Bethpage State Park has heard the ongoing complaints about the fairness and circumvention of its tee-time reservation policies and is now taking steps to address them.
In an email distributed earlier today, Bethpage announced several changes to its reservation system and policies, all scheduled to go into effect next Monday, June 24. The main change, according to the email, is the creation of a new booking type called "Verified NYS Resident – Bethpage," which will continue to allow tee-time reservations up to seven days in advance. In order to make this change, the park conducted a months-long audit of its reservation system and removed all duplicate golfer accounts. Residents in good standing will be automatically reclassified under the new verified booking type.
Starting next week, however, any new registrants, plus golfers who have been locked out due to multiple accounts or violations, will have to verify their resident account by emailing a copy of their NYS driver's license or identification card to the park.
The park cited "unprecedented demand for tee times" as motivation for the system change as well as other policy updates. Players will now be restricted to eight cancellations in a calendar month to limit the ability to make and transfer tee times. "Unfortunately, we have seen a trend of many users reserving tee times with no intent of using them, but instead booking for friends, family members and playing partners by trying to coordinate those cancellations," the email said.
Reservations on the Red Course will be limited to one every 14 days, similar to the current restriction on the Black Course, where tee times are limited to one every 28 days.
"We know some of these changes may cause some initial consternation amongst the golfing public," the email said, "but we are hopeful that these changes may allow more users to obtain reservations moving forward."