As someone who has always had the idea of going to Bethpage and sleeping in my car overnight to get a tee time on the Black as part of my golf bucket list (for the experience more than anything else) this was a fun and interesting listen from KVV today.
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” and all that but the final interview with Taylor left me pretty annoyed
These deep dives are so good. Might have to go citizens arrest my friend who set up a tee time bot last year for our country club. A true piece of scum of this earth. Keep up the incredible work KVV!
People who do that, unequivocally, can suck all the dicks. That guy should be embarrassed. It’s just so shitty.
Probably my favorite narrative episode we’ve done so far.
So glad this worked out @KVV . Eric has been obsessed with this mission for a while and kicked it into another gear when we got you guys connected. The group is monitoring the situation on the LI Junkies board and I’m sure there will be some follow up.
My opinion, I’m not mad at the guys running the bots, especially Frank and Tony for figuring out the phone system back in the day, I’m mad at Bethpage for turning a blind eye to all of this. It can’t be understated how ridiculous their response for comment was. Government laziness at its finest
Thank you for another great piece, @KVV! It’s certainly not your first time discussing Bethpage in your content. I think back to this KVV Mailbag: The Swilcan Patio and The LIV Newsroom | No Laying Up
If “Taylor’s” disguised persona is that annoying, just imagine the real version. That guy sucks.
Hell yeah!
Never thought I hear “headless browser” on a golf podcast…my worlds colliding!
Honestly both should get fucked. Part of the problem here (and with society at large) is focusing all the ire on those who create a loophole and not enough on those who exploit it.
I did the Bethpage parking lot thing last year, obviously it is separate from the phone/online system (in that that system is so fucked that the parking lot is really your only option).
I didn’t sleep in my car. I wanted to play on a Wednesday, early September, for context. My hotel was 20ish minutes from Bethpage so I woke up around 4, took a quick shower to wake me up, and drove over, got there around 15 minutes before they started handing out numbers at 5a. I was I think in spot 34.
Of the guys in front of me, most were local and not interested in playing the Black, as it turns out. By 5:30 or so I had secured a 10:10 tee time on the Black. I went back to my hotel, tried to at least lay down for a couple hours if not actually sleep, then headed back out. It was actually quite simple.
Oh, yeah, the golf course beat my ass.
Looking forward to this one!
Over 10 years ago, I did a similar thing to you. Played midweek, didn’t sleep there overnight, got to the lot pretty early, had a mid-morning tee time on the Black after a wait that was much shorter than I thought it was going to be.
I never want to play that course again, mainly because I don’t like getting punched in the face repeatedly for 5 hours.
I liked the course, I think the way they maintain the rough and the fairway width is over the top.
Don’t really ever need to go back there.
But I didn’t outright hate it the way I did Torrey Pines, which I think would still be a bad course even if they maintained it in a more friendly manner.
Torrey South is the west coast Bethpage Black. Another slog from start to finish.
Not to turn this into a Bethpage course discussion but this is something some of us in the NY chat have been saying for years. Fairways need to be pushed out to bring the bunkers more into play and just give some width to the course and the rough doesn’t need to be so penal for everyday golf.
(also, the cheat code for #1 is to play up the first fairway of Green. Not a great angle but it’ll be a wedge in. Thank me later)
Bethpage is a MUCH better course than Torrey. You can fix the Black course with a lawn mower. Torrey can only be fixed with a bulldozer.
Off topic generally here but NEED a 30-for-30-esque musical intro/interstitial stinger for NLU special projects / investigative reports