Bethpage Red

The Red Course opened in 1935 as one of A.W. Tillinghast's designs at Bethpage State Park, a sprawling public golf complex built on roughly 1,500 acres of rolling, sandy Long Island terrain. Constructed as a Depression-era public works project, the Red gave New York golfers championship-caliber public golf at a time when such access was rare. Tillinghast laid out the Red alongside the neighboring Blue and the celebrated Black, all within the same park. Long overshadowed by its famous sibling, the Red is widely regarded as the park's second-best test, a stout, classically routed parkland course with the bold bunkering and demanding approaches that define Tillinghast's work. It remains a fully public, state-operated course open to everyday players.