Bethpage Black and the Ryder Cup trophy, in a photo taken last month.
Getty Images
Dear PGA of America,
Greetings! Love your PGA Championships, men’s and women’s. Love us some club pros and some club pro instruction, too. (The slice is no more, BTW!) It is in that spirit, then, that this note is delivered today, as your showcase event, the Ryder Cup, appears to have hooked one into the proverbial cabbage by charging fans $750 for admission into next year’s edition at venerable Bethpage Black, on the isle of Long in New York. To put the reactions one way, folks’ golf quarter-zips have become undone. It’s as if someone suggested the host town’s bagels and pizzas are inferior.
But we’re here to help, not heap on. Actually, one solution may just solve everything.
Some background is first required, though. The Ryder Cup’s championship director, Bryan Karns, justified the ticket price to GOLF’s Sean Zak by citing multiple factors, chief among them that the biennial event is coming to the New York City market, and the belief in its demand and status (think a World Series or an NBA Finals game). “We knew that it was going to be critical to get this right and to try to do something that we felt was on par with where we viewed ourselves and where our position was in this world,” Karns told Zak. “But at the same time, understanding there is some nuance to Ryder Cup tickets. It’s a full-day event versus three hours. It’s without a seat, but a GA ticket allows you the chance to be on a rope line, [compared] to if I bought the standing-room only at Yankee Stadium last night. So we try to factor all those in. And it’s never as simple as saying it’s apples to apples. But we took a lot of feedback and got to this point where we felt like, look, this is what we feel confident in.”
Sounds logical. So why the consternation? Because $750 is about three times more than what it cost to pass through the turnstiles at the past two Ryder Cups, in Wisconsin in 2021, and in Italy last year. There’s more, though. This Ryder Cup is being played at Bethpage, a muni, meaning anyone can peg it there — and for a fee quite possibly smaller than what they’d shoot on the golf-ball-eating behemoth. (In-staters are charged only $70 during the week; for non-New Yorkers, it’s $140). Bethpage is the People’s Country Club, capital P, capital C‘s. And now the people might be on the outside looking in? GOLF’s James Colgan, himself a native LI’er, eloquently expanded on this point recently, writing:
“A $750 Ryder Cup ticket … tells us golf belongs to somebody instead of everybody. It suggests we come to grips with that reality, and don’t complain. It separates those who love golf from those who can afford it.
“Bethpage has never been about haves and have-nots. It earned its favor precisely because it rejects golf’s less worldly ideals of elitism and exclusivity. To install these ideals for the Ryder Cup is not just an affront to all that Bethpage stands for — it’s a sign the PGA of America never understood it in the first place.”
In other words, the scene here is messier than the Long Island Expressway at rush hour. But unlike the Jets and Giants, there’s hope.
There’s a way to mostly — if not entirely — honor the PGA’s wishes, while respecting the Bethpagian values. The solution is taken straight from Bethpage itself, where for years folks have camped out overnight at the course in hopes of landing one of the course’s morning tee times. So we’re proposing this:
Set up a Ryder Cup overnight lot, where fans can get reimbursed for tickets already purchased — and enter for the cost of just a greens fee. Speaking of, that’s the best part — to gain lot access, you have to have played one round at Bethpage Black in the past year.
You may have questions, so let’s try to answer them.
How many fans are allowed into the lot? Let’s make it 3,000 a day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
When can they start lining up? 3 a.m.; if folks are early or without their round-played proof, they’re turned away. When are they let in? 3 a.m. Where could the lot be stationed? Newsday’s headquarters, from where fans were shuttled at the 2019 PGA Championship.
Why the rounds-played necessity? You get the Bethpage diehards. Why not just give people the cheaper ticket after a round played? Good thought, but a hearty 3 a.m. crowd is going to be on Rory’s backside as soon as he drops a ball on the range.
Might there be chaos? Potentially. You could also mitigate things by handing out just 9,000 rounds-played passes, designating each by day.
Are there concessions in the lot? Yes. Beer? Yes, but three-cup max! Is there music? Just “Born in the U.S.A.” on repeat. Do these fans have a nickname? Hell yes. Bethpage Battalion? Keegan’s Corps? We’re open to suggestions. Speaking of the captain, he’ll ride shotgun on a shuttle on one of the mornings. Or all of ’em.
Probably not the PGA, but it could. We’re banking on a sponsor, though. Think of it this way: Would you buy a company’s product based on seeing its logo on a Ryder Cup advertisement, or by knowing the company was the bankroller of this populist idea? Thought so.
Just imagine those fans on the first tee.
And think of those folks who bleed Bethpage and are now satiated.
And think of you, the PGA of America, who just cooked up quite possibly the best fan concept ever.
All by reading this letter.
Respectfully,
Nick
To contact the author, or to credit him when this idea is implemented, please email him at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
