walking onto bethpage black Options

[Seth Pistol]

i was thinking about trying to walk onto bethpage black this weekend for a saturday tee time and i was trying to figure out what time i would need to get there on Friday to have a reasonable chance to play at a reasonable time. if i showed up around 5PM, would i get to play in the morning on Saturday or will the line already be crazy long? anyone with any experience and could give me some info would be appreciated. thanks.

[locotuna]

5pm would prob be too late. Get there at around 11 or 12. Go ahead and park and play a round at one of the other courses. Be back in your car by 4'ish.

[Marrrk]

yeah, 5pm is way too late for the weekend in an open year, especially with only a few weeks left. might as well get there at like 9am on friday, park, and then play two rounds. get the most out of your time and don't take any chances.

[sirvinim]

Marrrk, wow! Even as a single? I know they have limited times for the next couple weeks but you think you really have to get there that early? I wanted to play it before the open but with 2 kids under 3, there's no way I could devote 36 hours to get out there. May just have to wait till July to get my rounds in.

[Seth Pistol]

keep in mind this weekend and next weekend are the only weekends left before they shut down the course until July.

[drpino]

much more realistic shot of walking on as a single on a weekday. Marrrk, what time do they hand out the tix? 4:30am when the clubhouse opens?

This post has been edited by drpino: May 11 2009, 11:19 AM

[Marrrk]

much more realistic shot of walking on as a single on a weekday. Marrrk, what time do they hand out the tix? 4:30am when the clubhouse opens?

yeah, weekdays are always the best bet. especially earlier in the week. though i would still try to show up the night before, maybe midnight or so. its not worth taking chances.

it's usually 4:30 for the tix in the car-line, but with the clubhouse opening now at 4:30, it may be earlier actually. has anyone done it this year and know the exact times? either way, I recommend calling the clubhouse for the most up to date details.

[jmansoho]

do you think if i get there 10-11pm on tuesday night i should have any problem as a single on wed?

[drpino]

do you think if i get there 10-11pm on tuesday night i should have any problem as a single on wed?

yeah, when i trip you in the parking lot on my way to get my single walk-on bracelet LOL...jk.

[Liquid]

I walked on the Black last July just before the NY State Open. I showed up at 7am as a single, and teed off at 9:20. Keep in mind this was a Thursday, not a weekend.

[locotuna]

I was there last week. I had a tee time for Thursday but the course was closed due to rain.

So i just decided to stay and sleep over for Friday mornings round. I went to park my car around 11. There were about 3 other cars there already. By the time I finished my round...there were about 10 cars.

Keep in mind there are only 24 slots available for the walk ons. So assuming each car is a 4some...that's only 6 cars.

[Seth Pistol]

so i guess an update is an order for all who want to venture out and walk onto Black before it closes on May 31st.

arrived at approx 5AM on Saturday morning for a Sunday morning tee time and ended up in the 6 spot. The first spot had been waiting for 2 days at this point (i will explain about these guys further down in this post), 2nd spot were 2 guys who arrived on Friday to play Saturday but they were #24 and #25 so they didn't want to split and ended up staying for Sunday. #3 arrived at midnight Friday night. #4 and #5 both showed up around 4AM on Saturday. #7 showed up around 6AM. #8 showed up around 10AM and #9 showed up around noon.

whats EXTREMELY important to note is that you can not leave your car unattended for more than 1 hour. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE. the #7 car parked their car and went to go play 18 on Red. marshalls were consistantly coming around to check for empty cars and since this car was empty, the marshall left them a note saying they had to move their car to the end of the line. by the time they got back in the afternoon, there was already 9 cars. they just ended up leaving because they knew they were s*** outta luck. in the end, by getting kicked out and some cars only having 2-somes or 3-somes, the first 8 cars got to play.

the marshalls came around 6:30PM on saturday to hand out 1 bracelet per car and then they arrived at 4:30AM on sunday to hand out the bakery tickets and bracelets for everyone who was going to play. most people stayed up until midnight drinking and grilling and generally having a good time. pretty much everyone crashed from midnight to about 4AM, right before the bracelets were handed out.

as a side note, what made the total experience so much better for me was that Roger Maltbie was there to shoot a piece for NBC sports about the whole Bethpage culture and sleeping in your cars. he was in the #1 car with 3 locals. the whole day roger was shooting with the crew and the locals and had a few things for all the guys on the line. he hosted an improptu putting contest (where everyone threw a dollar in the hole for prize money) on one of the practice greens in he afternoon and he (aka the NBC crew) bought pizzas for everyone on line. roger was super cool and extremely approachable, making jokes the whole time and ripping on everyone's putts.

the course itself is in amazing shape. the fairways are ridiculous and the rough is long. we got to tee off on pretty much every back tee we wanted. all of the grandstands are pretty much up and so are most of the hospitality tents. the only thing that wasn't "open ready" isn't ready is the greens. most of the greens were rolling pretty slow were a bit shaggy but that we expected that since they want to grow it out and then cut it down right before the open.

i would highly recommend anyone to take a day or two off and go play bethpage if they can. the course is amazing and well worth the cost ($60 for in state and $120 for out of state). its an extremely tough test of your game and it will frustrate the s*** outta ya.

hope this post helps anyone who is trying to figure out what to do.

