Off the Deck
Golf is so much more than the scorecard and those birdies that are rarely made. It's about the people you meet along the way. From lifelong bonds to unexpected fast friends, Off the Deck highlights the lives and stories built through the game of golf.
Off the Deck
Tackling Bethpage Black with Scott Young
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Driver off the deck for coin content. Is driver off the deck. They're hopling. So the driver off the deck. I think you would try this, right? Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00You have to put your foot on the gas. You pull out the driver off the deck and you put it on the drain all the way up the hill.
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to another episode of Off the Deck. My name is Josh Decker. Off the deck is brought to you by Ideca Golf. It's finally hoodie season in Birmingham. I am actually wearing the current hoodie. The color is horizon in this thing is killer. Incredibly versatile, lightweight, breathable, feather light. I mean, this thing is is super comfy. Make sure you use promo code OTD25 for 25% off at ideca.gov. That's I D-A-K-A.gov. Promo code OTD25. Mr. Scott Young, man, welcome to off the deck. How you doing, brother? Great. Thank you. Happy to be here. Yeah, thanks for coming on to chat. We've known each other now, I guess. When was the Pinehurst roadshow for Sweeten's Cove?
SPEAKER_02Uh it was what, August of 24? So it's been a little more than two years.
SPEAKER_01Had never met you before in a day in my life. And uh you show up to that Sweeten's Cove Roadshow at Pinehurst. A bunch of us who already knew each other showed up, and you were the lone man out, and you and I ended up paired together playing Pinehurst number three, which you knew more about Pinehurst than I think most people know about Pinehurst, um, and clearly have a love for that place. And so it's been a joy to get to know you um over the past, yeah, I guess two years now, uh, and play some golf together. And uh we recently went to Landman for 7-Eleven, uh, which was a great time. Got the head cover back there. Yeah, Team Slurpee, of course, took down Team Big Gulp, but that's a podcast for another day. Um before we dive into the main reason I wanted to have you on the show, what do you think of Landman?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, Landman was absolutely incredible. Uh it was, you know, you see pictures of it, and you know, I watched uh anything but small video and everything. You get all hyped up for it and looking forward to it, and nothing just puts that scale into words. Uh, you know, I ran into Rob at Sweeton's uh, I think a couple of weeks after that, and I was just like, you You try to describe it, and it's like watching multiple people miss a hundred-yard fairway that from the T-Box looks like it's 20 yards wide, like people just think you're crazy, you know. There isn't a golf hole long enough to do that. But the visuals out there are amazing. Uh the group that we had was incredible, you know, for our first time to be able to stay there in the cabins. Everything you put together was top-notch, man. I uh so much fun. The only only thing I wish was that uh that we could have gotten old Dean in there, but there will be another chance for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. There definitely will. There definitely will. Yeah, that place is special. Uh as some of you guys know, Landman, they put their tea times available, I think it's New Year's Eve at eight o'clock. And last year they sold out within about an hour. Um, and we were fortunate enough to take 16. And uh Scott and I were two of the crazy 16 that played 36 in back-to-back days um out there, which at a golf course that is that large, that I don't know that I've been that tired um in a while. I mean, I was I was beat. Um, it also didn't help that I was doing the opposite of hydrating while we were out there. But again, that's a that's a podcast for another day. Um so as with all golf trips, uh, the landman trip, we had a group text, and that group text evolved as people dropped into the chat or dropped into the trip or had to leave the trip. We did have one person who was the lone Android user, which of course caused a litanya problems and required us to start new chats whenever we added someone um to the group. But you came into the chat one day and you were like, hey, um my family's going on vacation. I'm thinking about driving up to Farmingdale, North Farmingdale, New York, and going and playing Beth Page Black. Who wants to go with me? Um none of the other 15 brave souls took you up on that offer to go play Beth Page, but you went ahead and did it solo. And when you were telling us about this, I was like, okay, well, I don't want to hear anything. I'm not gonna read the text messages about this trip. I want to talk to you on the show about this because I feel like there's a lot of lore around Beth Page and going and sleeping in the parking lot and just everything that encompasses that experience. So I I wanted, I told you I said take copious notes and we'll have you on the show and just talk about what is it like to go through that experience and let's start you how what was the drive time for you from home to get to Bethpage State Park?
