New Yorkers and others who have been on the Black

[Iowa Hawkeye]

What tees did you play? Did you move up and play the right tees for your ability or did you play the tips in an effort to keep a tight grip on your man card?

[jonnythan]

Wow, could you possibly ask the question in a more loaded, confrontational, trolling way?

How about this:

Did you post this to simply directly insult other members or to also make yourself feel better for not being able to handle the back tees with your double-digit handicap?

[Iowa Hawkeye]

Sarcasm, my defensive friend, sarcasm. I really do want to know what people have played though. Maybe I should have thrown in a

[jonnythan]

Tongue-in-cheek sarcasm is a bit hard to discern on the internet. Remember, we have no tone of voice and no facial expressions - and your audience is large and varied and most of them don't know you. A :P would have actually helped a lot :)

[Prairie Golfer]

The regulation tees for this course are 6680 yards and a slope of 140. This course has no set of tees for my ability.

White tees on the Green Course would be just about right for me.

[Guest]

When I lived on Long Island many moons ago, I played Bethpage quite a bit.

Mostly we played the Red or the Green, both of which were fairly tough. One Saturday, we didn't feel like waiting the 2 1/2 hours, so we signed up for the 1/2 hour wait on the Black, thinking "how bad can it be".

We found out.

I don't remember the score, I think I needed an abacus to add it up. Two things I do remember: 1) I was proud I had 1 golf ball left to finish the round and 2) thinking "how did we get back to the clubhouse without ever going downhill?

OK, this was in the 70s, and none of the redesign/reconditioning has even been thought of. There were bunkers that you could find ANYTHING in, except your ball. It was still the hardest course I've ever played in my life, and nothing else is a close second.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Ive played the regulation tees when ive played there. I think its around 6900 yards. I might be wrong, but I dont think they let people go back to the championship tees.

Im my experience, it seemed like the course eases you in for the first couple holes, gets ridiculously hard in the middle and eases back out again at the end. 7 and 18 are probably the easiest holes on the course and could be considered birdie holes by a solid 10 handicap. Ive played longer courses by just pure yardage, but black probably plays 300 yards longer than the yardage on the card. The greens are reletivley flat and easy to putt, but getting to them is the hardest part of playing that golf course.