Bethpage seek roster spot

GOLF: New York State Parks want to host the US Open Championship again attheir Bethpage Black course, writes Philip Reid

On Friday evening, after negotiating the kind of weather akin to a front coming in off the Atlantic and lashing the more exposed parts of Donegal on a winter's day, some rather surly faces were attached to players coming in off the Bethpage Black course. Those who had been beaten black and blue were feeling the pain, and Nick Price - normally quite a reserved fellow - even gave it an "F" grade.

The moaning and whinging had more to do with the USGA set-up on a day of horrible weather rather than anything to do with the actual course. Sheltered away from tournament play for decades, Bethpage Black actually acquitted itself superbly in the all-day downpour.

And, if those associated with this public course, the first of its kind to play host to a US Open, have their way it could well become a permanent fixture on the championship rota.

"We're in it for the rotation, oh yes," remarked Bernadette Castro, the commissioner for the New York State Parks, adding: "And it couldn't be soon enough for us." Bethpage is the largest public golf facility in the world with five courses centred at one clubhouse. The Black Course - the most difficult and chosen to host this year's championship - has 36,000 rounds of golf a year and can boast of some 40 acres of rough.

USGA officials have said they would like to bring the US Open back to the Black Course and make it one of the recurring sites.

However, the USGA, the governors of the championship, has not selected any host courses past 2007 and, in fact, the event is already scheduled to return to Long Island in 2004 when it will be played at Shinnecock Hills, where Corey Pavin won in 1995. Next year's event will be played at Olympia Fields, south of Chicago.

While the course - the longest in US Open history - stood up to the stated criteria of determining the best player and is now firmly in the running to become part of the roster for the championship, and part of its attraction was that it was a completely new test for every player in the field, there has also been speculation that it could become a regular stop on the US Tour.

The Buick Classic is traditionally held at the Westchester Country Club, also in New York, but the agreement to hold that tournament there runs out in two years and the speculation is that it could move to the Black Course. Castro, though, seems intent on waiting for another call from the USGA.

"What could we possibly do except another US Open that could compare to this?" she remarked. "The Black Course should be in demand by just about any tournament out there and, certainly we have a lot of respect for the US PGA Tour, but the USGA has been our partner on this championship. We are serious about wanting it back.

"We're going to maintain the Black Course as you currently see it, except for making it a little more user friendly . . . cut the rough and do a few other things." Maybe one or two of the players in this year's US Open field would have wished for the rough to be cut in advance of this championship, but the reality is that it is a quality course that deserves to be included on the rota.

However, it may have to wait up for to another 10 years for its turn to play host to the world's best golfers again.