SPEAKER_02Oh man. Um, well, I mean, first of all, this was like this was like one of my like lore trips, right? Like I came into golf so much later than a lot of you guys that I played with too. I didn't start playing until like in my late 20s. Oh wow. Okay, when I first started paying attention to it, like the first golf tournament I really paid attention to was the US Open with Tiger and Rocco in 2008. So it's like that's Tory Ponds. Yeah. And then they they talk all about the Dawn Patrol and everybody there, and then 2009 they go to Beth Page, so it's like East Coast version of that, and camp out and go play it. And you know, I think that was Lucas Glover that won that one. Um, but so right away, like as I started to really care about and want to play golf, I was like, man, the US Open to this day, I still love it. It falls on Father's Day, my birthday lines up with it a lot of times. So between that, this venue was always something I wanted to go and get to. And it always seemed so accessible because I mean in Richmond, it's should be a six and a half hour drive up there to get to Beth Page, but you have to go by DC, potentially through Baltimore and you know, and then New York, and you never know how long that's gonna take. So um when I text you guys in the group chat, like I I knew that they were going out, it was really kind of a ha ha ha ha. I might have a free night. Does anybody kind of want to do it? And nobody thought about it, so I kind of put it away. And then like that week leading up, I think it was that Wednesday night, everything was kind of lining up with work, and I talked to my boss that Thursday, and I was like, Is there anything you need me for? Definitely on Friday. He was like, Well, there's one call at two. He was like, other than that, what do you think? And I was like, I'm gonna spend most of the day on the road. And I came home that Thursday night, packed, left at 6 a.m. I mean, I so I packed an air mattress. I'm I've done this before. I mean, I've camped out in the parking lot there at Sweetens to play that a bunch of times and wake up looking at the course. So I drive a Sierra 1500. So I've got a uh truckbed tent that just like goes over the top and covers it. Okay. Fits a uh twin air mattress perfectly. Uh my my cooler to the side. Uh shout out Bennett, I bring my craftsman fan that keeps the air moving in there at nighttime so it doesn't get too hot. Um what else did I throw in there? Sheets, a pillow, and uh I think that was really about it. Threw some beers in the cooler and some water and hit the road at 6 a.m. Took me a little longer than the six and a half hours. I think I got to Beth Page at like 1.40 that afternoon.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Which, you know, I spent time that evening like listening to it. Like, what time do I really need to get up there? And most of the stuff that I read or saw were like, oh, as long as you get up there by 4 p.m., you'll be fine. Um 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_01to get in line to sleep in the parking lot for two time the next day.
SPEAKER_02Correct. Um, I would not suggest following that advice. So and I'll get into that a little bit more. But based on my experience, like I would say when I got there, it's probably about the latest you would want to if you want to try to guarantee yourself a time.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And is there are there times that Beth Page I suspect that they release times or that I know there's like some kind of phone system that apparently people had hacked a while back. Yeah, but I know I know it's not everyone's not doing this that is playing the golf course on a given day. How do they release the other times? Is that just locals or what?
SPEAKER_02So from what I was hearing, and everybody asked you to hear it a little bit differently. It um from what I gathered from the staff, I think it's the first six T times of every day, and then one per hour up until 3 p.m. Um gets released. And that's for the walk-up. Everything else is through the reservation system. Okay. So you do that. We were trying to do that math, and it's like it didn't line up with the number of spaces. The guys who come around and check, they were generally saying if you're in about spot twelve to fourteen, you should be guaranteed to get out onto the black for that day. Which I mean, and that ended up working out. I mean, um for me, the the whole experience was super cool. Um definitely not not my first ever solo golf trip. I like to try to throw one of those in there every year or two. Um I think it's fun to go play somewhere different, be on your own schedule. As fun as it is to go somewhere with friends, like to be able to go somewhere and do be where you want to be, you know, sit in the car for an extra 20 minutes if you want to or or whatever. Um I just find some peace of mind. So uh when I pulled up in there is uh you pull into Beth Page and you kind of circle around into a loop, and the first thing you hit is the parking lot. Um and already I can see a decent number of people. So I was like, I'm not not gonna mess around, I'm just gonna grab a spot right away. It's already 140. I've got a conference call at two that I've got to hop on. So I've read it. Yeah, so there are numbered spots, and it's like it I didn't really get a grasp of the layout of Beth Page really until the next day. Um, because once you get to your spot, if you're caught away from it twice, they'll do what's called coning you and you're not allowed to play the next day. Um because there is a bathroom, 24-hour bathroom, and it's close enough. Most people come with multiple people, so like one will stay in the spot while the other will go hit balls or go to the pro shop or get something to eat. Um didn't have that luxury traveling solo. Um so most of my experience like that Friday afternoon was backing into the spot, getting my tent set up. I did my conference call. I ordered to go pizza from a place called Mario's around the corner, just went to their website for the address. I'll put in the address and then the notes I said spot 13. Right? Uh the guy pulled right up, like knew exactly where he was going, uh, rolled down his window and handed it to me. I ate my I got pictures sitting there just on the truck bed, the big pizza, New York pizza, which is fantastic. Uh dudes next to me, so I ended up in spot 13 when I got there at 140. So, you know, I said they generally say 12 to 14 is guaranteed a spot, so I'm kind of sweating it all night. Like that I do this whole drive and not even gonna end up playing it. I decided I'd play the red no matter what, which is also supposed to be a great course. Um the three guys that were in spot twelve, um, as I mentioned, it live in Richmond, Virginia. The three guys in spot twelve were all from Richmond. Uh wow, what a small world. It's crazy. One of the guys had moved to Queens, I want to say his name was Cameron. Shout out Cameron. I think six months ago moved to Queens. Uh Steve had moved to Annapolis, and then Logan was still here in Richmond. So we decided early on that we would just play together as a force, and it seemed like fate put us in those spots side by side. Um and that night, I mean, it was everything from people who play it every weekend by camping out. Like there was a guy I started to call the mayor. He was the one telling everybody that pulled in for, no, you got a back in. You're doing it wrong. It's not how we do it here. Okay. Um, the guys who had spot one were four uh Jets fans. It was the night of the Jets preseason game, and they had must have been 30 people show up and throw just a full-on tailgate in the parking lot when only four of them were playing golf. I mean, what TVs in the parking lot, like full real dartboards, like they had a beer pong table, they had beer dice table, like these guys were taking up like 12 spots.
