Black at Bethpage State Park Golf Course

The Black, even from the whites, is a long course. It is not flat at all and the greens are very-well guarded, with both sand and tall grass like cattails. Keeping in mind that I haven't played it for 4 years and some of the following may have changed. They don't let you use a cart. They don't let you reserve a tee-time. It was $100 for 18 holes I see it is now $125 a round. It sells-out each day by 10am. It still gets packed and slow and for this "pleasure" you need to get to the parking-lot by 5am (a lot of people will already be there), take a number from the roving staffmember to get in line when the clubhouse opens to pay for your round. It's first-come first-served. You can pay for 4, but each player has to show up when the tickets are purchased. I played there twice, it was freezing-cold once when I started at 8am in April, and boiling-hot once when I played in the summer. It is just a slog to play this course but it is ok really, not too easy and not too hard, I broke 100 on it the 2nd time that I played it & my game wasn't nearly as good then as now. It is more of a physical & mental challenge than a shotmaking challenge, except for the approach-shots. The greens demand real accuracy or you'll spend all day hacking out of the bunkers and areas of tall grass around the greens, if you can find your ball in the grassy-areas and get to it (I have never played a course before or since which had this "feature"). But the fairways are mostly open, almost too open, on most of the holes you can spray shots and still remain in play as long as you can find your ball. And you will meet a lot of people hunting for their ball, walking around the entire time, and this is why it takes so long to play a round. So 5-1/2hrs later when you finlly climb up to the 18th green, pitch out of one of the 8 deep bunkers guarding both sides of the long, narrow sloping elevated 18th green and then 3-putt in a chaotic scramble as the 4some behind you waits 100ft down below the green for you to get off, you get to say that you've played a U.S. Open course. You can even play it from the back tees and have a good time banging the ball around, hitting a lot of long-irons and struggling to get on the greens when you miss approach-shots. If you can break 90 on this course then you should be proud, but it really isn't that hard where I can say that if you can score well on it then you're really good. It's not that hard. Not too easy, not too hard. Just a long, expensive walk in a hilly park. One of the good things about it is that it does get a lot of decent players (you have to be a seriously-dedicated golfer to play this course) so unless you are a scratch golfer you will have some decent competition if you play single or double.

I think about all this and I realize that I'll probably never play this course again. I've played it twice. That was enough.