Bethpage State Park's golf courses battle to stop tee-time stealing bots

Bots, software programs that quickly perform automated tasks, are a “serious issue” in securing tee times at Bethpage State Park’s five golf courses, according to a report published by the Offices of the State Inspector General on Friday.

While the report revealed that manipulating the park’s online reservation system to secure tee times — especially at the famed Black course, which was increasingly relevant this year as the site of September’s Ryder Cup — is a “serious threat to the integrity of the booking systems of high demand public golf courses” like Bethpage, it said that “little evidence of the reselling of tee times by individuals or in online marketplaces was uncovered.”

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation already has taken measures to improve its foreUP online reservation system, including a $5 non-refundable booking fee and a two-factor authentication feature with a booking code that is sent via email to golfers hoping to snag a tee time. The report, which was obtained by Newsday, issued other recommendations but noted it is an issue the  state parks office is “proactively addressing.” 

“Bethpage Black is a shared treasure — open to all by design,” said New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang. “When bots beat out real life New Yorkers for tee times, the spirit of communal access is lost, eroding public confidence in the integrity of New York’s public systems. Our office is working hard with OPRHP [the parks office] to guarantee that walking the grounds of one of the country’s best courses isn’t reserved for those who misuse technology to cut the line.”

The investigation was conducted  with full cooperation of the state parks office, according to the report. 

The parks office said there was no serious problem.

 “We take concerns about alleged automated reservation bots seriously,” the  state parks agency wrote in a statement to Newsday. “Our practices, policies and systems are designed to maintain fairness. There is no evidence of widespread misuse or ‘bots’ within the foreUp reservation system.  Our staff is tasked with checking the ID of all reservation holders — whether they are residents or non-residents — and we are vigilant in identifying and addressing any attempts to bypass or misuse the foreUp system.”

The Ryder Cup ended on Sept. 28, and Bethpage Black reopened for walk-ups on Oct. 10. Beginning Friday,  Bethpage Black started taking online reservations again. Tee times also were walk-up only in the lead-up to the Ryder Cup, with some golfers sleeping in their cars and spending nearly 24 hours on the property before getting a time. The course closed to the public on Aug. 17 ahead of the biennial competition between the United States and Europe.

The IG’s office became aware of potential wrongdoing in January 2025, when the podcast “No Laying Up” addressed how bots made it difficult for the public to secure tee times at Bethpage. On the podcast, one Bethpage golfer claimed he purchased a Black tee time for $50 from a tee time broker. Reservations are not transferable, and anyone found to be selling, bartering or exchanging reservations is subject to a one-year suspension from the system.

Most tee times are made through foreUP, where a user can choose one of several account types. Most account types allow a user to secure a tee time five days in advance, though a “verified NYS resident” account could secure a tee time one week in advance.

To register for a verified New York State resident account, users are instructed to email a copy of their driver’s license or ID card and to “black out” their ID number. The report recommends that the  state parks office replace that verification with ID.me, “an online identity verification system used by other government agencies like the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the New York State Department of Labor.”

From April 2024 to August 2024, the number of cancellations was staggering. According to the report, approximately 105,000 reservations were made on Bethpage’s courses, 57,587 (approximately 55%) of which were canceled. With the Black course during that period, 16,365 reservations were made, and 9,462 (57.8%) were canceled.

According to the report, that data could suggest that golfers in a group are attempting to grab multiple tee times with the intention of using the most optimal ones and canceling others.

Before July 1, 2024, unlimited cancellations were allowed. That was changed to eight cancellations per month after that date, then to six on May 1. The report recommends that the number be lowered further.

The $5 booking fee was implemented on May 1, and the two-factor authentication was added following the Ryder Cup.

The IG also reviewed the process at other premier municipal golf courses, including Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, which has a non-refundable booking fee between $32 and $50, depending on the golfer’s residency. According to the report, Bethpage staff said the $5 fee was “well received” and that more tee times were available after its implementation.

Other recommendations from the report include flagging accounts with “repetitive suspicious behavior,” releasing tee times during random windows to throw off bots, implementing a virtual waiting room and limiting the number of allowed booking requests from a single IP address. 

The state parks office wrote: “We will continue strengthening our measures so that access to Bethpage tee times remains open, transparent, and equitable for all visitors.”

Newsday's Josh Solomon contributed to this story.

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.