SPEAKER_01It could have been an SEC for a preseason game. Yes. And it was fantastic. Um you got there at 140, and you had read to get there at 4 o'clock. If you'd gotten there at 4 o'clock, you would not have played Beth Baseball.
SPEAKER_02Oh, not even close. So the the foursome behind me, uh, I ended up playing with the three guys in spot 12 in front of me. We got a 1.30 tea time. Okay. Um, the guys behind me in spot 14, uh, they got I think 250, the last full foursome of the day.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_02When I checked in, there were only five spots. Like I probably could have played earlier. There was a single single spot open at like 9.30 or 10. But I'd already decided I was going to play with these guys, and and we ended up having a lot of fun. So it was a good call.
SPEAKER_01So, so other than the Jets tailgate party that happened, what I can't imagine that there's another I mean, I know people camp out, at least here in Alabama, used to, for the allocated bourbon release, and that was a whole thing. There were people that would keep a list of who got who's who got in what spot when and whose chair is where and all that kind of thing. But this is much more of a sounds like a formal kind of setup, especially with numbered spots and and kind of the flow of everything. And you said they're walking around and checking, and if you're not there twice, then they you get coned. So it when you went to the bathroom, did you just have to hope and pray that they didn't come by and check your car?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, everybody around also is kind of like, oh, they'll be like, oh, he just ran to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01Like, oh, yeah, each other, nothing nefarious. Yeah, yeah. If you're like spot 14, I'm like, oh yeah, that guy's gone. He's he's at Mario's eating pizza.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Exactly. Well, we all joked that we were gonna do that to everybody else, and they stepped away watching the spots. But no, I mean, I'll put it this way there are rules that you want to follow. Like, you need to be there in a certain amount of time. They're gonna follow the order. Um, so at five o'clock in the morning, like I can talk more about the night if you want um before we get to the actual process. Yeah, how was the night? Let's go through it. Um, I mean, it it's really laid back. I mean, there are uh I there are rules to follow, so you have to know where to be and when, but it's a welcoming community by far. Like, even the guys at work there, it's not like they're coming by trying to catch you away from the spot. It's more like, oh, who's not here now? kind of thing. Right. Um the there are people who set up like chipping area, you're right next to a road, so you you shouldn't expect it to be too quiet. Um, there are sporadic like lampposts throughout all the parking lot. So I expected like in my tent to get in and have a nice quiet little space with my noise-cancelling headphones, lamp right above me. So I was in like a glowing orb all night long. Um so if you're in that situation, bring if you can't sleep with light, bring a eye mask or something like that. That would be my suggestion. Uh you can grill out, you just can't do charcoal, you know, like basic camp stuff. Um that's so cool. It it had the really the feeling of it's like an extended version of when you first so show up before the uh the barrel tea, the barrel morning shot at Sweetens, like when everybody doesn't really know each other, but you're all there for the same reason, you're all in the middle of nowhere. You know, like everybody there knows you're about to all sleep in your cars to play this golf course together at some point tomorrow, and there's just this bonding factor about all of that.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's amazing how we bond over waiting. Like if you if you're just waiting somewhere, you you especially men getting ready or women to getting ready to play golf. That's all of a sudden people become a lot more talkative than maybe they normally are.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I was way more interested, and I did not catch his name, but my buddy's uh remote control car than I have been in one of those since I was like 10 years old. You know, like he was driving it all through the parking lot and he had it running off a ramps was a good time. Um so then, yeah, eventually like the parking lot settles down at I'd say probably about eleven. Yeah, maybe a little bit older these days. I was probably closer to 10 30. Um five o'clock, I'd say, is when you need to be ready when they come around with what they call the bakery tickets, which is literally like a roll, like a bakery number, and they hand it off to you. Um at that point, so I pr I got up probably like 4 30. Okay. Um and like through it, I didn't pack anything. I just kind of took the tent down and put it all in the back of the truck and closed it up and set there in the driver's seat. And then as they hand you the tickets, everybody pulls out of their spots and then you move up. So at this point, I started to get like a layout of what the property looked like. Like I could see uh highway and I could see a little bit of I think the green course where I was sitting before. And you pull back onto the road, main road, and it takes you straight forward. And at this point is where like I'll describe Beth Page reminding the best way I can describe the layout is almost like a uh a municipal pinehurst, right? Like uh like there's a central clubhouse. There's a once you get back on that drive, you go in, there's a parking lot to the right that has like the driving range. Parking lot's all to the left, clubhouse sets in the front with a restaurant, it's got a locker room where you can rent a locker for the day. I think it was like give them twenty bucks and it's a five dollars if they keep to get fifteen back at the end of the day, gives you a shower, a locker, and you don't have to be gross all day long. Um all there's like five courses, all of them go off of the exact same clubhouse. You check into the same pro shop like you do at the at Pine Hearst, whether you're gonna play one through was it one through five right there at the main Pinehurst property. Instead it's black, yellow, red, green, blue. Yeah. Um you can look for how did you how did you sleep? I I honestly slept really well, man. I've I've slept that way before. The the the people in the parking lot were all really respectful. It's not like anybody's out there like being super loud or playing music really late. But I mean I I slept probably solid from eleven to four thirty.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And that's when you woke up. So now you've moved your vehicle, and I'm no mathematician, but you've got nine hours until your tea time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, so when you get your bakery ticket, then you go get in line and then they call you in for you to choose your tea time based on your bakery number. So you walk in and it looks kind of like a uh kind of like a horse racing area. There's all these screens up, like one for each course, yeah, each colored course. Okay. And as the tea times, there's like people at three or four windows, and as they're getting taken, you see them like pinging off. So even though you're like next to go, you're like, oh, eleven just went, oh man, I gotta drive back to Virginia. Oh no. Right. And then at some point you just acknowledge, like, this is what I'm here for. You know, whatever time we get is the time we get.