[Dbogey]

so i guess an update is an order for all who want to venture out and walk onto Black before it closes on May 31st.

arrived at approx 5AM on Saturday morning for a Sunday morning tee time and ended up in the 6 spot. The first spot had been waiting for 2 days at this point (i will explain about these guys further down in this post), 2nd spot were 2 guys who arrived on Friday to play Saturday but they were #24 and #25 so they didn't want to split and ended up staying for Sunday. #3 arrived at midnight Friday night. #4 and #5 both showed up around 4AM on Saturday. #7 showed up around 6AM. #8 showed up around 10AM and #9 showed up around noon.

whats EXTREMELY important to note is that you can not leave your car unattended for more than 1 hour. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE. the #7 car parked their car and went to go play 18 on Red. marshalls were consistantly coming around to check for empty cars and since this car was empty, the marshall left them a note saying they had to move their car to the end of the line. by the time they got back in the afternoon, there was already 9 cars. they just ended up leaving because they knew they were s*** outta luck. in the end, by getting kicked out and some cars only having 2-somes or 3-somes, the first 8 cars got to play.

the marshalls came around 6:30PM on saturday to hand out 1 bracelet per car and then they arrived at 4:30AM on sunday to hand out the bakery tickets and bracelets for everyone who was going to play. most people stayed up until midnight drinking and grilling and generally having a good time. pretty much everyone crashed from midnight to about 4AM, right before the bracelets were handed out.

as a side note, what made the total experience so much better for me was that Roger Maltbie was there to shoot a piece for NBC sports about the whole Bethpage culture and sleeping in your cars. he was in the #1 car with 3 locals. the whole day roger was shooting with the crew and the locals and had a few things for all the guys on the line. he hosted an improptu putting contest (where everyone threw a dollar in the hole for prize money) on one of the practice greens in he afternoon and he (aka the NBC crew) bought pizzas for everyone on line. roger was super cool and extremely approachable, making jokes the whole time and ripping on everyone's putts.

the course itself is in amazing shape. the fairways are ridiculous and the rough is long. we got to tee off on pretty much every back tee we wanted. all of the grandstands are pretty much up and so are most of the hospitality tents. the only thing that wasn't "open ready" isn't ready is the greens. most of the greens were rolling pretty slow were a bit shaggy but that we expected that since they want to grow it out and then cut it down right before the open.

i would highly recommend anyone to take a day or two off and go play bethpage if they can. the course is amazing and well worth the cost ($60 for in state and $120 for out of state). its an extremely tough test of your game and it will frustrate the s*** outta ya.

hope this post helps anyone who is trying to figure out what to do.

Great post! Glad you got to play.....I might try to walk up this week.

DBOGEY

[Bscary]

awesome story!!! love it. i live in queens and have been thinking about going out on a weekday even though i know ill shoot a 120.

[wolfpackblack]

Are out-of-staters able to walk on like this as well? This sounds like a heck of an opportunity for an out-of-work college student to give it a shot in the middle of the week.

[jfzhorseman]

I'd like to get out this week as well. I would be a single with a single digit cap. Anyone else going I could meet up with?

[Seth Pistol]

the line is for anyone, in-state or out. pretty much every car was filled with out-of-state players. i would recommend playing at least as a two-some. staying in your car all day can get boring, though you do make friends with everyone on the line. it's also nice to be able to leave the car for like an hour or two and hit the range and pro shop while your friend is watching the car. but regardless of what size your group is, i would show up really early. one guy tried to show up around midnight on Saturday and was walking to each car seeing if there was a 4-some or not. i was only a 2-some and he asked if he could join up in my car and he would "throw me some money". but at that point, everyone on line knew the headcount and we had been sitting and waiting all day. i couldn't in good conscious screw someone over behind me. so my word of advice is that if you want to definitely play, show up early.

[sirvinim]

Seth Pistol, what was your tee time on Sunday? I played at 10:33 which worked out well. The rain ended just before we teed off and it was clear for the whole 5 HOUR 45 MINUTES that we were playing. Brutally slow round. I've played the Black a dozen times and that was by far the longest it's ever taken. Still, the course was in great shape and I look forward to seeing how the pros handle themselves.

I think luxman was the guy who left his car to play the Red course. He mentioned it in another thread about Bethpage. That sucks.

