Great Golf Holes: No. 4 Bethpage Black

Please let this be a normal field trip…

Designing Golf’s “Golf Architecture 101” class hits the road! Professor Garrett Morrison ventured out to Long Island to teach me the ins and outs of the fourth hole at Bethpage Black ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Continuing off our previous episode on template holes, Garrett shares some historical context on “The Great Hazard” — a staple of A.W. Tillinghast’s work. The par 5 fourth may be the most famous hole on the Black, the first real punch of a round after three “easier” holes to start.

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As someone who has gone bunker-to-bunker-to-bunker here before, I can understand the importance of finding the fairway off the tee and allowing yourself a chance to reach the upper half of the hole in two. There’s more to this hole than the sand, though. Garrett walks me through the variety of angles that carrying the cross-bunker presents and how it’ll impact an approach into a green that falls off to the back.

Lastly, if anyone has a lead on those Hell’s Half Acre big letter hats… you know where to find me.