SPEAKER_01So you guys have decided with the group from Richmond that y'all were gonna play together, and that just y'all lucked out in making that happen, though, right? Correct. Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Like, it's very likely like we could have gotten up there and they could have been like, oh, there's two single spots and one two spot. Oh, so even that group could have been split up.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So you were an advantage being a single because you could probably plug in anywhere and you've never met a stranger. I know that from playing a good amount of golf with you. Um, okay. That's this is still I feel like there's not another experience like this in United States golf. Um, I think like the closest thing I've heard of something similar to this is what happens at St. Andrews. Um so you so you like I said, you've got nine hours to kill. You move your truck, you're starting to see the landscape of the land, you have your bakery ticket go in, you find out you're going at 1 30. What do you do for I mean, at least you're locked in now. So can you leave right now?
SPEAKER_02Now you can you can go wherever. Like you could theoretically, like if you had an Airbnb or a friend in the area, you could go back and go to sleep. Like a the guy who was much further of us, the guy I was calling the mayor. He was there purposefully to play the red that day. Um, he got his tea time. He wanted to play at 11:30 with a friend, I believe. So he got his tea time. He was going back home to go to sleep and come back and meet his friend. Um, I went back to my truck. I had parked in a nice shady area. It was sunscreen up, and I took about another three-hour nap nice um from there. I think uh I was looking at my pictures earlier today to kind of refresh. I think I walked back up to the clubhouse probably about 9 30 when I woke up from that nap. Uh I went into the restaurant, grabbed some breakfast. I mean, it's it's just a cool scene because at that point, like I was by myself, but you start walking by, there's all these other people that you spent the night with that are waiting to play and they're putting and you're walking by each other all day, and it's you kind of feel like it's your club for the day, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, you've all kind of gone through it sleeping in a parking lot for the night.
SPEAKER_02Um, my the funniest like image, and I tried to get a picture of this, but I couldn't. There are all these people that walk in through the clubhouse with just like the handles of the pushcarts. Because they're all outside, and if you rent a pushcart, they'll like hand you the handle in the pro shop. So people come out like carrying like three and four, like the handle arms are hung up with handles hanging off of them. Uh it took me a minute to realize what they were initially.
SPEAKER_01Did you witness anybody not get a time?
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah. I mean, there were definitely people that were there not to. I mean, you could you if If you camp out, you will get a time to play golf. I'm confident in that. It's just me, you may not play the black. Okay. Like the reds, you could play their walk-up times reserved for every one of the courses. So once you got past 14, I know the guys in 15, six, like the guys I think in slot nineteen. This is off the top of my head, but I believe the guys in slot nineteen actually played red at like 9 30. Okay. Like they were finishing before I even teened off on black. You had just woken up from your second nap. Exactly. Exactly. Um, but then the rest of the day, like I went and got breakfast. Um, Sam, shout out Sam, the bartender there. She was awesome. Tequila uh transfusions to start the day. I had a couple of those. A full send.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Anyway, that was there. I was there. I was all in. Um putting greens. There were no cups in the putting greens, which I think is starting to pop uh show up a lot more around. Like the club I used to belong to here in Richmond would at least have like sticks if they didn't get holes to putt to, but there's nothing. So nothing. Okay. It's kind of neat. You could put a T anywhere. Uh made a lot more room for people to get out there. Sorry. Yeah. How was the Pro Shop?
SPEAKER_01Or did you shop afterwards?
SPEAKER_02So oh I got them sitting over there. I could grab them. So disappointingly enough, if I had one knock on the whole experience, it would be the Pro Shop and what what's what was available in the Pro Shop. Like it was huge pro shop. Super cool layout. Um I looked through and through, I found two polos in my size and one t-shirt in my size. Nothing else. Everything else was XL or larger or smalls. And everything that I was looking at were all like exactly the same. You know, it's like the 23 Footjoy polos and the one Adidas one that looked just like a no-nock to either of those brands. But I was expecting uh just a lot more variety and options.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would too. I would think it'd be a treasure trove.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So I got an Adidas hat and uh I got a markdown Footjoy t-shirt with the uh it's actually super cool. It's red with the uh Ryder Cup trophy on it. Oh yeah. Yeah, the yardage yardage book. Um like I I wanted something with the warning sign on it. Like there was only it was only on it was only on putter covers, it wouldn't fit my putter. You know, like no center-shafted mallet covers, uh only a handful. I think there were probably only about eight different head cover options. So I got the refuse. Wow.
