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Originally Posted by Chris Wagner
Great insight. I live about 20 minutes from Bethpage. Played black this past Thursday. Construction for the Ryder cup is in full swing. Many of the stands and vip booths are going up. It was definitely in great shape.
I don’t need difficult. Definitley don’t need Black. But do want at least nice and more than a pitch and putt. I watched a flyover of one championship course, not sure which one it was. There was lots of fairway bunkers but saw very very few geeenside bunkers which was a little concerning.
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I lived about 20 minutes away as well (East Meadow), my grandmother lived 1 mile away, but that was 45 years ago.
The courses here are hardly pitch and putt, Fox Run to Stirrup Cup at Glenview is 7,145 from the black tees--it was actually originally designed to attract a pro tournament, even to the point of having townhouses behind the 18th green for housing players, but that never materialized. The LPGA had a tournament at Tierra del Sol some years ago.
As far as greenside bunkers go, it varies by course, but my opinion is that many are quite large and depending on the pin position can be very much in play. They can also be difficult depending on the number of unraked footprints
. If you like lots of sand, I played Tobacco Road in North Carolina last week---it will fix anyone's desire for sand for at least 2 months.
I think the main drawback of the courses here is their condition, which varies with the seasons as well as rainfall. However, the last 12 months has seen a considerable improvement on many courses despite a period of drought. They also renovate courses on a regular basis. I don't play executive courses (at least not yet), but I understand those conditions have improved as well. Remember, the championship courses get over 1 million rounds/year and the execs over 2 million, so maintenance is a challenge, especially considering many "golfers" don't know how to pick up a rake and think the sand bottle is a urinal.