PGA Championship

[alexava 6,973]

I just learned it’s next week. This is going to be very weird. I don’t like it. 

[GwillMac6 20,666]

13 minutes ago, alexava said:

I just learned it’s next week. This is going to be very weird. I don’t like it. 

I like it now but will no doubt not like it in August. I always did hate the 2 month long wait from the Masters to the US Open so I am glad we do not have to wait 2 months for the next major. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

Meh either way

[GwillMac6 20,666]

Just now, augolf1716 said:

Meh either way

Not a fan of the PGA? It always was my second favorite major. I am sure most do not share that same opinion lol. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

3 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

Not a fan of the PGA? It always was my second favorite major. I am sure most do not share that same opinion lol. 

Oh yea I'm a fan but it really doesn't matter to me when its played. As for the rank it is my 4th US Open and Masters are 1A and B then The Open and then PGA

[GwillMac6 20,666]

3 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Oh yea I'm a fan but it really doesn't matter to me when its played. As for the rank it is my 4th US Open and Masters are 1A and B then The Open and then PGA

Great! 10/4 and Roger that. It will be really cool  to have such a big event on the sports calendar next week. I hope this thread is humming with a lot of comments like the Masters one was. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

5 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

Great! 10/4 and Roger that. It will be really cool  to have such a big event on the sports calendar next week. I hope this thread is humming with a lot of comments like the Masters one was. 

Bethpage Black will play hard not as hard as when the Open was there but the fairways will be set up the same as when the Open was there. I believe last time the Open was played there 6 players broke par

[GwillMac6 20,666]

50 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Bethpage Black will play hard not as hard as when the Open was there but the fairways will be set up the same as when the Open was there. I believe last time the Open was played there 6 players broke par

WOW!!!! Holy crap that is nuts. Guys with a great short game and who are good putters will def be in the drivers seat for this one. I appreciate the insight. US Open is at Pebble Beach this year right? One of my all time favorite courses. Probaly my favorite besides Augusta National. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

4 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

WOW!!!! Holy crap that is nuts. Guys with a great short game and who are good putters will def be in the drivers seat for this one. I appreciate the insight. US Open is at Pebble Beach this year right? One of my all time favorite courses. Probaly my favorite besides Augusta National. 

Yep Pebble is a fantastic course played there many years ago. If God meant for a golf course to be on earth it is Pebble and Augusta. They are heaven on earth

Usually a good putter will win the Open not always but normally.................. better be able to make those 6' to 10' putts for pars

[GwillMac6 20,666]

17 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Yep Pebble is a fantastic course played there many years ago. If God meant for a golf course to be on earth it is Pebble and Augusta. They are heaven on earth

Usually a good putter will win the Open not always but normally.................. better be able to make those 6' to 10' putts for pars

You played at Pebble?!?! Holy crap that is amazing!!! That has to be on so many peoples bucket list. That is amazing man.

[augolf1716 21,103]

1 minute ago, GwillMac6 said:

You played at Pebble?!?! Holy crap that is amazing!!! That has to be on so many peoples bucket list. That is amazing man.

Not to hijack the thread but I've been blessed to have played so many great courses 

[GwillMac6 20,666]

6 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Not to hijack the thread but I've been blessed to have played so many great courses 

Hahah. I do not think this thread will be buzzing and humming till thursday. Have at it. I bet a lot of golf fans would be curious.

[alexava 6,973]

The PGA, to me, was defined by being the last major in August. Nothing else unique about it. Move it to May and it’s a different matter altogether. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

6 minutes ago, alexava said:

The PGA, to me, was defined by being the last major in August. Nothing else unique about it. Move it to May and it’s a different matter altogether. 

Really to me the only thing different is PGA club pros could qualify to play and maybe play well for two rounds. I couldn't tell you the last five winners. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

A little trivia on Bethpage Black..............the Sign....... no one knows for certain when or who put the first sign up. 

https://www.golf.com/news/features/2019/05/13/bethpage-black-sign-mysterious-history-iconic-warning-sign/

 

 

The most iconic sign in golf hangs on an iron railing at Bethpage State Park, cautioning players of the daunting test that is the Black Course.

