30th Birthday Golf Trip.

[518TitleistX]

So, I turned 30 yesterday.

I decided earlier this year that I was going to make an effort to play a quality golf course rather than the local courses and cow pastures pawning themselves off as country clubs as part of my birthday gift to myself. I set out trying to figure out which course id really like to attempt to play, and read a few reviews online saying to try this course or that course or whatever. I just had one course in mind that I couldn't shake and that was Bethpage.

My younger cousin lives in Manhattan, and being my normal playing partner before he moved there, I knew he'd gladly jump at the chance to play Bethpage with me. I asked if he'd be in and surely he was. He told me to leave the reservations to him so he went about getting registered in their system and we waited for the 1 week prior to try and reserve our tee time specifically trying for the Black course for obvious reasons. this brings us to the 23rd. Unfortunately, by the time he attempted to book our tee time, all spots had been filled for the day and we reluctantly accepted a 12:04 tee time on the Red course for 7/29.

Still pumped for the trip though i drove from my home near saratoga to manhattan after work on saturday the 28th arriving around 9pm. got a quick bite to eat then attempted to sleep with not much luck. i mean after all i was still going to play a bethpage course, no matter the color. we got up sunday morning just shy of 9am, loaded the car and were off to get to the course and it starts misting out with heavy overcast skies and every weather report calling for scattered thundershowers throughout the day. not what we were hoping to hear by any means.

We get to the course around 1015 and walk in to check in for our tee time and get situated. waiting in line to check in a guy walks in behind us and asks if we are going to play the black course, i told him that we had a tee time for the red course and were just signing in. he says "do you want to play the black course because my pops just bailed on me cuz of the friggin rain"  UHHHH YUP! he goes through the line, gets his raincheck and we gladly took his tee time at 1pm, relinquishing our spot on the red without hesitating. we pay our in state resident fees of $75 each and headed to the putting green getting the speeds down. after an hour or so we headed to the driving range to warm up some and work out some kinks... i seemed to find more than i worked out but thats for another story. finished our buckets  around 12pm and headed inside for a quick snack and a beer before our tee time. had a chat with the bartender and a few other patrons. one guy asked what i shoot at my home course and i told him mid 70's to mid 80's on average. he laughed and said the course is in PGA tournament condition currently as they are prepping for the 2012 Barclays in a couple weeks and id be lucky to shoot anything under 120 from the front tees. i smiled and nodded at him and we were on our way to the first tee.

i took one look at the rough and started to have my doubts as well. i told myself im here to play the course for all its worth so im playing from the tips just to see how i do. the white tees were as far back as were in play currently which still measured out to over 6800 yards. thats 600 yards longer than my home course. everything was in immaculate shape. fairways were manicured perfectly. the rough was full and thick and treacherous. greens were slick and fast. i was in love.

well, to make a long story much much shorter i made the turn at 51.holy crap. there is no doubt in my mind now how penalizing the rough is here. its a stroke or 2 penalty if it settles down no matter who you are.. on to the back 9 and things got a little better. i told myself that i would not put up a triple digit score for a round. i focused harder. studied my putts longer and took my time on my shots trying to pay more attention to form. i started out the back going bogey, bogey, bogey. not great but +3 is better through those 3 holes than the +8 i was on the first 3 holes on the front. then double, par, bogey, bogey, triple, and missed a 2 foot tap in for par at the last for another bogey. (sonofa!!!) if you're doing the math, that comes out to an eleven over par 46 on the back for a 18 hole total of 97. my cousin ended up with a 51 front, 50 back for a 101 total. the rain held off and it actually got hot and sunny mid round. it truly turned out to be a great experience and im really pleased with my score for the course being in tournament shape.

cliffs: played bethpage black for my 30th birthday, shot 97 from the "tips". loved every minute of it. highly recommend you play the course if you can manage to get a tee time.

regards all

~Travis

[Chris Stewart]

Congrats on such an awesome trip. My 30th is in September, wouldn't mind trying to do something similar.