Bethpage State Park is a 1477acre New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. The park contains tennis courts, picnic and recreational areas and a polo field, but is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course, which hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Open Golf Championships.GeographyThe park is not located in Bethpage as its name suggests, but is rather located almost entirely within the hamlet of Old Bethpage, despite having a Farmingdale postal address from the day it opened in 1934. The clubhouse and the golf courses are located next to Lenox Hills, a residential neighborhood in Farmingdale.Bethpage State Park's name reflects the locality names that existed at the time of its creation. Old Bethpage was known as Bethpage prior to 1936, when the adjacent hamlet of Central Park changed its name to Bethpage. Following this name change, the hamlet originally called Bethpage resisted suggestions that it merge with the new Bethpage, and got approval from the post office to change its name to Old Bethpage, though it did not have its own post office until 1965.HistoryIn 1912, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum, a wealthy railroad executive, acquired 1368acre of land along the northern edge of the Village of Farmingdale extending into what is now Old Bethpage. Yoakum hired Devereux Emmet to design and build an 18-hole golf course on the land, which opened for play in 1923, and which Yoakum leased to the private Lenox Hills Country Club. At this time part of Youkum's estate, located adjacent to the golf course within Farmingdale Village was subdivided for residential use. This is the Old Lenox Hills neighborhood of Farmingdale Village.