[wolfpackblack]

Is the "hour rule" per person or based on someone just being in the car? In other words, if someone had a foursome, could two of them stay in the car and two of them play red and not worry about being penalized?

[Marrrk]

Seth Pistol, what was your tee time on Sunday? I played at 10:33 which worked out well. The rain ended just before we teed off and it was clear for the whole 5 HOUR 45 MINUTES that we were playing. Brutally slow round. I've played the Black a dozen times and that was by far the longest it's ever taken. Still, the course was in great shape and I look forward to seeing how the pros handle themselves.

I think luxman was the guy who left his car to play the Red course. He mentioned it in another thread about Bethpage. That sucks.

it was Luxman, and i was the guy with him. though, i was only there to keep him company on saturday and play 36, i'd already played my pre-open round on black on a beautiful 80 degree day. fair is fair, but my problem with the "you cant leave your car for more than one hour" is that the rule was made to keep people from dropping off a car and then heading home to go sleep in their bed or something. Lux was on the property, a few hundred yards away, shelling out almost $200 of his hard earned (out of state) money. there should be an exepmtion for people who are remaining on the property to play the other courses. if there were, you can bet a lot of the guys who sat around for 24+ hours in the parking lot also would have tried to get a round or two in on saturday.

like i said, thems the rules and fortunately, i'm in state so i rarely need to sleep out to get on black, so i have no qualms with how they want to run it. but i did feel terrible for Lux, who's just a super guy who loves him some golf.

[Seth Pistol]

i was the 8:09 tee time (right behind matlbie's group). it rained about half the round (which sucked).

marrrk, I was planning on trying to play red or green during the day but the marshall came round 8AM and told us implicitly that we could not leave our car unattended for more than 1 hour. he made sure to say "NO EXCEPTIONS WHATSOEVER". since i was in my car alone and my friend wasn't joining up until 9PM that night, i pretty much realized it was going to be an extremely long day alone in my car. the whole NBC crap made it a lot more bearable though.

what sucks is that if Luxman didn't play the afternoon round, he would have still been able to play on Sunday. He would have been the #23 guy.

and to answer your question adtucker, the rule applies to the car. someone, doesn't matter who, needs to be at the car at all times. you could sit at the car all day and have your buddies show up at 3AM. the truck in front of me on the line had his son and friend show up at 3AM the day of the round. I would definitely explain to the people on the line so people behind you can get an accurate count of how many people are in front of them and if they would get a spot or not.

[Ghost_Orchid]

I scored a 12:12 pm tee time for a single for this Friday...scored it today.

Hopefully i'll be able to get a round in. I'm really excited...should be good weather too.

[drpino]

my friend is going to park in line tomorrow to try and get us out on Wed. i told him 12 noon would be the latest to get there and if he's one of the first 6 cars i'll be going down to meet him. hopefully it works out.

[dru8p2]

did 12pm work?

[drpino]

I'm sitting in the lot on my iPhone. #7 spot...hoping the twosome in #6 doesn't get their third (10% chance he shows up they said). If you're going to do this, I recommend showing up no later than 7am the morning of the day before you want to play.

[drpino]

8:45. #24 of #24...phew! See you on the other side.

[dru8p2]

do you know if the original person who pulled up in the spot needs to be there? or can someone else in the group show up and be in the car? original person is part of the 4some and would be coming back.

[luxman]

do you know if the original person who pulled up in the spot needs to be there? or can someone else in the group show up and be in the car? original person is part of the 4some and would be coming back.

At least one person needs to be with the car. It doesn't matter who.

The only time it absolutely is crucual for everyone to be there is when they come around with the bakery tickets and bracelets. If the OP isn't there then, they are SOL.

[drpino]

you are allowed to get in line for the next day once the people in spots 1-6 (and maybe 7 or 8 if there aren't 4 per car) get their bracelets and bakery tix. at least one person must remain with the car at all times but is allowed 1 hour for bathroom/food. that person can be anybody EXCEPT at two specific times - 6:30pm-7pm when 1 bracelet per car is handed out and 4-4:30am when the remaining bracelets and 4 bakery tix max per car are handed out. the person who gets the first bracelet at 6:30 is one of the "secured" spots and does not receive another bracelet at 4:30am but does get a ticket.

the car can be ANY car except at the two times mentioned above. at 6:30 they take a license ID and plate number for the log... that has to be the same car in the spot at 4:30am.

oh yeah, the course is in great shape but the rough is BRUTAL. blue tees are playing where whites normally do and sneaking back to the tips is very difficult with so many grounds crew, tent workers, officials, photographers, rangers, press tours, etc. all over the course all day long.

This post has been edited by drpino: May 20 2009, 05:30 PM

[Ghost_Orchid]

Is there water or a gatorade girl/cart on the course?

