Bethpage Black to Host 2019 PGA Championship & 2024 Ryder Cup


Various news sources are reporting that Bethpage Black will host the 2019 PGA Championship and the 2024 Ryder Cup. The news was first reported by Golfweek.

Originally designed by Golden Age golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast, Bethpage Black is located within Bethpage State Park, which also contains the daily-fee Blue, Green, Red and Yellow 18-hole courses and is about an hour from New York City.

In addition to hosting the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens, won by Tiger Woods and Lucas Glover, respectively, Bethpage Black held last year's Barclays, won by Nick Watney. That event moved this season to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Phil Mickelson feels the course is an ideal place to host a Ryder Cup. "I love it," Mickelson said. "I've been quietly hoping it would go there for years. It's the perfect site."

Without confirming the reports, Ted Bishop, the president of the PGA of America - which oversees both events, remarked, "I think taking a major sporting event like the Ryder Cup to what I would arguably say is the greatest sports city in the United States in New York would be a phenomenal combination," Bishop said.

"It's a mammoth venue, and you've got a lot of possibilities for infrastructure and being able to handle crowds and the stadium-golf concept. I could give you 100 reasons why I think Bethpage certainly is very high on our radar as it relates to a Ryder Cup."

Julius Mason, the PGA of America's senior director of communications, was even cagier. "We have many conversations with many facilities about hosting our major championships," he told Golf Channel.

The 2014 Ryder Cup, won last year by the Europeans at Medinah near Chicago, will be played at Gleneagles in Scotland. Future American sites are Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minn., in 2016 and Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. in 2020.

The Ryder Cup was last held in New York City's metropolitan area at New Jersey's Ridgewood Country Club in 1935.