"You know," said the cab driver, "you've got to be crazy to live in New York." And then he delivers the punchline that makes you think he's right, that these people really are kind of loopy. "Crazy about sport, that is!" Philip Reid reports from New York
Boom! Boom! Jonathan, for that's his name, is sort of right. The LA Lakers were in town on Sunday night when Shaquille O'Neal continued the rout of the Nets across the river in New Jersey in the NBA Finals; the Yankees and the Giants are at it (in baseball); and, for the horsey set last weekend, there was the not so little matter of War Emblem's failed attempt to take the Belmont Stakes.
If that's the appetiser, then the main course comes on Thursday when Tiger Woods - the biggest name in world sport - seeks to add the US Open to the US Masters title he won in April. In fact, the arrival of Woods and the rest of the world's top players to play in the US Open on a public course has led to a chance for residents in the leafy suburbs around Bethpage to cash in on their proximity to the course. Some residents have been offered as much as $20,000 to rent out lawns for corporations to wine and dine their clients under a virtual village of tents, and one resident was even offered $15,000 to let people walk through her yard as a shortcut to the park.
United States Golf Association officials say golfers who decide to rent private houses pay between $3,000 and $7,500 for the week. One real estate agent admitted renting a house for $20,000 for the week. However, Jon Barker, of the USGA, was sceptical of reports of hundreds of rented accommodations going for five-figure sums.
As for Woods? The rumours around Long Island have been on-going for the past number of months. In his case, or so the cabbie says, Woods is paying a six-figure sum to stay with his entourage in a house in Central Avenue. Or is it Oyster Bay Cove? Or is it in Farmingdale village? The exact location may remain a guarded secret but, wherever it is, it is close by - and the course, normally played by golf mad Long Islanders, has been readied to take on the game's top players. It is one tough test.
"WARNING! The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers." Such is the legend outside the clubhouse at Bethpage - which also has four other public courses that are not quite so demanding - and the course is in pristine condition. "We've given them the best course we can give them. Now it's just cut the greens and fairways a couple of times a day," said Craig Currier of the greenkeeping staff.
The warnings about the course's difficulty have reached the players, even before they descended on the course. When Vijay Singh was in rough in practice, it took a couple of ball spotters to find the ball in the tall grass. When the big Fijian attempted to hit the ball, he managed to move it less than three feet.
One benefit of bringing the championship to the course for the first time is that no player can claim to be overly familiar with it. Locals can only play it once a year - they must provide their car registration number - and this is the first time that a major has been held on a course that has many of the characteristics associated with its original designer AW Tillinghast.
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke made it here yesterday afternoon - but confined himself to some putting practice, forced on him by the failure of his clubs to arrive. His caddy Billy Foster was caught up in a bomb scare at Manchester airport and failed to make it out in time to join with up with his master, who had made the trip more quickly - and in greater comfort - in Concorde.
