TEED OFF ABOUT $850 TEE TIMES
It’s Bethpage’s “Black” market.
A Queens company has been cashing in on massive demand for tee times at the Long Island course — host to this week’s US Open — by hoarding coveted slots through phone reservation lines and selling them at an eye-popping $850.
To the frustration of local officials, New York Golf Shuttle has been selling tee times at Bethpage Black and other area courses — and it’s all perfectly legal.
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“These guys are a major annoyance,” said Bethpage State Park director Dave Catalano. “It goes against our policy and our philosophy but there isn’t much we can do to stop it.”
One of the few public courses that hosts a major championship, Bethpage Black charges $60 a round for New York residents and $120 for out-of-state players.
New York Golf Shuttle customers, however, shell out $850 — and that’s for a hometown discount. Out-of-staters are charged $900, according to their Web site.
With the nearly impervious reservation hot line their only alternative, golfers sometimes sleep in their cars to land a first-come, first-served tee time at Bethpage Black. When the course opens at 6:30 a.m., the first hour is reserved for walk-ons. After that, only one group of walk-ons per hour is permitted to play.
Bethpage insiders have long suspected that New York Golf Shuttle deploys a squadron of dialers to flood the phone lines.
“That’s totally false,” said the company’s owner, Felimon Betito, 51, of Queens Village. “We have one person who makes calls.”
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The Baruch Business School graduate and avid golfer said his service simply allows wealthy clients to avoid the hassles of securing tee times.
“If you’re a guy with millions, paying 850 bucks isn’t much,” he said, adding that the difficulty of securing phone reservations at the course are overblown.
But Joe Dommiel, a Bethpage enthusiast and employee at the New York Golf Center in Hicksville, said the phone lines have become a waste of time.
“I never get through,” he said. “They’re gone in a few minutes and I just don’t bother anymore.”
Catalano said it’s impossible to know how many daily tee times — which reach a summer peak of 62 — Betito secures for his company. But a representative told a reporter by phone that “we can usually get any time you need.”
Long Island State Parks chief Ron Foley said the practices do not qualify as illegal scalping because playing golf is a participatory event.
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