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Storied History of Bethpage Black Course Subject of New Book

Aired June 14, 2002 - 10:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The storied history of the Bethpage Black Course is the subject of a new book by Rees Jones, who renovated the links. And the book was published by "Travel and Leisure Golf" magazine. It's editor John Atwood joins us from New York with more on the course, that perhaps one day you could play, and also the tournament.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

JOHN WOOD, "TRAVEL AND LEISURE GOLD" MAGAZINE: Happy to be here, Daryn.

KAGAN: Sounds like it's all Tiger all the time. I don't know if you heard that, but he is six under to start the second round, and the closest is Sergio Garcia at two under. It does sound like it's Tiger coming out and being dominant as usual.

WOOD: Well, I said in another earlier today that he's not going to shoot the low score in every round. Maybe I'm going to be wrong about that.

KAGAN: You might be wrong. He has a history in the last five of seven tournaments, when led after the first round, he won the whole thing. So we'll have to see if it plays out.

I want to focus on this course, that your company put out this incredible book about -- once, there are other public courses where the public is allowed to play, like Pebble Beach, but this is the first publicly owned court where the U.S. Open has been held.

WOOD: It's a muni. It's one of the great municipal courses in this country. And it's not just a great municipal course; it's a great golf course. A.W. Tillinghouse (ph) designed course that was a very good course before Rees Jones went in and did his renovations, and now it is a fantastic course.

KAGAN: Three million dollars of renovations went into this. This is the black course at Bethpage, a really -- a kind of scary sign out front, that basically says, if you're not a good golfer, then just basically stay away.

WOOD: Yes, and that makes more golfers want to play it actually.

KAGAN: To show what they have. WOOD: And now it's even tougher than it was before. Rees did a really fantastic job. He went up to Wing Foot (ph), brought his workers up there to show how the Tillinghouse (ph) bunkers are flashed up to the greens, came in and effectively restored the vision that Tillinghouse (ph) had for the course. And now, it's a really, really tough course.

I think the great thing about the first round is that although scores were very high, none of the players were claiming that is was an unfair test of golf.

KAGAN: That's kind of understatement. Only six player broke par and 15 failed to break 80, and they're quite a few comments afterwards about the rough, how the rough was a little bit too rough we might say.

WOOD: Well, that's for sure.

KAGAN: Tough rough.

WOOD: And it should be that way when the national championship is being decided. And I think, yes, sure, if you shoot 80, you will feel abused, but I didn't hear any of the players say that the course design was unfair.

KAGAN: Got it. John Atwood, with the company that put out the book. And players who are interested in playing at Black Page and the Black course can check it out and get a few tips before they take it on themselves, if they can get a tee time.

John, thanks for joining us this morning.

WOOD: Thank you, Daryn.

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