I Slept in the Parking Lot for a Tee Time at Bethpage Black

BETHPAGE, NEW YORK – MAY 13: Tiger Woods of the United States looks on during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 13, 2019 in Bethpage, New York. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images) /

While all of the great courses in Scotland and Ireland are open to the public, for golfers in America, only 13 of Golf Digest’s most recent list of the top 100 courses in America are public. Thankfully there is Bethpage State Park aka “The People’s Country Club” aka “Bethpage Black”, where if you are willing to sleep overnight in a parking lot, you can play the 37th ranked course in the country.

This week the world’s best arrive at Bethpage State Park, better known as Bethpage Black, 30 miles east of the island of Manhattan, for the 101st PGA Championship. Swarms of spectators are expected to watch Tiger Woods try to win his second consecutive major at the famed course.

But while most championship golf courses are forbidden to the public unless you’re a member or guest of one, Bethpage Black is owned by the State of New York and open to anyone willing to forgo a night’s sleep.

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A couple of year’s ago I did just that, sleeping overnight in the parking lot with my cousin for the chance to play one the world’s best golf courses. This is our story.

The smell of spring was in the air as we pulled into the long winding entrance of Bethpage State Park around 4 p.m., eager to find our numbered parking spaces that would determine tomorrow’s fate.

We had been told that if you arrive in the afternoon you’re likely to be the first in line, so as we took the right turn to the aforementioned area of the parking lot, we were surprised to see that another car had taken the first spot.

After performing a slow and diligent K turn we backed into the #2 space and put the car into Park, where it would remain for the next 12 hours.

Before long, our parking lot neighbor Jim got out of the car and with a heavy New York accent welcomed us to the lot.

He told us that him and his three friends get the first spot every Saturday for the past 5 years and they rotate the order of who sleeps in the parking lot (as the rules state only one person has to be in the car overnight, while the whole group needs to be there in the morning).

More importantly we found out that Jim and his friends were playing the Red course (also a fabulous golf course) tomorrow which meant my cousin Miles and I were likely first off the famed Black course.

As nightfall began to set, slowly and steadily more cars started to roll in. Knowing we had an early wake up, Miles and I reclined the two front seats of our sedan and attempted to sleep.

Throughout the night, the reflection from headlights would sporadically stream into our car. Add in the banter among those choosing to pull an all-nighter and your sleep is less than ideal.

At around 4:30 a.m. our alarms went off and we slowly raised our front seats, surprised to see that over 100 cars were now in line to play golf.

Just after 5 a.m. a member of the park staff came out to give us our theme-park-like bracelets which we would need to score a coveted tee time.

After a quick drive to the front of the parking lot, we scurried into the clubhouse to speak to the tee time representatives. With a tired “good morning,” the lady behind the counter asked which course we wanted to play? “Black,” we said in unison.

“7 a.m. First off.” she responded. The words every golfer wants to hear, that seemed to erase any ill-feelings we had towards our tired and stiff bodies.

With no time to warm-up, we made our way to the first tee.

After posing for some pictures on the tee box, the starter angrily told us to hit our tee shots. With military like execution, we obliged.

And off we went; to tackle one of the best and most difficult courses in the country.

Lack of sleep, a stiff back and angry starters certainly doesn’t sound like fun to most people.

Next. PGA Championship: Tiger Woods headlines featured tee times at Bethpage Black. dark

But for Bethpage Black, it’s all worth it.

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