SPEAKER_01That is that blows my mind because like you'd think, I mean, especially like as popular as a destination uh that it is, that they would just churn through merchandise and have stuff ready in storage to throw on the shelves as soon as they see things running out. That's disappointing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I mean, and they've got such a cool logo, too. I mean, yeah, there were so many variations that they had on this that were really cool, just not in shirts my size. I mean for me, I I walked in that pro shop three times before I teed off that day. I bought three items of a yardage book, a t-shirt, and a hat, which I think you know where I actually what I could have done in there. Yes, for sure. And would have happily done. Um so that would that was probably the one letdown to it, would have been the merchandise option. So needless to say, I'm gonna keep an eye on the website to see if anything pops up that cool that I could get.
SPEAKER_01Um so when you're checking in, do they say anything to you about the teas that you're allowed to play? So uh there are only three tea boxes um that are available.
SPEAKER_02I was expecting a lot more given how gigantic the course is. Yeah. Um you know, the tournament tees are all the way back, which you don't really get any option to look at. But other than that, they just label them back, middle, and forward. What? That's how they're that's how they're defined? Yeah, yeah. So you've got back, middle, and forward, you got blue is back, uh, black is middle, and red is forward. Uh you can go just shy of 7,500 yards, just shy of 6,800 or 6,200 are your three options. So I settled in on a smooth uh 6757 from the middle tees.
SPEAKER_01Which I gotta keep reminding myself that this is a state park. So I don't know, I don't know why I'm expecting more, but but I guess because it's Beth Page and kind of the just uh everything about Beth Page makes me feel like it's almost like some of this is kind of lazy, like to name them back, middle, and forward. Like, okay.
SPEAKER_02I I uh you might call it lazy. I call it a charm. How about that? I call it a charm.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's yeah, that's that's a nicer way to put it.
SPEAKER_02Charm. Um, I mean, uh to your point though, I mean, everything about the black course is impeccable. I didn't spend much time on the other courses, but I mean, my God, it looked like they could have hosted a major there tomorrow. Really? Yeah, the some of the locals and stuff that I was talking to, they were like, yeah, they actually cut it down lower than this for the Ryder Cup. I'm sure you tell everybody that's come to play this for their first experience. But the more than one person said that the the course was playing extremely, extremely tough. They also mentioned that uh it was the day I was there that Saturday was ridiculously busy. Like a half dozen people that worked there said how crazy busy it was. So maybe there is something to that 4 p.m. tea time, or show up and get a tea time thing. But for my if I were to ever do it again, I'd shoot to be there by one would be my course. Okay. And 12 30 if I could.
SPEAKER_01And I guess when you say busy, you mean busy with play on other courses, not just because the I mean there's only so many tea times for black, right? But red, yellow, blue, like I guess those courses probably don't see near the play that black does, and so that's how it's busy, is by play on those other courses.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean the other courses are super busy too, because for New York State residents, I mean it's 80 bucks for them to play black. Whoa. Uh it was 160 for me to play black. Okay. As an out of state. I mean, I'll pay that down the road to go play like Royal Newcat. By the time I had a couple of beers and a hot dog on top of the T time, I'm at 160.
SPEAKER_01So it's funny you mentioned that because you mentioned Tory Pines earlier. Um, and I've played Tory, and I've I've walked Beth Page, uh, went to the US Open back there back in, I think it was uh it was the year it was the year that uh the finale of Game of Thrones happened when DJ almost ran down Brooks Kepka. I only remember that because I know we left, we were there on a Sunday, we left Beth Page early to get back to our hotel so we could watch the episode of Game of Thrones. Um priority. But I still get the emails from Tory Pines and it always shows the local San Diego resident rate, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is ridiculous. How inexpensive it is for the residents to play compared to me. I mean, it's like I think I have to pay like 3x what they get to pay. Um, but I get it, they're paying the taxes because it again is a state park. Um so uh back to Beth Page though. So you mentioned the push carts. You did not have a cart, correct?
SPEAKER_02No, I uh I carried the uh this uh sugarloaf Evans bag uh that I had just gotten around there. Did you get a push cart though? No, no, threw it on the shoulder. You carried your bag. Yeah. Oh god. I did I did a few things to lighten it up. I mean I I took a risk. I only I only had about four or five golf balls in there. Um no speaker. Uh I took the 60 degree out. Okay. The rough and everything around there. I want something with a little more face. Yeah. Um yeah, uh carried it all the way around. I figured if I was gonna do it, I was gonna do it. I will tell you, man, I it's you we were talking earlier about you know the the landman and being that tired. Yeah. I think I was more tired after walking the 18 at Beth Page than I was after the 18 at Indian Creek and the 30s, 30, 36 and 36 at Landman. Like, I was pretty whooped that Monday flying back from Landman, but I finished this round at Beth Page. I walked into the bar and I sat there and Sam, the bartender from the morning, was still there, and she was like, What can I get you? I was like, I just need a minute. I don't even think I'm gonna get anything. So she just set water in front of me and let me be. Um I mean it's it's a brutal walk. Like, I I think you really like need to be ready for it.
