What Men Should Wear to Play Golf at Bethpage Black
Recommended and mandatory are two different words, and the document that governs your round on the Black Course uses both of them in the same paragraph. New York State Parks, in its 2025 Large Black Course Outing Package, writes it exactly like this: "To ensure an enjoyable Golf outing for all participants and other park patrons, the following clothing choices are recommended: collared shirts, slacks, split-skirts, knickers or knee-length shorts. Spike-less footwear is mandatory." So the complete answer, the night before your tee time, is this. Wear a collared shirt, wear slacks or knee-length shorts, and wear golf shoes with plastic or rubber cleats or a flat sole. The collar is a recommendation. The shoe is the rule. Nobody is going to turn you away at the first tee for a crew neck, and the starter will absolutely turn you away for metal.
That inversion is what makes Bethpage different from every private club and resort course you have read a dress code for. This is a state park. The public golf page for the property is published by New York State Parks, and the clothing language sits inside the 2025 Large Black Course Outing Package. Read it closely and you will notice how little it actually forbids. There is no denim rule in it. No hat rule. No inseam figure. No sock rule, and nothing at all about how you dress on the practice areas. Anyone telling you otherwise is repeating convention and calling it policy.
Bethpage Black, the dress code split in two
Recommended
Collared shirts, slacks, split-skirts, knickers or knee-length shorts. That is the state document's own list, in the state document's own order, and the word attached to all of it is recommended.
Which means a crew neck is not a violation. It is just a choice that marks you out on a first tee where every other man is wearing a collar. Wear the collar.
Mandatory
Spike-less footwear. One line, one word, and it is the only clothing item in the package written as a rule instead of a suggestion.
Plastic cleats, rubber cleats or a flat sole. If there is metal in the bottom of your shoe, that is the thing that stops your round, not your shirt.
First tee, the sign and the shoemandatory
The shoe is the only thing on this course that can be enforced against you, so settle it first and stop thinking about it. Spike-less means plastic or rubber cleats, or a smooth outsole with traction lugs. Every golf shoe sold in the last fifteen years qualifies. The ones that do not are the old steel-soled pairs a lot of men still keep in the garage for wet rounds, and a wet October round on Long Island is exactly when a man reaches for them. Leave that pair home.
There is a second piece of Bethpage lore worth noting here only because of the word it uses. The sign at the first tee reads "WARNING The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers". Recommend. The course warns you in the same register it dresses you. Bethpage tells you what it thinks and then lets you decide, and the only two places it stops being polite are the shoe on your foot and the cart you cannot take.
| Recommended by the document | Mandatory by the document | Convention only, not published |
|---|---|---|
| Collared shirts | Spike-less footwear | No denim on the Black |
| Slacks | That is the whole mandatory list | Shirt tucked at the first tee |
| Split-skirts | No inseam figure is published | A hat, on or off, as you like |
| Knickers | No sock rule is published | A second shirt in the bag |
| Knee-length shorts | No denim rule is published | A layer for the back nine |
Quaker Meeting House Road, the shirt you pick tonightcollar
Wear the collar even though the document only recommends it, because a dress code that trusts you is still a dress code you can read a room in. The Black draws men who saved for the round and men who drove three hours for it, and on a good October Saturday almost every one of them is in a polo. A performance knit collar with some structure in it is the correct answer, because a soft cotton collar folds flat by the fourth hole in damp air and then you look like the one man who did not think about it. If you want the longer argument about cut and length, we made it in our piece on where a polo hem should actually sit.
Take two shirts. Navy is the shirt for the round, because a wooded park in October puts you against bent greens going olive and oak and maple turning red over your shoulder, and a deep blue reads clean against all of it without competing. Black is the shirt for a 45F start, because it holds the little heat the low sun gives you for the first four holes. Both are the same fabric, so you are not learning a new shirt on an unfamiliar course.
$76
84 percent nylon, 16 percent spandex, four way stretch, sweat wicking. Classic athletic fit with a firm collar that holds its shape through a damp Long Island morning, a U cut hem and pre shrunk fabric. This is the shirt you walk to the first tee in.
$76
Same build, same 84 percent nylon and 16 percent spandex, four way stretch and sweat wicking, firm collar, U cut hem, pre shrunk. Black is the one you start a 45F morning in, and the one you keep in the bag when the forecast cannot decide.
Farmingdale in October, the numbers you dress toweather
An October round here starts cold and finishes mild, and the wind builds while you are doing it. These are the Farmingdale figures from Weather Spark, and they are the reason a man dressed for the tee time is wrong by the turn. Daily high temperatures decrease by 10F through the month, from 69F to 59F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 10F, from 55F to 45F. A 6:40 tee slot in the second half of October puts you on the first hole near 45F and on the eighteenth green near 59F, and on the warm end of the month near 69F.
Highs, Farmingdale in October
Decrease by 10F through the month, from 69F to 59F.
Lows, Farmingdale in October
Decrease by 10F through the month, from 55F to 45F.
Wind, Farmingdale in October
Average hourly wind speed increases from 10.2 mph to 11.8 mph.
Wind direction
Hourly average wind direction through October is predominantly from the west.
Sky
Overcast or mostly cloudy about 39 percent of the time through the month.
Wet days
Chance of a wet day decreases from 27 percent to 23 percent.
