Golfadelphia

The time I came to Bethpage to fix my swing. It’s true. A lot of last summer was dealing with a swing flaw that was plaguing my game. I was on my way out of it for the most part as Summer waned, yet it would rear its ugly head at inopportune times. I had no idea I was going to be in the area even 24 hours beforehand. I was on some rooftop park or what have you in downtown Philadelphia when I got word I had to be in Suffolk County at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. That is no small feat when you’re in Philadelphia but some how, I managed. It was on the way back, however, I decided to pop in to Bethpage and see if I could walk on as a single. Is there a better golf complex where anyone can simply pop in? It turned out there was a single spot available in an hour and a half on the Black. I took it, grabbed some lunch at the bar and warmed up at the range.

In 1935, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Bethpage as the, “People’s Country Club.” That is an apt description and was the focus of my first review. Bethpage is indeed the crown jewel of public golf in the U.S.; a number of quality golf courses all with different personalities and meant for different styled golfers. The Black is able to host championships and Ryder Cups, yet anyone can play it, even guys passing through looking for a round by chance. This redeeming feature cannot be emphasized enough and is felt during the round. I didn’t know any of the other players in my foursome but we all had different games and backgrounds. Yet we all loved the game and took it seriously, which was enough to be old friends for those few hours. That has been my experience here every time. It’s a special place for the game, some where I have never seen rivaled at the public level.

Despite what it does so well, there are some that feel Bethpage Black’s current iteration is far from what it is supposed to be. This position follows that the fairways are now too constrained with rough and playing corridors are confined due to the mowing lines, which stifles much of its potent strategic character. I fall on this line a bit differently. The Bethpage courses were all designed with different purposes in mind and there is no doubt Bethpage Black was always meant as the one with championship merit. It was always meant to be tough. In 1937, Tillinghast wrote an article in the PGA of America called “Mankillers.” The title says enough but to go further, a few excerpts from the article are worthy of note.

• “Every now and again throughout the country there are to be encountered courses that snarl like a Sabre Toothed Tiger.”
• “It was my very good fortune to be selected by the Commission as its consultant course architect to aid its engineering force in the development of these courses, and let me say right here that never have I received heartier support and cooperation than from Joe Burbeck, the state engineer, who was in daily direction of the entire work from the start to its finish.”
• “Now it was Burbeck’s idea to develop one of these layouts along lines, which were to be severe to a marked degree. It was his ambition to have something which might compare with Pine Valley as a great test . . . “
• “Without doubt were the other courses as severe as Black the place would not have enjoyed the great popularity it has known since it was thrown open to the public. Yet thousands of ‘weak sisters’ undoubtedly will flock insisting on at least one tussle with the Black Leopard, just to show they can, ‘take it.’ This at least has been the situation at Pine Valley since the day it was noised through the land that this man eater was loose.”

There is no doubt the course was intended as a severe test along the lines of Pine Valley. The interaction between Tilly and Burbeck is evident. While Burbeck was involved in the day to day and was involved with the concept of the Black Leopard, Tillinghast breathed life into it with the routing, grand scale and variety of bunkers. Some surmise Tilly would have instilled more undulation and deft into the greens if he was able to be present during construction but I am not sure. The tee to green has always been the adventure here. The greens are more of a respite from the turbulent journey begun at each tee. It should be noted, however, this is not really indicative of Tillinghast design character, as he always took great care in crafting the greens of his courses (with the exception of a couple courses that could lend some credence the other way). Moreover, the greens are not devoid of interest altogether. Those at the Fourth, Eighth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Seventeenth have a good deal of interest. Regardless, the design intent of the Black has always been to subject anyone and everyone to the more severe travails of the game. The course is full of heroics and penalty, while strategy primarily lies in how to tame it. It may not have relied on rough in the past but to maintain its course identity of that severe examination, its evolution veers in that direction. To be clear, I’d sure like to play the course with less rough, but only if it is possible while maintaining its highly valued course identity. There are those that believe this would be possible and if that is indeed the case, I welcome it.