“WARNING,” reads the placard, which is fixed to a fence behind the 1st tee. “The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.”

At the PGA Championship this week TV cameras will focus on it and fans will pose for selfies with it. It’s the main attraction every other day of the year, too — a bucket-list photo-op at a bucket-list course.

“Even people who aren’t playing golf, Long Island people who are here for weddings, they’ll go over and take a picture with it,” says Bethpage superintendent Andy Wilson. “It is sort of synonymous with Bethpage. Whoever the starter happens to be on the Black Course on a day-by-day basis, they probably take 30 or 40 pictures a day. The sign is probably photographed more than the course.”

The sign first gained national attention at the 2002 U.S. Open, when Bethpage Black became the first public course to play host to an Open. Tiger Woods, the only player to finish under par, won by three. The course was hard; the sign was a hit. A star was born. (The sign, not Tiger.) It received more TV time when the 2009 U.S. Open came to Bethpage, followed by a pair of FedEx playoff events, in 2012 and ’16.

“I haven’t really played much courses with warning signs,” said Henrik Stenson at the 2009 Open. “It’s more for the ski slopes, isn’t it?”

Added Geoff Ogilvy: “I’ve seen lots of rules written down on 1st tees — but I’ve never seen warnings.”

The sign has become so famous/infamous that the course has turned it into a business. Inside the pro shop visitors will find the warning emblazoned on shirts and head covers. Small replicas are also for sale. Even FootJoy has gotten in on the action, this month releasing a limited-edition all-black version of its Flex golf shoe with the sign printed on the heels.

Everyone agrees that the sign is as much a part of Bethpage Black as its gnarly rough and punishing par 4s.

What no one can seem to agree on is how it got there.

***

“I’ve been here for 35 years and have always seen the sign, for as long as I can remember,” said Rich Eaton, 66, who works in the Bethpage pro shop. “But I don’t know how it started or when it started, and I’ve been here longer than most.”

“Not a single person knows,” said Bethpage historian Philip Young, who wrote a biography of Bethpage Black architect A.W. Tillinghast as well as two other books about the Black Course (with another on the way). Young, who is 65, grew up on Long Island and has logged more than 400 rounds on the Black Course. “I have searched high and low, up and down, every which way.”

And now, I have, too. Over the last month, I have spent more time than I would like to admit searching for the sign’s origin. What began with an innocent call to the pro shop led me on a quixotic reporting journey — across the internet, through newspaper archives and to interviews with more than two dozen sources. One inquiry led to another, and another, and yet another: with current Bethpage superintendents, former superintendents, former parks directors, course designers, historians, coaches, former coaches, communication specialists, authors, bloggers, fellow journalists, as well as representatives from the Long Island Golf Association, the Metropolitan Golf Association, the United States Golf Association, the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra, the Nassau Players Club, even St. John’s University.

“You would have to add me to the list of people who don’t know,” Elizabeth Wintenberger told me the other day.

Wintenberger has been the director of Bethpage State Park since 2011. She and her team have searched relentlessly for the sign’s roots, querying current and former staffers and poring over old photographs to no avail.

Asked if there was anyone else she’d recommend following up with, Wintenberger was blunt, in a way only New Yorkers can be: “We’ve already quizzed those people.”

[alexava 6,973]

I got Brooks to win. 😎

[GwillMac6 20,666]

6 minutes ago, alexava said:

I got Brooks to win. 😎

Dude for the past year has been on some kind of roll. My goodness. complete domination first 2 days. Set the 36 hole record to start a major for lowest combined score.

[augolf1716 21,103]

4 minutes ago, alexava said:

I got Brooks to win. 😎

............it ain't over but its damn sure close to being over just ungodly..........................Bethpage Black is one hard ass course no I've never played it but I've studied it and watched enought majors played there and it is frickin hard.

[GwillMac6 20,666]

Brooks 7 shots ahead going in to the final round tomorrow. If he wins he will have 4 majors and only 2 regular PGA tour wins lol. That is just un real to me. 

