The star of this weekends' Ryder Cup: the course, Bethpage State Park

WBUR | By Robin Young,

Wilder Fleming

Published September 25, 2025 at 7:52 AM AKDT

Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa plays a shot from a bunker on the fourth hole during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 14, 2019 in Bethpage, New York. (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Golf’s prestigious Ryder Cup gets underway this weekend, and the star of the show will be Long Island, New York’s beloved Bethpage State Park and its notorious Black Course.

Bethpage is not a manicured private club, but a public course, with old-growth woods, hills, polo grounds, horse stables and riding trails.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young grew up there. Her dad played the Black Course. In the 1970s, her brother Jimmy Youngs won the Nassau County high school championship, with an even par on the Black, which is so hard that there is a warning sign at the start. Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open on the Bethpage Black in 2002, at just three under par.

A caddie for Europe team walks near the sign warning golfers how difficult the courses is during a practice round for the Ryder Cup golf tournament, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Farmingdale, N.Y., at Bethpage State Park's Black Course. (Robert Bukaty/AP)

We hear from Jimmy Youngs about why the hilly long walk on the Black makes it so tough. Plus, Robin Young talks with Connor T. Lewis, golfer, historian, founder of the Society of Golf Historians, and host of the “Talking Golf” podcast, about why golfers are in awe of the Bethpage course and who put that warning sign up on the Black.

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Wilder Fleming produced this segment for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Robin Young edited this segment and produced it for the web.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.