SPEAKER_01It um so when I went to the the US Open with my wife, we crossed so number one, and then you cross the street, correct? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you go in through the tunnel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we crossed the street, and then I think we might have made it up to like the third or fourth fairway, and there's a you can see a field off to your right from that fairway, but it's an uphill fairway. And I looked at her, I was like, I don't know that we want to continue on this walk. And we also had tickets to like the Chase hospitality on the 18th, so it's like, okay, we can keep walking, or we can go back to the Chase tent where there's all the food and drink we want, and we can watch all the golf and the air conditioner, and you also have like the par three and 18, like 16, 17, 18, I think is across the street, right? Yeah, well, 15 is too, so they all kind of zigzag back and forth to the finish. So, yeah, so we actually reversed and walked back, and we're like, yeah, no, we're not. So I've only seen like two or three holes across the street. Everything else at Beth Page I've seen is on the side of the street with one and eighteen, because I was like, nah, we're not, we're not doing that. So I can't imagine doing it carrying a golf bag.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, you know, it's uh I wanted I wanted the true experience. I definitely got it. You got it, didn't you? That's for sure. Yeah, I did. I think uh uh I did I played well, shot at 82, which I was extremely happy with. Um no birdies, uh but the guys that I was playing with uh will tell you I probably had the putting day of my life out there. Um you know they everything I've heard about that page coming in was that all the teeth is up to and around the greens, like once you get on the greens, they're relatively flat. Um which I mean ended up being true. Like I think I think I bogeied the first five holes. No, uh the first three bogeyed the first three. My first par was four, which was a par five, and then I bogied three more after that. And all of the bogies were just it's like I was reading it a cup out and it moved a half a cup. So eventually I was just like, you know what? They're just I'm just gonna keep everything fairly close to the hole and hit it with good speed, and trust that I can hit a six-footer coming back if I go by it because I'm gonna watch it. And I had a stretch probably of six holes. I started writing them down, not number of putts, but length because it was dumb. It was like 35-footer, 25-footer, 18-footer, 21-footer, 12-footer, 10-footer, all like in a string of holes. Like that's why I had so many guys. Um, the the wedges in the short game were on point. I was struggling. Oh, Chris uh was in the parking lot from Boston and he had played Beth Page a bunch of times. He was like, you get into the rough, just take your medicine, put it back into the middle of the fairway, play for bogey, and move on. And it was not advice that I took well for the first year. Um, I mean, a couple of random thoughts as I was walking around, like the only golf course I've ever played where I saw people actively watering the rough, not the fairways, not the greens, the rough. Like there were guys hand watering the rough around the green and the fringes leading up to it. Yeah, the fairways so firm and hard, which I think is also part of what made it such a brutal walk. Like I was wearing comfortable shoes, and at the end of it, I felt like my arches had just been beaten into submission. Like the last five holes, that's all they got. I'm just walking in the rough because it's softer. That's crazy. Yeah, that is. I mean, it probably would be different if I was 25. 45, man. Yeah. It started to hit those last five, six holes. Well, I wonder if Jerry in the bag.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I joked about needless elevation. It was my running jerk for the round. Because you'd finish a green, and then it would make you walk up a hill to a T-box, and it's just a perch T-box, and you've got to walk down off the T-box into a valley up another hill to the fairway. I mean, kind of like number 10, you know, a lot of off the tea box, down and up. It's like, you really have to go down, man. Right, right, and then back up.
SPEAKER_01What was your favorite part of the trip?
SPEAKER_02Um favorite part of the trip. I mean, the spontaneity of it would have to be it. Um because I I even though it's some I like I said, I've been planning it for probably close to 20 years, 15 years. Like in my head thinking, oh, if I ever had the time, but you know, we've got two kids. They're and my son turns 15 tomorrow. Um my goodness, so they're crazy busy now. Um we have had two dogs, so even when the family was busy, it's not like I could ever take off. So both of our dogs passed away, they were 17 this year. So this was like a first weekend where everything seemed to line up, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna take it and go for it. Um so I think for that reason it's always gonna stand out as like a really, a really fun trip.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So are there people that get there that that go ahead and plan their entire two days around being their first thing the day before so they can guarantee the first spot?
SPEAKER_02That is a great question. I have, you know, when you lay in bed at night going to sleep, I've toyed around with like the order, like how if you were to try to plan a two or three-day Beth Page trip, like how would you do it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um so could you conceivably move your truck like once you got your bakery ticket to back to another numbered spot?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so well, not right away, I don't think, but because somebody would have to be with it, because then I'd be playing golf, right? Yeah. So uh I think there's some ways that you could maneuver it. I'll I'll lay out the challenges to it. I don't know how it would work yet, but the challenges are New York residents can book seven days in advance. Everybody else can book in five. So by the time you get to five, everything is gone. Okay. So I think if you're gonna try to plan a multiple-day trip, hierarchy of courses, it's black, then it's red is the next one, and then you can kind of go blue and then down from there. But um tilling has did the black, the red, and the blue, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I did not know that they were tilling house courses.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Uh Tilling Hassan then uh redone by the the open doctor, Jones, Reese Jones. Okay. Um for the black, anyway. So if if you were gonna try to plan a trip, I would say monitor online for tea time reservations for like the blue or the red. Try to get like an afternoon time there. And then so you go up the first day, afternoon, you play whatever course you get there, you go ahead and throw a vehicle in the spot and get an Airbnb. And one person stays out that night, and the next morning the somebody else comes over to meet them before the five o'clock bakery tickets, and you get two separate tusome times on whichever course red or blue you did not play the day before. The other two people come over and park the cars, and then you play a morning tusome while two people are at the car, you play an afternoon tusom with two people at the car, and then you're all four at the car to play black the next day. Yeah. That's that's the only way I can see that it would work. But to be honest, like it still seems like a lot of dominoes lining up just right today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that yeah, you have to have a lot go right for that to happen.
