Nassau Players Club

Bethpage State Park

Home Of The Black Course

Located in scenic Farmingdale, New York, on the Nassau / Suffolk border line, Bethpage State Park is one of the premier public golf facilities in the country. With 5 courses (and a 91st Hole restaurant) the complex is among the busiest golf facilities in the nation. All the courses are very playable, the Blue and Red courses regularly hosting local amateur and professional events.

The Black Course, however, is clearly the jewel in the crown. The selection by the USGA of the Black as the site of the 2002 U.S Open, the first ever public course to hold the U.S. National championship, has moved the course into the world golf spotlight.

Widely accepted as one of A.W. Tillinghast's finest courses, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park, completed in 1936, was the last course designed by Tillinghast, who also designed Winged Foot and Baltusrol among others.

Ranked 6th in GOLF Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play In The United States, and 4th in Golf Digest's Top 75 Affordable Public courses, the Black's merits as a stiff test of golf at 7,106 yards from the Blue Tees have been recognized by many golfers through the years.

It has hosted many local amateur and professional events, and also serves as the qualifying course for the Senior PGA Tour's Lightpath Long Island Classic.

We know that the course will be a more than adequate test as the Open venue.

The Black course is now re-open for public playfollowing the re-construction work  carried out for the US Open. It has to be seen to believe the condition that the course is in following the work.

If you cannot make it to the course, the next best alternative is to play a round on our home course - "The Black" - with us, or, alternatively, take a walk around the course backwards, and see the course from the architect's viewpoint.

Take a look at the section called "Painting Bethpage Black", four paintings done by renowned artist Samuel Ingwersen, at the Tillinghast Association's web site.