Bethpage State Park (Black course)

Bethpage State Park (Black course): The immediate area around the "Big Apple" is not burgeoning with quality public golf courses. For many New Yorkers the solution is to drive a few miles east onto Long Island where Bethpage State Park certainly does its part in filling the void. Located just north of Farmingdale, you'll find a world-class layout, the Black course, and four other 18-hole courses, all radiating out from the same large clubhouse.

In the mid-1930s, when A.W. Tillinghast went out to survey Bethpage Park for the purposes of expanding New York's golf facilities, he quickly realised that one parcel of land in particular would yield a fabulous layout. On this undulating piece of wooded terrain, to the east side of the other courses, he crafted the Black course. This out-and-back roaming layout now ranks with the best in the United States.

Before teeing off on the Black (alongside the opening tee of the Green course), you are minded to read the sign at the starter's hut: "The Black Course is an extremely difficult course, which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers." Never a truer word!

The first couple of holes, par-4s that dogleg in opposite directions, one downhill, the next uphill, may have you wondering what all the fuss is about. But at the par-5 4th any doubts are banished, the wow-factor kicks-in and it's full throttle for the rest of the round. Not only does the layout provide a very enjoyable walk in pleasant woodland surroundings, it will also thoroughly test your game.

Superb fairway and greenside bunkering, plenty of elevation change, fescue grasses and ball grabbing rough around the greens, all see to that. There are flatter stretches and others with plenty of elevation change. Some holes are relatively wooded, others more open. Encircling the entire layout is tranquil woodland.

"Tillie's" layout builds to a wonderful four-hole closing stretch (on the west side of Round Swamp Rd). Here the greenside bunkering seems to take on even more ferocious proportions, especially at the final devilish duo. The Black's par-3 17th is one of the world's most fiercely bunkered "short" holes; from the tee you don't see the green, just the bunkers. The par-4 18th, which comes back up to the clubhouse alongside the first hole of the Red course, is one of the best elevated-tee to elevated-green straightaway par-4s you'll ever play.