SPEAKER_02It would help with a New York resident as part of your group, I think, to be able to book some lesser demand tea time seven days in advance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Would you do it again?
SPEAKER_02100%. I'd do it probably once a year, man. It was that fun. It was that fun.
SPEAKER_01How was the food? So, like let me back up. You mentioned the locker room thing. Did you rent a locker?
SPEAKER_02Uh I did not. I ended up I part of my packing, I threw a towel and washcloth in my dot bag, so I just hopped into the shower and then just changed in the you know little shower room there. So I did get clean. Nice. Um, but I didn't rent a locker because I mean the truck is big enough, man. It's basically like a movable locker. Right, right. I know you love your truck. Um, how was the food? Uh the food was good. Um, even being the the just the one option there, like uh no halfway house or anything?
SPEAKER_01Nothing at the top?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so they're the halfway house sets good call out. The halfway house sets between six and twelve. So you've got two chances to hit it, not just an out and back. Um they've got every like substantial food there, like hot dogs and uh think barbecue burgers or barbecue sandwiches and stuff out there. Okay. Um full bar too. But it was, I mean, the weather for that day that I played was impeccable. Um not as good as the shots that we got from Landman where the sky just looked like it was a Mario Brothers game. Right. Or like Sim City type thing, but it was pretty daggone close. Um like I going up there in mid-August, I was pretty surprised. It got to, I think, 82 during the day, but at night in the truck it was like mid-60s. Oh sleeping that evening was perfect.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's awesome. Well, like I said, when you when you texted the group, you're like, hey, I'm thinking about going. I was like, all right, if he does this, I want to hear the full story because I I feel like it's not necessarily a rite of passage, but I feel like in a way it kind of is that you like you went and did that, like spent the night in the parking lot, made sure you got a tea time, and then of course you end up meeting some guys who are from Richmond, which is so cool. Um, I'm still bummed for you about the whole pro shop situation because that's that's an opportunity for improvement with our friends at Beth Page State Park.
SPEAKER_02Um there's always do it again. The people were fantastic, man. I cannot say enough. Everyone who worked there was so nice up and down. Pro shop to parking lot to I mean, then they were started to recognize you too. So yeah, super good people.
SPEAKER_01Well, you've been there for 15 hours. Yeah, right. So do they they have staff that just works the nights?
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, it's a state park, so I think some of those guys are like state park employees, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Like security, but that's what I mean. Like security, I guess, to to monitor the parking lot to make sure people aren't leaving. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, they're yeah, that's like what that's the fun part of their job, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. We heard a few things of uh, let's call it campers who aren't there to golf that they have to keep an eye on. Because so the other thing, like, I don't know how many people are gonna know this. I probably should have said this earlier, because I was expecting to show up and it to be like a state park, state park, right? Like I expected there to be like trails and woods and creeks and maybe a pond for people to camp in. And it's not that kind of state park. It just means that it's a it's a set of golf courses that are run by it's in my neck of the woods, we would just call it a municipal set of golf courses, right? Like it would have four golf courses off of this the single municipal name. Um, but they call it a state park. So in my mind, I was like, I was like, what do you mean I can't like throw up a full like eight-person tent? It's a park, right? Like, what do you mean I can't cook with charcoal? The park. Like, oh, I get it. Not that good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there aren't RV hookup hookups and and biking trails. So it's funny you mention that because right down the road from me here in Birmingham uh is Oak Mountain State Park, and Oak Mountain has a golf course, and that's actually not a bad track at all. Um, and it's like 50 bucks to play it. Um, I mean, the the range balls are from 1972 and feel like you're hitting a rock, but it's it's a fun little track to play. Um, I've played it a handful of times with my brother and my dad. Um and and they always tell you to to hold because you know, like at the state park, you have to pay to get in, right? And so they tell you to hold on to your receipt when you pay for your golf because you can use that as your entry ticket next time you come back. So you can just show them the receipt from your golf next time you come and they waive your entry fee into the park. Um, which I'm like, nobody ever keeps up with the receipt for five dollars. Um, but yeah, that's I did not know that that there wasn't anything else that was actually state park related there at Beth Page. I figured there was something. Um you mentioned.
SPEAKER_02I was Googling, do I need to be worried about bears before I went, man? Like I had no idea. I was like, it's Long Island. I doubt it, but right now it didn't need to confer, I'm just making sure. When I went to order pizza, I don't want them to be coming after.
