It is, Mr Google kindly informs me, 32 miles from Times Square in New York to Bethpage State Park and a golf course that likes to boast that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Sound familiar?
There are five courses in this Long Island park but Bethpage Black is the most fiendishly difficult. It is, of course, where the 45th Ryder Cup matches will be played and it is a belter. Accentuating the difficulty is clearly Bethpage’s key marketing element. They attract golfers to this beast by hanging out a sign recommending this joint is ‘only for highly skilled golfers’.
