Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf

About the club

During the Depression, demand for A. W. Tillinghast's services diminished sharply, and the great course architect was reduced to getting by as a part-time employee of the PGA. He must therefore have been overjoyed when he received the commission to design three public courses at Beth Page State Park on Long Island and not far from Manhattan. Two of those courses, the Red and the Blue, were put down on some rather unimpressive parkland, but the Black was more fortunate. The course was nevertheless neglected during and for some time after World War II, but finally the USGA invested the millions of dollars needed to bring it up to championship standards. Tiger Woods won the US Open here in 2002, and the event returned to Bethpage in 2009. Modern courses tend to lack the size and challenges required for tournament play without some pre-event stiffening, but not so the Black.