Bethpage Gray (market)

By Max Adler
Illustrations by John Ueland May 25, 2009

People sleep in cars knowing their chance of getting on is precisely that, a chance. More legendary than Tiger Woods' win in the 2002 U.S. Open -- the first ever held on a muny -- is the human grit on display daily at Bethpage (N.Y.) State Park. Each gear of the tee-time allocation system -- from the way cars line up in the parking lot, to the random hour park officials distribute wristbands pre-dawn, to the minutiae of rules surrounding the nearly impenetrable telephone reservation line -- has had to evolve, growing more stringent, since the USGA invested $3 million to renovate the Black Course in the late 1990s and demand spiked. When a major championship venue is situated just outside the most populated area of the country, available for a modest rate ($60 for state residents, $120 for non-residents), is the rush any surprise? It's the best chance most ever have to play a U.S. Open course. It's a lot cheaper than Pebble Beach or Pinehurst, and easier to get on than nearby Winged Foot and Shinnecock Hills, which are private.

And is it also any surprise, given the insatiable demand for a supply held constant by daylight, that somebody has found a way to make some money off it? Economics, shmeconomics ... this is New York, baby.

The first return of a Google search for the phrase "get on bethpage black" is nygolfshuttle.com. This company, which boldly accepts all major credit cards, states, "If camping out is not an option, the civilized way to tee up at this course is to let NY Golf Shuttle handle all the necessary arrangements to secure your tee time." Service is provided for a number of metropolitan area layouts, including all five Bethpage courses, but prices are most shocking for the Black, ranging from $850 for a single to $450 per person for a foursome. This includes black car transportation to and from New York City. Oh, and tack on a $50 surcharge for non-New York State residents.

"Of course we know about it," says Carol Ash, commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. "It's awful."

"One of the greatest frustrations of my career," says Bernadette Castro, Ash's predecessor from 1995-2006. "It's so unfair for people to be basically scalping the tee times."

Allegedly a man known only as "Phil" operates a large cadre of people who flood the telephone system each night by speed-dialing precisely at 7 p.m., the moment tee times seven days ahead become available. To book a time, a golfer's driver's license must be registered in the park reservation system. So for New York State clients, NY Golf Shuttle will register their driver's license (or if the client is already registered, simply use their pre-existing number) and book the time under the client's name. With so many people calling in a coordinated effort, the business model works: A few are bound to get through. For non-residents, who can only book times two days in advance, it's a little trickier, especially if it's a foursome that can't be spearheaded by a resident ID number. But Dave Catalano, operations manager at Bethpage State Park, knows how it is done. NY Golf Shuttle will book the time under a resident ID number, then cancel five days later and rebook it immediately under the out-of-state client's name.

"A couple of years ago we changed it so that when you canceled a tee time, the time would go back to the end of the queue and be released randomly between one and three hours later. Before that, you could literally cancel a time with one phone in one hand and rebook it with the phone in your other hand," says Catalano. "Still, someone seeking to scam the system can operate at odd hours, like 2 a.m., when regular golfers won't be calling."

People falsely identifying themselves on the telephone, then making huge profits off a state-funded facility by creating a secondary market -- isn't that illegal? Ron Foley, the Long Island Parks regional director, wishes it were.

"It's been a long and colorful history with [NY Golf Shuttle]," says Foley. "We've had the state inspector general, the state attorney general, and the state police all investigate it. Unfortunately, nothing the outfit does is technically illegal. We were told the difference between this and say, scalping tickets to a Broadway show, which is illegal, is that golf is a participatory event, as opposed to a spectator event. There's no law that says you can't book a tee time for somebody else. It may be a violation of our policy, but the problem is, there's no way we can know when it's happening."

Says Castro: "We worked inside with the phone companies to see if there was a way to thwart such behavior." But little came of those efforts.

"If someone's going to pay me $100 to dial my telephone, what's the downside?" says Catalano. "Plus they can argue their clients are paying for the limousine ride. Though you know as well as me that's not really the case."