OK, here we go guys... with a quick backstory first-
A couple of years ago a few members of the Deviations CC ( lvietri, fuzzygazz & beachedmulligan) were getting together to play IRL and they asked me to join them, which I did. We played at Casperkill Golf Club in upstate NY and we all got along great and had lots of fun.
Last year we decided to do it again, but BM had moved away, so we invited my friend/co-worker eingmund to join us and this time we played at Great River Golf Club in Connecticut and once again we had a blast.
We all wanted to get together again and this year we decided on Bethpage. We quickly realized that as much as we'd like to play the Black course, we didn't really feel like carrying our bags all over that course (as they don't allow golf carts) so we settled on the Red course ( for those of you that don't know, Bethpage is a New York State Public Park consisting of five courses- Black, Red, Blue, Yellow & Green) and the Red course is supposed to be the second most difficult course next to Black. Unfortunately Fuzzy wasn't able to join us this year so Lou (lvietri) asked his friend David to join us as he was just 20 mins from the course.
So, we had an 11:08 tee time and we all had to be checked in one hour prior to our tee time or our reservation would be canceled. Lou made it there first and had breakfast in the clubhouse in this room-
This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was pretty impressive. The halls of the clubhouse reminded me of something out of the movie "The Shining".
Erik (eingmund) and I showed up next after getting lost in a funeral procession, but we made it. David showed up shortly thereafter and we checked in and then we all hit the driving range before we had to tee off.
We then teed off about 20 mins early and all I can say is WE HAD A BLAST! There was a heavy fog as we teed off but it seemed to burn off at the turn and the sun came out. David played great golf and Lou was a close second. I hit my drives like there was no tomorrow but my short game failed me and unfortunately Erik was just having a bad day. David won the day!
The whole place was incredible to look at and the fairways and greens were perfect, it was amazing!! I would definitely play there again with these guys!
Here are a few pics of our day-
Here is a shot from the clubhouse overlooking Black #1
Here is a shot from behind the 18th green from the clubhouse looking out to the tee box. Off to the left is the Red course #1 and off to the right is the Black course #1.
Here is a tribute to A.W. Tillinghast the original course designer and Rees Jones. A.W. Tillinghast originally designed the course and Rees Jones redesigned it to welcome the first US Open at a public golf course.
and here we are
(L to R) David, Lou, Erik & MC
I'm exhausted, I'll fill you in on more details this weekend.
MC
PS- I'll be sending out a gift from the Bethpage pro shop to someone that responds to this post.