chris5214:
That is so true .. i was wondering why that is ? i used to play Kiawah alot .. now if i shoot a 31 on either front or back 9 i consider myself a little lucky .. on the other hand i shot my 1st sub-60 on BP 'bout a week ago ..
Mainly because Kiawah Island: The Ocean Course is a full 1,200 yards further from the up tees to the back tees. It's pretty equal increments, too. It just gets harder and harder with each tier-up. Bethpage Black is quite a bit further as well (I think <1,000 yard differences between Mens and Ladies tees), but many of those yards come from certain holes, and not equal spread on each hole. The par 5 13th is a great example of this. The Legends play from ~90yards further than the other tees. There are quite a few holes on Bethpage where almost all of the tees are on one teebox (even resulting in Tour Masters playing from longer than Legends on some holes [1 and 15, for example]), while Kiawah has separate teeboxes for most (but not all) tees.
Not only that, but Bethpage is very elevated. Many of the greens require you to hit your approach to an elevated green (2, 3, 5, 9, 15, 17, 18), and these usually result in low level players not being able to reach them, often coming up short in sand or deep rough. As players progress through the game, higher level clubs become available, which not only hit the ball further but also hits the ball with a higher trajectory; resulting not only in being able to reach these greens, but also being able to stop the ball on them.
The main reason is that Kiawah is just WAY longer, though, especially the Par 3s.