Bethpage State Park Golf Course (The Blue)

Overview: The Blue Course is one of the original 18-hole layouts at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. It is a public parkland course with a classic Tillinghast foundation, mature tree lines and a balanced par-72 routing. New York State Parks lists 6,693 yards from the championship tees, while shorter tee positions make the course more approachable for everyday play. Compared with Bethpage’s famous Black, the Blue offers a different kind of test: it still rewards precise placement and thoughtful approaches, but its identity is rooted in the wider park complex and in the variety of the original Tillinghast designs.

History: A.W. Tillinghast designed the Blue as part of Bethpage’s first group of championship courses, which opened in the 1935 to 1936 period. When the Yellow Course was added, Alfred Tull adjusted the Blue in 1960 to create space for the new routing. That change is important to the course’s story because the Blue is both a historic Tillinghast layout and a product of the evolving Bethpage master plan. It remains one of the park’s principal 18-hole courses and a durable part of New York’s public-golf tradition.

Did You Know? The Blue is not simply a shorter version of Bethpage Black. Its layout was adjusted as the park expanded, and the course retains its own routing, scale and strategic personality within the five-course Bethpage complex.