THE USGA HAS TAKEN SOME OF THE BITE OUT OF BETHPAGE BLACK, BUT IT’S STILL A TREACHEROUS TEST FOR WORLDS TOP GOLFERS
Welcome to the jungle
Apermanent sign hangs behind the first tee at Bethpage Black, site of this year’s U. S. Open. It gives golfers a suitably gloomy welcome, a last chance to turn tail and run, like the lion at his first encounter with the Wizard of Oz.
“Warning,” it reads. “The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.”
This doesn’t stop the average hackers from taking a shot. Bethpage is a public course, the most difficult and renowned of the five courses that were constructed on Long Island parkland as part of a Works Progress Administration project during the Depression.
Anyone can play Bethpage, given the time, determination and $50 greens fee ($60 on weekends). Golfers generally arrive the night before a round. You drive into the notorious walk-up car line, maintain a constant vigil at the car, and wait until 4:30
a. m., when the Bethpage staff hands out tickets.
The players won’t have to sleep in their cars this week when the U. S. Open comes to Bethpage Black for the second time. But come Friday evening, some of the world’s best golfers will be running for their cars, eager to get on the next flight out of New York City and make Bethpage a distant memory.
Yes, it’s tough. A U. S. Open course is supposed to be tough, and Bethpage Black fits the bill. Tiger Woods, who won at Bethpage in 2002 when it became the first public course to host an Open, called it the toughest par-70 course he’s ever set foot on.
Other competitors had less cheery observations after the ’02 Open, when Woods was the only player to finish under par. Of course, it wouldn’t be a U. S. Open if the players weren’t whining. In ’02, Nick Price gave the setup a grade of “F.” Hal Sutton said it was the worst job the United States Golf Association had ever done at an Open.
The USGA listened. Its objective isn’t to punish the world’s best golfers, but to identify them. It’s a constant balancing act –making sure the Open is the most demanding test in golf without making it too unfair. Remember the 17th green at Shinnecock in 2004, which was a colossal embarrassment? Mike Davis, the man responsible for the Open setup, said the event is supposed to be difficult.
“That’s part of its trademark,” Davis said at a pre-tournament media session. “We don’t want to lose that. But we want it to be a fair test. It is a brutally difficult golf course. But at the same time, we are very mindful of making sure that it doesn’t become too tough.”
Davis said a good shot should be rewarded, and a bad shot should be punished. In some Opens, though, the punishment was unrelenting. Impossibly thick rough, greens that wouldn’t hold, sloping fairways as slick as tile –at times, it seemed the main purpose was to embarrass the players and bore the audience.
So the USGA has refined the critically acclaimed Bethpage layout, an A. W. Tillinghast design that was refurbished by Rees Jones for the ’02 Open. The rough will be graduated, so players can still make artistic shots when they’re a few feet off the fairway. The greens will be very fast, but consistently so.
They have modified the fairway on the 10th and 12th holes, long par 4s that were a big issue in ’02. The shorter hitters couldn’t reach the fairway on those holes, so the fairways have been brought back to accommodate them. But rest assured, Bethpage is still a bear. At 7,426 yards, it’s the longest par-70 in Open history. There are 12 acres of sand on the grounds. The bunkers should have their own ZIP codes. Jones said the bunkers are patterned after coastline sand dunes. They’re intended to be hazards, so the USGA has made them deeper and softer, for maximum anguish.
If the winds kick up, it can be a true horror. Rain is no party, either. On Friday in ’02, an inch of rain fell. Nick Faldo called it like “fighting in a jungle.” Twenty-nine players failed to break 80 that day. Sergio Garcia said they would have suspended play if Woods had been on the course (he had already finished his round).
Ah yes, Tiger. He was the only one to navigate the jungle under par, going wire to wire to win in 3 under. Phil Mickelson was second at even par. The raucous New York fans cheered Mickelson like a hometown hero. Jones dubbed Bethpage the “People’s Open,” and Lefty was the People’s Choice. On Sunday, the day Mickelson turned 32, fans sang “Happy Birthday.” Alas, he couldn’t make a run at Woods. Neither could Garcia, who played with Woods that day.
So here we are, seven years later. Woods has won six more majors since his first time at Bethpage, giving him 14. Mickelson, winless in majors back then, has won three –but never the Open. Garcia is still the best man never to win one.
Woods sucked all the drama out of the first People’s Open. He has become more humanized in the intervening years. He got married, lost his father, Earl, became a father of two, won last year’s Open on a bad knee and underwent surgery.
Mickelson is the clear sentimental favorite. The crowds who embraced him in ’02 will hold even tighter this time. His wife, Amy, also a favorite of the golf crowds, recently discovered she has breast cancer. Mickelson left the tour for a time, but decided to return when he found that the cancer had been detected early.
Who knows what drama might unfold? It would be hard to match last year’s battle at Torrey Pines, where Woods beat heroic Rocco Mediate on one leg, prevailing on Monday after a deadlocked 18-hole playoff and an extra hole. Woods has never lost a major when he had the lead after 54 holes. But he has never come from behind on Sunday to win a major.
The USGA has improved the chance of that happening this time. In the past, it increased the difficulty of the setup from round to round. It’ll be more consistent this time. Presumably, players will grow more familiar with Bethpage’s perils as the week goes on, and more prepared to go low on Sunday.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to make an easy U. S. Open,” Davis said. “It means that where we can introduce some more excitement, we like that. Everybody seems to like that.”
A warning: If it gets any more exciting than last year, we don’t recommend it for the faint of heart.
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