Mind you, there is plenty of width. Despite the width, it is very much a driver’s course where the golfer must think hard before each tee shot. It’s just that the width is full of bunkers that ensnare, rough that muddles and lofty greens seemingly impossible to reach. It is a large tract of land as well, so the golfer’s endurance will be tested at some point in the round as the hills start to dig in. It’s great land for golf and the scale is used beautifully. The bunkering is among the best of Tillinghast, following the theme of larger scale and showing variety that significantly adds to the strategic challenge.

I always welcome adversity to focus and something told me a round at Bethpage Black is the exact kind of focus I needed to straighten out my swing. Something about my survival instincts kicking in and scaring my muscles into figuring things out to stave off insanity. In a sense, this happened. More pointedly though, the course itself made me much more aware of my playing strategy. That awareness helped me format a specific game plan for the round, which definitely led to a better score. Fairways off the tee matter and if one finds themselves off fairway, oftentimes going for the green was problematic. This increases the chances of ending up off green in one of the bunkers or some other awkward lie. In other words, the course excels at amplifying a missed shot. I recognized the importance of fairways and greens so when my tee shot was off fairway, I focused on recovering back into it and would leave a wedge into the greens. Many of the greens are not strongly undulating, so my wedge shots were able to get relatively close to the pin and I’d be able to putt from there, leaving a bogey at worst. Yes it took birdie out of the equation but there had to be a very high degree of confidence in pulling the shot off to try for that. The challenge of the course compelled me to manage my game but that is the game. I realized I wasn’t using my irons and wedges a lot of times on the approach and they were my strong suit at the time, so I figured out a way to change that. I ended up scoring 11 shots better than last time I was here (six years prior). It was indeed a severe test that made me think through how to play it, which certainly touches on the strategic side of the game.

Perhaps even more controversial, it should be noted Rees Jones did not “destroy” or take away the original design character from the course. Just like at East Lake, Rees was retained to restore Bethpage Black. The course was choked with trees and greens had shrunk just as countless other courses had been by the late Twentieth Century. Rees cleared the trees to restore the grand scale of the course and expanded the greens. Some of the small changes he made included flattening out the left rear of Third green, which used to slope away and down the hill. At the Eighth, he sloped the front of the green more towards the water (the only water of the course) and restored a rear bunker that had been completely lost. His biggest change to the course and what he is most remembered for, however, is his redesign at the Eighteenth, where he added 50 yards, cut the green size in half and pinched the fairway with bunkers on either side. Those who would like to quibble with Rees’ work will usually point to the Eighteenth and that is fair. It’s also fair to comment on the look of the bunkers, which have strayed from their original ruggedness presentation. Bunker placement was more valued in design in decades past while the shift to focusing on bunkers had yet to arrive at the time of this project but yes, if there is one thing I would want to see worked on, it is the presentation of the bunkers. And some will note that the naturalistic tie-ins Tillinghast was known for are largely absent (whether they were present in the first place remains unclear but has more to do with trying to delineate the involvement of Tillinghast and Burbeck in the first place). But again, Rees restored the intended scale and size of the bunkers and for that, he deserves credit. His other work was also largely restorative, considering the context of the course at the time of the project.

Bethpage Black is a place where course identity prevails and I enjoy it even if there is more rough than there was in the past or the greens aren’t as engaging as those at other Tillinghast courses. It remains the stern test Burbeck and Tilly wanted it to be. It remains the People’s Country Club, where anyone can visit and play a course that challenges the game’s best. It remains a place where even those who are grouped together share the common bond of the game and the peaks and valleys of the round together. I enjoy the challenge, which I find plenty engaging and interesting. In short, I like it the way it is. Of course there could be ways to improve it and I’m all for that but as it stands in its current form, it’s a great Tillinghast design with excellent scale and bunkering I urge anyone to visit at some point.

For anyone wondering what I mean when I discuss course identity, look no further than the Black Leopard.