Park and Play at Bethpage Black
Most followers of the game know about the rites of passage at Amen Corner in Augusta or the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. The park and play experience at Bethpage Black, though, belongs right up there, too. The Black Course is located about 30 miles east of New York in Farmingdale at Bethpage State Park. It hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Open Championships and has become a hotspot due to its notoriety and cheap greens fees ($60 weekend rate for residents, $120 for nonresidents). To reserve a morning tee time at this public course, most golfers show up to the parking lot around midnight and wait for a park ranger to knock on their windows some four hours later to alert them if they have secured a tee time.
99 Quaker Meeting House Road
Farmingdale, NY 11735-1847
(516) 249-0701
http://www.nysparks.state.ny.us/golf-courses/11/course-information.aspx
Tallgrass
No other public course in the region can hold a candle to Bethpage Black's overall difficulty, but the rough at Tallgrass certainly competes with the overgrown fescue found at Black. Tallgrass Country Club in Long Island is a links-style course stretching 6,587 yards. There are no trees, just wide open, hard fairways with a blend of hills, deep bunkers and sloping fast greens.
The wind usually kicks up to 10 mph on a calm day, so you can only imagine when it starts swirling out there. The rough is comprised of foot-high fescue grass, which can grow up to golfer's waist in the spring. A day at Tallgrass can turn into a real workout for your wedges, and most of the shots to the fairway won't come off the tee, but are pitch-outs from the rough.
24 Cooper Street
Shoreham, NY 11786
(631) 209-9359
http://www.golfattallgrass.com
Catch a Yankees game
Most diehard baseball fans shed tears when Yankee Stadium closed after the 2008 season. Well, if you step foot inside the new Yankee Stadium, you'll be crying tears of joy. The $1.5 billion facility opened in 2009 as the home of the 26-time World Series Champions.
The new park is constructed to replicate the original design of Yankee Stadium from 1923, so you still have the trademark frieze that lines the roof in the outfield. There's also Monument Park, which now sits behind center field. The updated amenities include more than 1,100 flat-screen HD TVs around the park. It's baseball's most modern stadium, but still pays tribute to the original ballpark.
Yankee Stadium
1 E. 161st St.
Bronx, NY 10451
http://yankees.mlb.com
About The Author
Sean Quinn is a writer and editor based in New York City. He has spent the last decade covering major sporting events from the NFL playoffs to the U.S. Open. He has written for the Kansas City Star and ESPN, among others. He is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
