Planning a golf trip this Summer to the northeast. We are planning to play Bethpage and TPC River Highlands for sure, and looking for other courses. Tentative schedule:

Monday - Boston area
Tuesday - TPC River Highlands
Wednesday - Bethpage
Thursday - Philly or NJ area

For those that have done Bethpage, is there a day of the week that's "easier" to get on? Any suggestions on other courses in the general area will be appreciated.

Played Bethpage a few times. Best bet is to have a NY resident friend who can book online 2 days before you can. Midweek is your best bet, but as a non-resident and if you need all 4 spots, sleeping in your car to play in the first hour is probably the only way you are getting anything other than an end-of-day-can't-finish time (and you may not even be able to get that).

There is a 12 hour cancellation penalty, so some times do come up last minute, but again, it's usually late times and/or just 1 or maybe 2 spots (if lucky). Between it only being 12 hours and the penalty only being $15/player, cancellations don't seem to be a massively helpful way to get on.

I haven't played in the Philadelphia area but here are public course recommendations from The Fried Egg.

https://thefriedegg.com/philadelphia-public-golf/

Rlcoker said:

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Why are you covering such a large area? Boston, Long Island and NJ is an ambitious trip.

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It's a tentative schedule at the moment, but this is how we like to do our golf trips. We typically try and play a morning round, and then drive to the next destination and grab drinks, dinner and then do the same the next morning.

Thanks for the Yale suggestion, definitely going to check it out.

Brookline would be a dream

Rlcoker said:

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On your way from Boston to NY or vice versa, you must stop in New Haven and play Yale Golf Club, a Top 100 public course and CB McDonald design.

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Popped on to say Yale as well. I believe its the only public CB McDonald course in the US? I could be wrong on that but it feels right.

From anyone who's played it: is Trump Ferry Point worth a look? I have one friend that has and he enjoyed it, but said the $240 weekend rate felt a little high.

Go take a scroll through the Golficity YouTube channel. Brothers from the Northeast who play a bunch of courses all over that area

Golficity

_lefraud_ said:

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Brookline would be a dream

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Went there last year. You can visit if you want

My go tos when I lived in the Philly area were the Golf Course at Glen Mills, Broad Run and Scotland Run, in that order.

Boston

1 TPC Norwood
2 Red Tail
3 Granite links

2 & 3 are easy to get on

There are some really good courses down by the cape if you want to go that far.

Appreciate all the suggestions.

If anyone is a TPC Network member (Craig Ranch, San Antonio, etc) and wants to help a guy out…

TPC Boston
TPC Jasna Polana

Yale is a great recommendation. I know they are about to do a restoration of the course but they have not announced a timeline yet. If they do most of it in 2023 it could mess up your plans.
I hope you get to play it.

It is one of the most architecturally significant courses on the East Coast.
C.B. Macdonald was a true genius in making a course both fun and maddening at the same time.

I emailed the GM today asking for a timeline. Hoping there's another season of play on it because I'd like to get up there this summer

Interesting info about Yale, I'll try and reach out as well.

Milkman, we will be there the first week of August, and you are welcome to join us.

Thank you for the invite. I may just take you up on it date dependent. I'll message you and we can swap contact info

Flying out Sunday, here is what we have planned:

- Monday AM: Crosswinds in Plymouth, MA
- Monday PM: Newport National in RI
- Tuesday: TPC River Highlands in CT
- Wednesday: Bethpage Black

The best a NY resident could get us was 5:00pm on Wed, so we are going to camp out for a morning spot. Hard to imagine how anyone out of state would ever get a tee time online, but oh well, the camping out will be a memory. If we don't get one, we may try again for Thursday.

Booking a tee time at Yale is tough, but we may try and squeeze it in if it works out.

For the black: People have to drop tee times 12 hours before or they'll be charged. So Tuesday night start checking the tee time page and spots will pop up. That's your best chance at getting a better tee time and still get a decent night sleep.

When in Boston, drive up to Woods Hole and take the ferry over to The Vineyard and play Farm Neck.

Such an incredible course, and an absolutely beast to walk. Actually got paired with another guy from Dallas and another local which was very helpful. May have to splurge for a caddy next time I make it out.

If you're in the area, I highly recommend Trump Ferry Point. Awesome course.

We did Bethpage black morning and Trump in the afternoon. Great 36 hole day.

Caddy is definitely worth it. I've played Bethpage about 4 times without a caddy and one time with, and it's just not even close. Definitely get the caddy.

cb1919 said:

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If you're in the area, I highly recommend Trump Ferry Point. Awesome course.

We did Bethpage black morning and Trump in the afternoon. Great 36 hole day.

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This is my dream day. I'm dying to play Trump Ferry Point.

_lefraud

How was getting a tee time at Bethpage? I'm headed up there next week.

Assuming you are not a NY state resident, you can log in 7 days in advance at 6pm CST to try and book a time online, but there likely won't be anything.

Best advice is just to keep checking randomly, especially the day before you want to play. People that booked online have to cancel 12 hours in advance. This is when you'll see the best chance to book online.

If you don't book online, I'd advise getting to the parking lot around 4am, and you should be able to snag a time.

I don't think I heard from you on how Yale was? I wanted to get there this year before they closed for restoration. but I don't think I'm going to be able to. I guess I'll have to wait to see it after Hanse fixes it up.