SPEAKER_01Right. Mario's Pizza. When I went to the US Open um whatever year that was, um they had to to get buses into Beth Page, they paved over parts of the yellow and red. Course temporarily just as a like bus turnaround and drop off, which that blew my mind. Um, I mean it it takes a lot to stand up a major venue, right? Like, we're not that's everybody knows that. Like, you can't just host a major anywhere, you have to have tons of land and tons of space. And so to maximize that space, they pour concrete over the red and yellow courses so they can get the buses in and out of there. Um, and I just thought that was. And I'm like, imagine being that superintendent who's like, okay, great. Now time for you to put concrete all over something that I work day in and day out to make sure it's pristine and you're gonna destroy it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I mean, to talking about that too, I'm I'm not sure which course they had to use for the driving range there. I mean, I guess the only other knock, and this is a common one that everybody talks about, is the driving range at Beth Page. Like it's just don't look to really warm up. Like I did go over a landman. Uh no, you can hit driver at Landman. Like and uh you're the golf balls really are a lot like what you were talking about at the course around the corner at the state park there. Really? Um, I mean, there's there's some that will like look like they've been picked up enough times where the diplos are like rubbed off on like one side. So they'll they do have like a launch monitor there. Um, you know, I belong to SimPlays here, uh shout out anytime golf RBA. Uh okay. Where I played most of my golf, honestly. Uh so I know my track man numbers pretty well. Yeah. So whatever they had there was telling me like 210 yards seven iron. It's like, nope, I I'm just gonna go putt. I'm just gonna get loose and go putt. Oh and not enough room to hit driver either. So um it's strictly entertainment purposes, is how described. Good to know.
SPEAKER_01Well, thanks for sharing the story. Like I said, when when I found out you were doing it, I was like, okay, I want to hear this story because I feel like it's such a unique experience spending the night to play public golf um at an iconic venue, right? That's hosted Ryder Cups, US Opens. Um, it's it's synonymous with great venues, and I feel like it always delivers too. I I think other than the Ryder Cup, I mean, we got absolutely waxed, but that's a story for a different day. Um, but yeah, it was uh thanks for coming on to share. And I I know you got kids to get to and other more important things to do than be on the show, so I'll give you a couple quick questions and we'll get you out of here. Uh not the ones that you know are on the show, because thank you for being a very avid listener. So I'm gonna throw some curveballs at you. Um what's your favorite hole at Sweetens Cove?
SPEAKER_02Ooh, that is a great question. Uh I think a lot of people would expect me to say king, um, but I actually love nine, man. I love nine. I I like the I like the different angles that you can get from when you go far left in the T-box from all the way to the right. Um I like the fact that pen placements can give you so many shots at an ace there that people are watching up top. It feels like you're coming back home. You know, it's uh there's so many things about that that I love. Uh I got the uh DP Bay's art um number nine and sweetens as my TV right now. Nice. Uh I'd I'd have to say number nine.
SPEAKER_01What's your favorite course at Pinehurst?
SPEAKER_02Um I mean, two is so special, man. And I mean, I know a lot of people I know that played number two, and it's like I played it a few times from a couple of different tea boxes, and each time is just such a different experience. Like I played it a couple of weeks after the last US Open that Bryson won when the stands and stuff were still up in a thunderstorm. I've played it from Ford T's. Um and I don't know, that walking number two just feels different. Four has incredible views. Number ten is incredible, like, and as more people play that, it's already gotten its flowers, I feel like. Yeah, for lack of a better term. And I'm super excited about eleven, but I mean if you told me I was only gonna play Sweetens in number two for the rest of my life, I think I'd take it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it'd be okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll give you this. I know you I know you prepared for it. Uh if you had to put together a dream for some, dead or alive, who would be in it? Oh man. That's one that I've thought about for a long time.
SPEAKER_02I think uh I think it gotta throw one official golfer in there. So I gotta go Arnold Palmer. Uh he was always my grandmother's favorite, you know, like the the people's champion and you know, prime these are all prime versions of them, right? Right, right, right, right. And then I'd I'd round off the foresome with two buddies. I want Dean Martin and Frank Sumatra, I think. Oh my gosh, that is awesome. You know, and I'm just there's just so much style, and you the kids talk about vibes these days. Yeah, I would just be quiet and listen, and oh my god, how fun.
SPEAKER_01They'd be ripping darts like crazy. So many cigarettes would be smoked in that in that group.
SPEAKER_02Your own bar cart. I mean, because you know, apparently they invented that, right? Those two dudes. So you gotta have the guys that invented the uh the golf bar cart, and you know, who who doesn't love Marty?
SPEAKER_01I love it. I love it. Well, Scott, thanks for coming on, man. I know, like I said, I was really excited to hear this story uh and hear your experience, and you did a marvelous job sharing every aspect of it. Um I would love to do it sometime. So maybe maybe I there's if you I don't know that I can fit in a twin bed with you in the back of your Sierra.
SPEAKER_02Um we came close in North Carolina that one time.
SPEAKER_01We we weren't in the same bed, but there have been similar experiences, similar tight quarters. But man, thanks thanks for taking time to come on the show. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate all the support you've given off the deck. That's since day one, you've been someone who's been supportive. And so uh I appreciate that, and that doesn't go unnoticed. So so thank you for that. Uh no, thanks for having me. Love you, brother. Yeah. Well, for Scott Young, I'm Josh Decker, and this has been another episode of Off the Deck.
