Loose Impediments

Bethpage: Beyond the Black

There is little doubt that the Black course is the big star at Bethpage State Park, especially this week for the U.S. Open. But Bethpage is hardly a one-course show. While plenty of golfers come from far and wide and go to great lengths like queuing overnight in the parking lot to play a U.S. Open course, many regulars opt to play one of the park's four other courses.

That's because in addition to the Black's difficulty, the course is tough to navigate. It is walking only, and the pace of play is predictably glacial. Before the USGA came calling, it wasn't all that hard to get on the Black because of these factors.

I grew up on Long Island, and have played all of Bethpage's courses—Black, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow—scores of time. I have played them in all seasons, in all weather conditions, during all times of day. There is little doubt that a round on the Black should be on the to-do list of every golfer. But while you're here, it would be a shame to not take the time to play one or more of the other courses here. 

If you're interested in camping out at the park—or at least in the parking lot for tee times—for a few days, here is a guide to the other Bethpage courses.

Second Shot

In an odd but most welcome scheduling hiccup, I was able to play two of the best courses in Northern Ireland twice last week. I played Portstewart and Royal Portrush (fairway bunker on the 17th hole, pictured) before my conference then got to play both in a single day the day after.

What struck me was how much my opinion of the Strand course at Portstewart changed during my second visit. After my first round, I thought that the course too extreme. The front nine is routed over and between some of the biggest dunes I have ever seen on a golf course—some were 200 feet high. 

The experience wasn't so much links golf as it was mountain golf. The back side was much flatter, and the holes were so different from what had preceded them. After putting out on the 18th hole, I felt disoriented, as if I had just finished riding a roller coaster. Hours later at dinner, even after gathering our wits, my playing partners and I couldn't figure out the layout.

Somewhere over the Rainbow

I have a conference for travel writers in Belfast. So naturally, I took the opportunity to arrive a couple of days early and get in some golf. Today's round was at Rosapenna. On the 17th hole, I saw the biggest, most vivid rainbow I have ever seen. Alas, there was no pot of gold at the end of it, but the pint of Guinness after the round was treasure enough.

Seeing Green

Golf is an honorable game. We play by the rules, calling penalties on ourselves if necessary. More importantly, we treat other golfers with a kind of respect and civility rarely found in the world at large. That kind of ethos is lacking in certain corners of the golf publishing industry, apparently.

Now, you may have heard of a book called A Course Called Ireland, written by Tom Coyne. It is Coyne's account of circumnavigating the Emerald Isle on foot, stopping to play many of the courses along the way. It is a fabulous premise for a book, which is precisely what I thought when I first heard about the project two years ago, several months before Coyne was set to embark on his epic journey.

So I contacted him and in addition to feeling him out on several "Great Courses of Britain and Ireland" features for LINKS on his return, I proposed that he write a weekly update from the road (sometimes literally, I imagine) for our Web site. Coyne seemed very receptive to the idea, and suggested I contact his agent, Dan Mandel.

Overlooked Genius

I have found that there is a pretty significant range of knowledge among golfers when it comes to golf courses and architects. While Bill Coore is highly regarded by aficionados, the name usually draws a blank stare from the average golf fan, who may offer a glint of recognition only after the mention of Coore's famous design partner, Ben Crenshaw. (And chances are, they know Crenshaw the player, not as an architect.)

For these casual observers, much of their knowledge of golf course architecture is determined by what they see on TV. American golfers expect to see wall-to-wall green at their courses largely because of the standard set by Augusta National during the Masters, the most widely viewed tournament of the year. There are other examples:

• Pete Dye had built some pretty good courses, but he didn't become famous until Jerry Pate threw him into the lake beside TPC Sawgrass' 18th green after winning the 1982 Players Championship.
• Very few people can name an original course built by Rees Jones, but everybody knows that he is the "Open Doctor" who has renovated numerous U.S. Open (and PGA Championship) courses.
• Gil Hanse is poised to be an A-Lister, but his star didn't begin to rise until he received praise for his renovation of TPC Boston during the telecast of the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship.
• Even with the 0.7 rating of the made-for-TV Kiwi Challenge, far more people were exposed to Tom Doak being interviewed about his New Zealand course Cape Kidnappers than have played his masterpiece, Oregon's Pacific Dunes.

Last-Minute Trip

What are you doing next week? If you have a couple of free days, you may want to go to the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. Because some rooms just became available.

Just 30 miles south of San Francisco, it's a beautiful place with a hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean and two courses. The Arthur Hills-designed Ocean course just hosted the LPGA Tour's Samsung World Championship, won by Paula Creamer.

And while the Arnold Palmer-designed Old course is mostly inland, in my opinion it has the second most spectacular finishing hole (click on the photo to see a bigger version) on the West Coast after Pebble Beach's 18th. It's a 418-yarder that tumbles downhill from tee to green.

Wild Finish

Last year, the Wild Dunes Resort just north of Charleston, South Carolina, lost half of the 18th hole of its Links course due to erosion. It is quite a memorable hole, a 501-yard dogleg-right par 5 that sweeps along the Atlantic Ocean—as dramatic a finish as there is in golf.

Sadly, this isn't the first time Wild Dunes has been the victim of nature-caused destruction: It had to rebuild the oceanside 17th and 18th holes after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Now as then, the resort didn't go into mourning after it lost part of its course; it went to work.

Big Mac Attack

 

It's a bit unfair, really, for one resort to have three courses like Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails. And now, Tom Doak and Jim Urbina, the masterminds behind Pacific Dunes, the consensus No. 1 at the resort (or pretty much anywhere else), are hard at work on the fourth. It's called Old Macdonald, which seemed a bit gimmicky when I first learned of the name almost two years ago, but I find that the more I see it in print, hear it and say it myself, the more I am getting used to it—not unlike "Barry Bonds, all-time home run leader."

First, a little history: "Old Mac" is a tribute to American golf pioneer Charles Blair Macdonald, who designed the first great American course, Long Island's National Golf Links, a favorite of Bandon owner Mike Keiser. National was an adaptation of some of the best holes found in Great Britain and continental Europe, and Doak and Urbina (Doak's longtime in-house architect who finally is getting his name on the marquee, a long-overdue honor) have used these "template" holes as the basis for Old Madonald's design.

Running Mates

Whether picking a president or choosing a golf resort, the top of the ticket undoubtedly is the most important consideration. Like Barack Obama and John McCain, courses like Pebble Beach and the Blue Monster are the headliners. But just as a vice presidential nominee can sway your vote, the resort's other courses should factor into your decision-making process. After all, you don't go to a resort to play just one layout, and you want all your rounds to be memorable.

After the jump, here are my 10 favorite "second courses" at resorts. Some are so good that they would be the starts at other resorts. And this list is just based on the places I've been, by no means is it meant to be comprehensive. If you know of any others that deserve mention, please make your suggestions.

On the Precipice

Now here's a made-for-TV event that I would tune in for—or at least DVR. It seems that Julian Robertson has lured four young guns to New Zealand with a ludicrously large payday at a 36-hole event he calls the Kiwi Challenge. A former hedge-fund giant, Robertson is the man behind the event and the owner of both courses hosting the event, Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers, a pair of cliffside courses that are among the most spectacular in the world. But while everybody I've talked to who has played them raves about the layouts (Kidnappers by Tom Doak, Kauri by David Harman), the remoteness makes them all but unknown to the average golfer.