The walk
Par 71 over 7,465 yards from the back tees, on foot, with no cart.
The ground
Bent grass greens and Poa annua fairways, wooded Nassau County parkland about 125 feet above sea level.
Note what this place is not. Bethpage sits inland on Long Island, in a wooded state park, about 125 feet above sea level. It is not links land and it is not coastal exposure, so the trees take the edge off a gust before it reaches you on most holes and then give it all back on the ones that run open. GolfPass lists the Black as A. W. Tillinghast, 1936, with Rees Jones restoration work in 1998 and 2008, playing to par 71 and 7,465 yards from the back tees at 99 Quaker Meeting House Road in Farmingdale. New York State Parks has the course open April 15th to November 15th, weather permitting, and closed Mondays except holidays, so October is the tail of the season and you should dress like it.
The turn, a west wind at 11.8 mphlayer
One layer is the whole answer, and it has to be one you can take off and carry without thinking about it. The wind here is predominantly out of the west and it climbs from 10.2 mph to 11.8 mph as the month goes on, which is not dramatic on paper and is very real on a back nine after four hours on your feet. A quarter zip does the two things a walking round needs. It opens at the neck when you warm up on the third hole instead of coming off entirely, and it comes off in eight seconds when it finally has to.
$98
The layer for a 45F first tee and a west wind that builds all round. Blue, not grey, whatever the link says. Wear it over the polo from the parking lot through the front nine, open the zip when you warm up, and tie it off or stow it at the turn. On a walking course you only own the layers you are willing to carry, so own one good one. More of the same in our pullovers and quarter zips.
the inversion
The state made the shoe the rule and left the collar to your judgment.
Eighteen holes, what the document never saysconvention
Most of what men repeat about the Bethpage dress code is not in the Bethpage dress code. The outing package publishes no denim rule, no hat rule, no inseam figure and no sock rule, and it says nothing about how you dress on the range or the putting green. It also says nothing about push carts or pull carts, so do not let anyone including us tell you they are allowed or banned. Ask the starter.
What the document does say about getting around is flat: "The Black Course is a walking only golf course; golf carts are not permitted during play." So you are on foot for 7,465 yards over ground that climbs and falls more than photographs of it suggest. Here is the honest convention, labelled as convention. Men do not play the Black in denim. Men tuck the shirt. Men carry one layer and wear one shirt and do not turn up with a bag of options they will not use. None of that is published policy. All of it is what the first tee looks like at seven in the morning.
Parking lot, the last layer offdrive
Bring one thing for the car and the walk from it, and take it off before you check in. A 6:40 tee time on Long Island in October means leaving the house in the dark and standing in a cold lot at Bethpage while it is still 45F, and a hoodie is the correct piece for that twenty minutes and for the drive home four and a half hours later. It is not the piece for the first tee. There is no published rule against it, and there is also no version of this where a hooded sweatshirt is what you want to be wearing when the starter reads your name.
$98
For the dark drive out, the cold lot and the ride home. Beige, not grey, whatever the link says. It lives in the car from the moment you pick up your bag until the round is over, which is precisely the job.
Dressing for a course you have not played is the same problem every time, and the answer changes with the property. We ran it for a very different piece of ground in our guide to playing Erin Hills, where the wind has nothing to hide behind.
If you are still settling which shirt to own before you settle which one to pack, start with our rundown of the best men's polos and then go straight to the full polo collection.
The night before, the questions men typeanswers
What is the dress code at Bethpage Black?
New York State Parks recommends collared shirts, slacks, split-skirts, knickers or knee-length shorts, and it makes spike-less footwear mandatory. The clothing list is written as a recommendation in the state outing package. The footwear line is the only part written as a rule.
Do you have to wear a collared shirt at Bethpage Black?
The state document lists collared shirts as recommended, not as a requirement. Wear one anyway. It is what every other man on that first tee will have on, and matching the room costs you nothing.
Are metal spikes allowed at Bethpage Black?
No. Spike-less footwear is mandatory in the state outing package, and it is the single clothing item the document treats as a rule rather than a suggestion. Plastic cleats, rubber cleats or a flat soled golf shoe are what you want.
Can you wear jeans at Bethpage Black?
The state outing package publishes no denim rule at all, so there is nothing in the document to quote either way. It recommends slacks and knee-length shorts. Men do not play the Black in denim, and that is convention rather than published policy.
Are shorts allowed at Bethpage Black?
Knee-length shorts sit on the recommended clothing list in the state outing package. No inseam figure is published anywhere in that document. For an October round on Long Island you will want trousers anyway.
Can you take a cart at Bethpage Black?
No. The state outing package says the Black Course is a walking only golf course and that golf carts are not permitted during play. The document says nothing about push carts or pull carts, so treat that as a question for the starter.
What should I wear to play Bethpage Black in October?
A collared shirt, trousers, one layer you can take off, and spike-less golf shoes. Farmingdale daily highs in October decrease from 69F to 59F and daily lows decrease from 55F to 45F, and average hourly wind speed increases from 10.2 mph to 11.8 mph, predominantly from the west. Dress for the 45F start and carry the layer for the rest.
Wear the collar the document only recommends
Two shirts, one layer, and a hoodie that never leaves the car. Settle it now and walk 7,465 yards thinking about the golf instead.