I"m playing friday...12:12pm (any members here playing at that time?), i hate having to carry water, its heavy.

Thanks

[drpino]

no cart girl at all. some water fountains scattered around the course and a "snack shack" with the typical golfer food (hot dogs, gatorade, beer, etc.) next to the 5th green/6th tee and accessible from the 12th FW.

if you're playing Friday, stay hydrated as it's supposed to be pretty hot like it was today. as if the black isn't hard enough to walk on a cool day, the heat takes it's toll... you'll really feel it's effects hiking up to the 15th green!

[Ghost_Orchid]

no cart girl at all. some water fountains scattered around the course and a "snack shack" with the typical golfer food (hot dogs, gatorade, beer, etc.) next to the 5th green/6th tee and accessible from the 12th FW.

if you're playing Friday, stay hydrated as it's supposed to be pretty hot like it was today. as if the black isn't hard enough to walk on a cool day, the heat takes it's toll... you'll really feel it's effects hiking up to the 15th green!

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to getting humbled by the Black. I already plan on being very tired...i have to drive down from Albany area fri. morn, then i have a Cup championship (our club against another club) on Saturday.

I'm really looking forward to the experience. Cant wait.

[drpino]

no prob. i was definitely humbled today... keep it in the FWs cause the rough is treacherous right now...all the guys working on tents and whatnot around the holes just laugh at everyone hacking the ball out 15-30 yards with full swing wedges.

i must admit i'm glad i finally went through the whole walk-up/sleep-in-your car experience (never had to do it in the past), particularly 1 month before the US Open, but don't think I'd do it again. be thankful you have a tee time cause being cold and uncomfortable in your car for 3-4 hours trying to get some sleep the night before just isn't conducive to playing well on that course in its current condition.

This post has been edited by drpino: May 20 2009, 09:56 PM

[Ghost_Orchid]

Ok, one more thing...its gonna be hot on Friday...Do you need to dress like a pro, or are nice golf shorts ok?

I'm already stressed and i'm not even there yet.

[drpino]

it's a NY state park public course, you can wear jean shorts and a tee shirt if you want but never seen it and assume most people wouldn't. shorts are definitely fine.

if you're stressed now, just wait 'til you tee off on #1 in front of a crowd of people... probably one of the most intimidating tee shots for an amateur and it has nothing to do with the actual hole

[italianstallion]

it's a NY state park public course, you can wear jean shorts and a tee shirt if you want but never seen it and assume most people wouldn't. shorts are definitely fine.

if you're stressed now, just wait 'til you tee off on #1 in front of a crowd of people... probably one of the most intimidating tee shots for an amateur and it has nothing to do with the actual hole

Dude, I was more nervous teeing off #1 last week than any first tee at any tournament I've ever played. (add on the fact that we were told not to take practice swings on that tee box, which is a vital part of my pre-shot routine) Still striped it exactly where I was aiming, just ran through the fairway into the first cut.

[Bscary]

yep....seeing that sign also is intimidating. basically telling you youre about to get your butt kicked

[jmansoho]

Oh that first tee shot. After waiting all night in car, no driving range, no practice swings. 20 guys you have now been hanging out with talking golf for 24 hours are all huddled around to watch you tee off. Heart is jumping out of your chest, this is as close to pressure as an everday golfer is going to feel.

As drpino can tell you I striped a draw right down the fairway

[Marrrk]

jman and drpino, glad to hear you guys got out and had a great time; we need to get a NY foursome together post-open. and italianstallion, i definitely enjoyed the second edition of your trip report.

oh man, i remember my first time ever playing the black and the nervousness on the first tee was completely out of line. you woulda thunk my mother's health depended on my finding the fairway. add to it i had an out-of-nowhere shank-fest on the range and it was just obscene. absolutely no reason for a man to be that nervous over a golf shot. hit my best drive ever on the hole that time, though. the first three holes i couldn't feel a thing, it was all just close my eyes and swing basically, and somehow, through it all i wound up being 1 under for most of the front nine. but once i warmed up, it was all downhill. oh well.

[drpino]

i can attest to jman's perfect tee shot on 1. nice round man... you'll remember that one for a long time.

my birdie on 7 was one of my only consolations even though during the open they'll be playing from those tees back by the fence and the hole will be a par 4 and not a 5, LOL, so i'll just consider it a US Open quality par.

on the first hole i pushed my tee shot into the second cut on the right, blocked out by the trees, hacked a 6 iron out to 20 yards in front of the green, hit a good little pitch that checked up too quick and had an easy uphiller, right to left for par... missed it and bogeyed the next 3 in a row. greens were probably around a 10-11 and i can't imagine what it'll be like during the open when the rough is even thicker and the greens even faster.

This post has been edited by drpino: May 24 2009, 02:22 AM