Ryder Cup players given urgent warning before teeing off on first hole at Bethpage Black

The highly-anticipated Ryder Cup gets underway on Friday at Bethpage State Park's Black Course, located in Farmingdale, New York. As Team Europeand Team USA prepare for battle at the biennial tournament, there will be one notable difference for fans familiar with the gruelling golf course.

Welcoming optimistic golfers for decades at Bethpage Black has been a placard, fixed to a fence behind the first tee, with the ominous message: “WARNING - The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.”

No one knows exactly when the sign was put up but, over the years, it has come to encapsulate just how gruelling the course is. It first gained widespread attention back in 2002, when Bethpage Black became the first public course to host the US Open.

Tiger Woods was the only player to finish under par and won by three on that occasion, with the sign consequently becoming a hit. “I haven’t really played many courses with warning signs,” said Henrik Stenson when the US Open returned to Bethpage in 2009. “It’s more for the ski slopes, isn’t it?"

Geoff Ogilvy added: “I’ve seen lots of rules written down on 1st tees - but I’ve never seen warnings.”

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The sign in recent years has become so famous (or infamous) that the course has turned it into a business. Inside the pro shop, visitors will find the warning emblazoned on shirts and head covers. Small replicas are also for sale.

“Even people who aren’t playing golf, Long Island people who are here for weddings, they’ll go over and take a picture with it,” said Bethpage’s long-time director of agronomy, Andew Wilson.

“It is sort of synonymous with Bethpage. Whoever the starter happens to be on the Black Course on a day-by-day basis, they probably take 30 or 40 pictures a day. The sign is probably photographed more than the course.”

However, those coming to Long Island to revel in the sign’s glory this time around for the 2025 Ryder Cup were left disappointed. That’s because the sign was temporarily removed due to the 5,000 seat grandstand that will wrap around the first tee and 19th green.

“The sign is gone,” Ryder Cup Director Bryan Karns told The New York Post. “The Ryder Cup will use a brand new [first] tee that’s 40 yards in front of the existing tee.

“If we had built that grandstand with the existing tee, it would almost go into the clubhouse. [The sign] would’ve been underneath the grandstands. It just wouldn’t have worked out.”

Yet, it appears that while the original was removed, a giant version has been put up elsewhere at Bethpage ahead of the action. A smaller one, like the original, was also seen placed above a tunnel which the players and caddies used to get to the first tee.

The formerly unrelenting Bethpage Black has been described as a little more “open” for this week’s Ryder Cup too, with team USA having a say in the course setup.

“The rough is not as it would be in a US PGA or a US Open that has been played there before,” said Paul McGinley, who is acting as a strategic adviser to European captain Luke Donald, while also being part of the broadcast team, on Wednesday. “The fairways are pretty generous at the moment because they’re soft.”

McGinley was on-site at Bethpage Monday and Tuesday for Team Europe’s scouting trip. He saw a course that was on the soft side and is a little shorter than it normally plays, although the course could firm up by the time the action gets underway at Bethpage.