Bethpage Red Course

It’s not the Black, but for $ 52 to walk on a Saturday, it can’t be beat in the LI/​NYC/​Westchester areas.
Only problem we had was the snack shops were selling candy bars that expired in January 2015, five months ago…

4 stars only due to pace of play. Fabulous GC for those who appreciate the older style of design. Conditions are impeccable except of course the greens. nobody repairs ball marks on public links. Layout is long 4 pars, most with doglegs. everything else is incidental. I play Bethpage maybe a couple times a year simply because there are too many slow playing groups which makes for a very long day. There are 5 courses in the park. put the duffers on the easier ones, raise the green fees on the more challenging ones and you have a destination.

Just to the right of the Blue Course, a left side stones throw from the infamous Black Course sits the first tee of one of Fred Couples «favorite courses» is The Red Course.
Standing on the first tee, even a single digit handicap golfer such as myself needs to take a few controlled breaths before addressing your ball prior to flight. Playing a diabolical 492 yards, this first hole plays as tough as any first hole I can recount, barring The Monster’s first hole in upstate NY at the old Concord Resort. Pounding a big drive, left of the fairways center still leaves the player a blind uphill shot that can play from 175 to 235, more or less.
After finishing up #1, just dust yourself off and begin the journey of this public gem of a golf course. The sight lines mixed with the natural beauty of the land dovetails into a tremendous front nine golfing experience. The back nine, as with most all of the five courses begins to toughen up,.same golf course architect, same planning, or so it seems. The fourteenth hole, a 400 yars, split fairway is a favorite of mine and eighteen hole plays more difficult than The Black’s eighteenth hole.
When The Black was granted the 2002 US Open, the USGA gifted Bethpage with many furnishings. From clubhouse to cutting equipment the total price tag from my understanding came in at approximately 12 million. A portion of this funding went to updated grounds keeping equipment, such as mowers.
(Side note: When people talk about golf equipment innovation such as shafts, balls and such, they rarely talk about the cutting and maintaining tools and equipment. Your golf ball these days, sitting upon a well groomed and manicured fairwat looks like its sitting upon a pool table, very different from years past.)
So The Red Course was in receipt of The Blacks equipment, The Blue got handed down The Red’s, so on and so forth.
The regular playing conditions on The Red are always impeccable. Playing the winding par fours while navigating the sand bunkers does make finishing up your round within a few strokes above your handicap is not uncommon. The price? Under fifty bucks and unlike The Black the use of a golf cart is allowed.