage State Park superintendent Joseph Burbeck, who assisted in planning and construction of the course. Tillinghast is also credited with laying out the Red, Blue and Green courses in the 1930s, while Alfred Tull laid out the Yellow in 1958.
The current iteration of Bethpage Black is the product of a comprehensive renovation project by Rees Jones, who was conscripted to overhaul the course once it was confirmed as the host of the 2002 U.S. Open. Bethpage Black's imposing bunkers were among the first features he brought back. Jones also added new championship tee boxes with which the course can play as long as 7,500 yards, and adjusted green shapes and sizes.
To fit modern championship play and simulate such a strenuous experience for visitors, the Black's fairways have been narrowed substantially over time from their original widths. A 2019 study by architect Ryan Farrow noted that the fairways had shrunk from more than 50 yards wide in the 1950s to roughly 30 yards, nearly a 60% reduction in short-grass acreage that has remained relatively steady through the major championships the Black has held: the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens and the 2019 PGA Championship.
But because match-play events do not carry the same low-scoring concerns that often govern stroke-play tournament setups, Bethpage Black will play closer to its original fairway plan than usual for the 2025 Ryder Cup. Early reports from the course have indicated that many of the course's fairways have been widened in several places, which brings several fairway bunkers more urgently into play. There are also whispers that Team USA captain Keegan Bradley has also asked for its infamously ornery rough to be clipped shorter for the upcoming matches. Both of these changes will help bombers play more aggressively than ever while cutting down on pitch-outs and layups after certain wayward tee shots.
In other words, Bethpage Black may yield more birdies and eagles than usual in the 2025 Ryder Cup, but don't worry - there will be plenty of bogeys, too. This is still Bethpage Black, after all, and the stage is set for exceptional drama over these 18 holes:
Bethpage State Park Golf Course (Black)
Par 70, 7,352 yards
Rating/Slope: 78.0/155
Hole 1, par 4, 397 yards
The buildout of the first tee stadium has knocked a chunk of yardage off this already friendly opener, inviting the potential for long hitters to try and drive the green with the first swing of the day. The front of the green is narrow, which means that drives missing on the wrong side will face tricky up-and-downs. It's important to set a tone early; Foursomes and Four-Ball pairs who won the first hole at the 2023 Ryder Cup went 5-0-2 in their matches.
Hole 2, par 4, 389 yards
One of the themes of Bethpage Black, elevated greens fortified with fronting bunkers, begins here, although players will be attacking with wedges and short irons after hitting less than driver into the unbunkered fairway.
Hole 3, par 3, 210 yards
A long, skinny, angled green sets up for a draw with a mid- or long-iron, but some of the deepest bunkers on the course sit menacingly along the left, with the far right side of the green disappearing into uncertainty. This hole extracts more three-putts than any other on the course.
Hole 4, par 5, 517 yards
Opportunity knocks at Bethpage Black's most-photographed hole, a brilliant three-shotter that tackles exciting terrain, terraced by huge, multi-fingered bunkers that invoke the "Great Hazard" concept found on several par 5s laid out by A.W. Tillinghast. Statistically, Europe has dominated short par 5s in Ryder Cups since 2014, with a +19 win rate compared to Team USA. Birdies and eagles will fly all weekend here.
Hole 5, par 4, 478 yards
Great match-play courses tend to alternate birdie holes with tough pars, and that's exactly the cadence here, with the easiest hole on the Black followed by this ornery par 4, whose green is the most elusive on the course, perched well above a landing area set up to accept a power-fade.
Hole 6, par 4, 408 yards
This hole is a classic example of how the viability of bomb-and-gouge golf has affected architecture. The imposing fairway bunkers will be turned into flyover country by most players, who will gladly trade the prospect of a missed fairway for as much as 30 extra yards of downrange distance, thanks to a giant stair-step in the landing area. The shearing of the rough will only further turn this into a drive-and-pitch par 4.
Hole 7, par 4, 524 yards
As at the 5th, a vast sandy waste area fronts the fairway, encouraging a tee shot oriented from left to right. The hole continues its rightward bend to another tightly guarded green, giving high-ball hitters the advantage of extra stopping power on approach.
Hole 8, par 3, 210 yards
One of Bethpage Black's more picturesque holes, number 8 is the only place on the course where a player might find water, as a pond guards the front of the green. That said, front pin positions make the hole play significantly easier, historically.
Hole 9, par 4, 460 yards
Despite the mean-looking bunker on the inside of this dogleg-left, the fairway is the easiest to hit on the golf course. Continuing a theme, two more bunkers guard the front of this green.
Hole 10, par 4, 502 yards
When the Black first hit golf's championship rota, there were fears that shorter hitters might not be able to reach this fairway, set some 240 yards downrange from the tee. But those concerns are long gone, although the hole still plays long, to yet another bunker-fronted putting surface.
Hole 11, par 4, 435 yards
Starting from the farthest point on the course from the first tee -1.15 miles - this striking par 4 begins the march back towards the clubhouse. Huge bunkers tease at the fairway, but a tee shot that flies 305 yards will take them out of play. The green angles from front-right to back-left.
Hole 12, par 4, 496 yards
Another par 4 that threatens the 500-yard mark, this is another place where long hitters will thrive by being able to take the left-side fairway bunker out of play with a carry of 290 yards or more. That leaves a mid-iron to one of the largest greens at Bethpage Black.
Hole 13, par 5, 608 yards
Bethpage Black's second and final par 5 plays more or less straightaway; two big swats will get players close to or onto this green in two. This is one of the more noticeable examples of fairways being widened to encourage more drama, with less concern about low scoring. However, the two left-side fairway bunkers are more relevant than ever, having been moved about 25 yards downrange to challenge today's driving distances.
Hole 14, par 3, 161 yards
The shortest hole on the course is also one of the most flexible, with a triangular green that measures some 40 yards from front to back. In the past, a forward tee position and a pin position on the narrow front neck of the green has made it play as short as 115 yards. This would be an interesting setup point for Sunday's Singles session.
Hole 15, par 4, 477 yards
Descending from the 14th green, golfers cross Round Swamp Road and arrive at what is historically the toughest hole on the course. Number 15 confounds players with another elevated green - one of the course's most pitched - set 50 feet above the landing area and guarded by deep bunkers.
Hole 16, par 4, 490 yards
Nominally this is a long hole, but players will relish airing out their tee shots from a perch some 60 feet above the landing area. From there, it's a short or middle iron to another bunker-swaddled green.
Hole 17, par 3, 179 yards
Large bunkers are a defining aesthetic trait of Bethpage Black, a theme that amps up from an already high level over the final two holes. The angled bowtie-shaped green of this par 3 appears even smaller from the tee thanks to five huge amoeba bunkers that obscure most of its surface. Steady nerves and full commitment to both line and yardage from players and their caddies will be rewarded in full view of thousands of spectators.
Hole 18, par 4, 411 yards
Its modest length makes it one of the milder finishing holes in championship golf, but the storm of bunkers down each side and one more approach to an elevated green will add pressure to combatants trying to secure a full point for their teams. The fairway has been widened in recent years to encourage aggressive tee shots. If the 2025 Ryder Cup comes down to the final green, what an epic setting it will be.
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