MAY 16, 2019
The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.
Mike Asheroff can still remember that day in 1981 — or was it 1982? — when the sign was first created to prepare golfers for the challenge of playing Bethpage Black.
It’s not something Asheroff, who retired in 1994 from a long career working for Long Island and New York City Department of Parks, seeks credit for.
But with the PGA Championship headed for Bethpage Black this week, anyone wanting to know more about the famous sign needs to hear Asheroff’s story.
The sign is a tourist attraction now. Despite the 18-hole challenge that awaits each foursome, the day begins with a mandatory photo by the famous sign. It normally draws the only smiles of the day.
The “Warning” sign at Bethpage Black is so well known an image of the sign is featured on much of the apparel for sale at the PGA Championship that begins Thursday. It makes sense. The sign is Bethpage Black’s signature.
Asheroff was the deputy regional director for the Long Island State Parks when the sign was first created, and he customarily spent holidays and weekends visiting with park superintendents believing “if they were working they ought to see the boss is working,” Asheroff said.
He said the sign originated on Memorial Day, either in 1981 or ’82, maybe even 1980. Asheroff said he was sitting having coffee with Eric Siebert, who was the parks superintendent at the time, when Siebert’s two-way radio alerted them of an altercation on the golf course.
“We went out there and some guy had decided he was going to teach his wife to play golf on Memorial Day on the Black Course,” Asheroff told The Post in a telephone interview. “There were four or five empty holes in front of them and a foursome of very angry Asian golfers behind them. They were getting upset with the man and the woman and their English wasn’t good. To hurry them up, they hit several balls into him and his wife. He turned around and hit the balls back at them. They all became extremely angry.
“The park police showed up. We managed to get this guy off the golf course. His wife was mortified. We refunded his green fee and told him to go away.”
Here’s where the legend of the Black Warning Sign is born.
“I turned to Eric at that point and said, ‘Give me a piece of paper,’ and I scribbled out the wording of the sign and said, ‘Get the sign shop to make this up and put it by the park register and if anybody wants to play golf on the Black, point it out to them.’ That’s how the sign got out there,” Asheroff recalled.
Until this week, the origin of the sign had been one of the best-kept secrets in golf. A spokesman for Bethpage State Park told The Post, “There’s literally no history on that sign.”
Read more at NewYorkPost.com