[augolf1716 21,103]

Played a smart solid round expect the same tomorrow

[fredst 9,064]

On 5/12/2019 at 7:34 PM, augolf1716 said:

Not to hijack the thread but I've been blessed to have played so many great courses 

Since this thread is pretty quiet..... give us the top 5 that you have played, behind Augusta and Pebble and why. Ever snuck on Pine Valley😀?

[augolf1716 21,103]

15 hours ago, fredst said:

Since this thread is pretty quiet..... give us the top 5 that you have played, behind Augusta and Pebble and why. Ever snuck on Pine Valley😀?

Man that is so hard I've thought about it often myself and it is really hard to make a list. Played so many some I even have forgotten I played. First off I can tell you I've never played Augusta tried to for over 25 years just could never get it done. Way back when if you worked as a volunteer for the Master you could play the course Monday after the tourament so I was got on a list for volunteers and never got chosen........ don't think they do that anymore. 

I have played Pine Valley and I did sneak onto Cypress Point. 

1. Pine Valley.......words cannot describe it. Have to be able to hit ever shot in golf. Huge and post stamp greens, blind shots, best set of par threes ever

2 Pebble.........need I say more

3 Harbour Town......mainly because I seem to always play good there

4 East Lake........just because it was the home course of Bobby Jones 

5 Kiawah Island..........hard course for me but it seems to bring out the best in me.

 

Played a lot of the Palm Springs and Arizona courses meh to me

 

Now you could ask me tomorrow and it could change especially the 3,4 and 5.

1 and 2 will never change

 

 

[fredst 9,064]

50 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Man that is so hard I've thought about it often myself and it is really hard to make a list. Played so many some I even have forgotten I played. First off I can tell you I've never played Augusta tried to for over 25 years just could never get it done. Way back when if you worked as a volunteer for the Master you could play the course Monday after the tourament so I was got on a list for volunteers and never got chosen........ don't think they do that anymore. 

I have played Pine Valley and I did sneak onto Cypress Point. 

1. Pine Valley.......words cannot describe it. Have to be able to hit ever shot in golf. Huge and post stamp greens, blind shots, best set of par threes ever

2 Pebble.........need I say more

3 Harbour Town......mainly because I seem to always play good there

4 East Lake........just because it was the home course of Bobby Jones 

5 Kiawah Island..........hard course for me but it seems to bring out the best in me.

 

Played a lot of the Palm Springs and Arizona courses meh to me

 

Now you could ask me tomorrow and it could change especially the 3,4 and 5.

1 and 2 will never change

 

 

Wow! Very envious. I’m not a great golfer ( best my handicap ever was it was a 3) but I do love the game and it’s history. If I could pick 5 to play in US it would (I think) be: Augusta, Shinnecock, Pebble, Pine Valley, Merion. Feel like I would have covered every type of course and a lot of golf history there. Of course, I haven’t and (aside from Pebble) likely will never play any of those, lol. Cheers to you 🍻! Thanks for the response!

 

 

[augolf1716 21,103]

3 hours ago, fredst said:

Wow! Very envious. I’m not a great golfer ( best my handicap ever was it was a 3) but I do love the game and it’s history. If I could pick 5 to play in US it would (I think) be: Augusta, Shinnecock, Pebble, Pine Valley, Merion. Feel like I would have covered every type of course and a lot of golf history there. Of course, I haven’t and (aside from Pebble) likely will never play any of those, lol. Cheers to you 🍻! Thanks for the response!

 

 

I could talk all day about golf and would have loved to have been able to play Shinnecock and Merion as well

[GwillMac6 20,666]

GOT DANG THAT GOT WAY WAY WAY TO CLOSE FOR MUHHHHHH BOY BROOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH!!!!!!!!!!!!! They played in monsoon like conditions on the back 9 when it came to the winds. 4th Major though in 23 months for Brooooooooooooooooooks. LETS GOOOOO!!!!!! On to Pebble Beach next month. Cannot wait for that. Tiger will be on contention there.