Bethpage State Park: Blue Course

The Blue Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, Long Island, was the first of the park's five courses to open (1935), an A.W. Tillinghast design that predated his legendary Black Course, along with the Red and contributions to the Yellow. Alfred Tull later revised the Blue when he incorporated some of its original holes into the Yellow layout, making the current Blue a hybrid Tillinghast-Tull creation. While the Black Course gets the spotlight (four times hosting US Open and the 2019 PGA Championship), the Blue remains a genuinely challenging Tillinghast test. Locals rank the front nine among the toughest stretches of any of Bethpage's five courses, meaning a good front-nine score sets up a manageable back-nine finish. The Blue generally rates as the 3rd or 4th toughest course on the property depending on who you ask, behind the Black and Red. At daily-fee prices well below any Long Island private-club guest rate, it remains one of the best public golf values in the New York metro.