The sign directly in front of the Bethpage State Park clubhouse greets golfers with a bold proclamation:
“The People’s Country Club.”
It’s an enticing premise, and Bethpage has lived up to it for most of its 90 years, offering public golfers in Long Island’s country club utopia affordable, accessible, world-class golf. But in recent years, reality has been slightly murkier.
As No Laying Up’s Kevin Van Valkenburg first reported on an investigative podcast in January, Bethpage’s core values of accessibility and equity have been tested in the digital age, as the public course’s tee time reservation system appears to have been bombarded with illegal “bots” designed to secure tee times before the general public.
A Bethpage tee time is a coveted prize, and for good reason. The Black Course — which will host the Ryder Cup in September — remains the crown jewel of public-access golf in the New York Metro area. At $80 in peak season, it is also among the most affordable. The park’s remaining four courses are nowhere near as famous, but at roughly $50 per player, they represent excellent value nonetheless.
The problem is that access to a tee time at New York’s most prestigious public golf course seems to have fallen into the hands of a smaller group of nefarious actors. When the park’s tee times go live on its online reservation system at 6 p.m. each day — for bookings seven days in advance — they are snapped up instantaneously. When cancellations are re-released, they vanish just as quickly.
The source of the problem appears to be the practice of “tee time farming”, in which internet software programmes — or “bots” — select tee times instantly, rendering ordinary golfers with ordinary computers obsolete.
Now, however, the state appears to be fighting back. On Saturday afternoon, Bethpage State Park sent a letter to all registered golfers, outlining a series of changes to the park’s reservation system aimed at eliminating tee time bots and restoring equity to the booking process.
According to the letter, the state will begin charging a non-refundable $5 reservation fee for each tee time booked online, reduce the number of cancellations allowed per month for eligible accounts, and introduce a $15 “no-show fee” for those who book a tee time but fail to show up on time.
The state’s actions represent the most significant effort yet to address the tee time issue at Bethpage — measures aimed at thwarting those who mass-book slots using bots, only to cancel or fail to attend. In theory, the $5 reservation fee will also act as a deterrent against bot accounts making bulk bookings.
Some golfers have criticised the changes as insufficient. Critics argue that the best way to prevent cancellations is to require full payment at the time of booking — or to implement harsher penalties for cancellations and no-shows. By comparison, a $5 reservation fee and $15 no-show fee are seen by some as a speed bump, not a proper barrier against illegal website usage.
“This changed… nothing?” wrote one account by the name of Nik Bando. “Phantom band-aid.”
Still, it seems clear that the bot issue is receiving greater attention at Bethpage as the park prepares for its Ryder Cup spotlight in September. For years, demand at the Black Course has far exceeded supply, and that trend is only expected to accelerate in the months leading up to — and following — the Cup.
The path to a fair and functional online reservation system may still be a long one, but after Saturday, it seems things at the People’s Country Club are finally trending … away from the bots.
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