Greener grass for players at Bethpage

There have been many changes in Bethpage since 2002, including how the players like to check out the course, reports PHILIP REID

CHALK AND cheese comes to mind. In the past week, a number of players made it their business to undertake a reconnaissance visit to Bethpage National Park on Long Island in New York. The purpose of two advance trips in particular – one made on Monday, the other on Tuesday – was to inspect the renovations made to the Black Course where, back in 2002, on the last occasion the US Open championship was held there, most players had been brought to their knees. Apart from two. Tiger Woods finished first. Phil Mickelson second.

Tiger Woods slipped into town on Monday, the day after winning the Memorial tournament. Phil Mickelson, having made the decision to play in the season’s second major upon receiving an improved prognosis on his wife Amy’s breast cancer, arrived for his practice round on Tuesday, before heading on to the St Jude Classic in Memphis.

When Woods played a practice round seven years ago, he did so in secrecy. He arrived with Mark O’Meara and played the course with a young Irish caddie, Dave Dailey, on the bag. Woods started his round on the third to avoid onlookers and finished on the second and state police kept autograph hunters and those with cameras away.

Afterwards, they tipped their caddies $100 apiece and headed to the airport to Tiger’s private plane, stopping off at a Wendy’s drive-through where Woods ordered for everyone in a high-pitched voice.

This time around, Woods arrived in a black Cadillac Escalade which drove up to the front door of the Bethpage State Park clubhouse. He arrived at 9am, and was on the first tee by 9.25am. Woods – accompanied by coach Hank Hainey and two state troopers – allowed any onlookers to capture his first tee shot on their phone cameras but, as he left the first tee, a security officer announced to the crowd that no one was allowed to follow him.

Woods didn’t make it to the 18th green. Having played his tee shot on the last, the world number one walked to the fairway and got on to an electric cart which took him to his Cadillac. He slipped back behind the tinted windows of his car and left.

The contrast came the following day when Mickelson – who’d been a doubt to play – arrived for a practice and talked and joked with the onlookers who had gathered to watch. Afterwards, he spoke to reporters and remarked on the difference in the course set-up this time compared to 2002. “If you just miss the fairway, it’s not necessarily hacking it out back into play. You can actually try some shots . . . the greens are immaculate. The rough is set up very fair. It’s hard, obviously some hay, but the fairways are fair and it is as good a golf course as I have seen.”

Woods and Mickelson and Zach Johnson and Paul Casey and Geoff Ogilvy and all of the players who have made it their business to make an advance visit to Bethpage have discovered that time moves on, and the course they will face in next week’s US Open is set up substantially different to how it was in 2002.

ONE OF the most famous signs in golf is erected close to the first tee. It is for mere mortals. It says, simply, “WARNING. The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.” Such a health warning, though, doesn’t apply to the game’s elite; and, if it did, certainly less so on this occasion than seven years ago as the USGA has introduced graduated rough and widened fairways this time.

The course’s yardage has been increased to 7,426 yards (par 70) with new or extended tees at nine holes, including an additional 51 yards at the 13th hole, 42 yards at the ninth and 36 yards at the seventh (the fourth-toughest hole in 2002) – but players will find more fairway, more options and more scoring opportunities awaiting them at the year’s second major.

Mike Davis, the US Open’s tournament director, has set up a course which will take away some of the criticisms which many players carried away with them in 2002. The biggest concern from the 2002 US Open was the carry to the 10th and 12th fairways when, in wintry conditions, a large number of players failed to get past the rough. This time, the fairway at the 10th has been moved 40 yards closer to the tee and the USGA has the option of a new tee ground at the 12th depending on the weather conditions.

“If it’s a cold, wet week we could have a new teeing ground that we never use,” said Davis. “The changes are not huge but I’d like to think we made the course more playable.” The fairway at the seventh hole, a demanding par four, may be the best example of the more user-friendly Bethpage. For this year’s championship the fairway will be twice as wide, from about 24 yards across to almost 50 yards, and a new tee box will create a different angle that will allow players to be more aggressive. “We are going to give you a beast of a hole but we’re going to give [players] some room to play it,” said Davis.

Who knows, it could be perfectly set up for a Phil and Tiger Show.

AS FOR Pádraig Harrington, with his form in need of a lift, there is at least less expectations on his shoulders than there was at the US Masters in April where he went in with talk of the “Paddy Slam” ringing in his ears as he sought to add a green jacket to the British Open and US PGA titles he’d won in 2008. That’s history now, although Harrington’s poor form of late provides the Dubliner with a different sort of pressure to contend with in New York.

“I haven’t gone to see it,” admitted Harrington, who – in 2002 – was in the final group in a major for the first time in Saturday’s third round alongside Woods. “Yeah, that was all part of the building process . . . but I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary this year. I prepared for this major like I would for all other majors, as I’m concentrating on getting my build-up right. I expect to be ready to go when I get there.”

So, all he has to go on so far is locker-room talk from those who have made advance visits. “I don’t think any player is going to have an issue. The issue the last time was the weather was bad. When the weather turns, you get a bit of a dampness in the air, [and] these current golf balls and drivers, we can all hit them over 300 yards on a sunny day, it does pare back a lot on a wet, miserable day. I think that’s what happened last time on the Friday [when] a couple of the shorter hitters struggled to reach the fairways on 10 . . . it didn’t pose a problem for me. On the Friday I think I shot the low score of the day.”

Of course, Harrington has moved up to a different level since fleetingly contending in 2002. Now, he has three majors in his back pocket. But he heads into Bethpage with a run of indifferent form and missed cuts and a swing that has, for whatever reason, become a work in progress. “Obviously, when you see results, the results have been quite lean. Certainly in the last five months, I’ve got to get back to working on my scoring . . . just getting myself ready for these tournaments, making sure my short game, which is my strength, is as sharp as ever. I’m right back on track. I’m very comfortable with what I did and where I’m going. I’d like to turn around as quick as possible,” he said.

“I just have got to be patient and let it happen and wait for the results, which ultimately are the judge to turn around. As a player, sometimes you’ve got to go by order of things to judge where you’re going in your game and not necessarily short-term results. I’ve got three majors in just over two and a half months now, and that is going to distinguish what sort of year I’ve had.”

Wouldn’t he just love to add some relish to the chalk and cheese?

Irish players in the US Open

Pádraig Harrington

Age: 37

World ranking: 11th

Number of US Open appearances: 11

Best finish: T-5th (2000), 5th (2006)

How did he fare in 2002? T-11th

Most likely to say: "Why is everyone so worried?"

Rory McIlroy

Age: 21

World ranking: 17th

Number of US Open appearances: 0

Most likely to say: "I've played the course on my PlayStation."

Graeme McDowell

Age: 29

World ranking: 48th Number of US Open appearances: 3

Best finish: T-30th (2007) How did he fare in 2002? Did not play.

Most likely to say: "I can win this."

Darren Clarke

Age: 40

World ranking: 100th Number of US Open appearances: 11

Best finish: T-10th (1999)

How did he fare in 2002? T-24th.

Most likely to say: "I'm working harder than ever."