Caddie's Role: The rules are the rules in America - no pass means no entrance to Bethpage State Park on Long Island, New York. I encountered the obstinacy of the New York State Police on my unusually early arrival last Saturday at the US Open venue, writes Colin Byrne.

The square-jawed state trooper cut a fine figure in his steel-grey uniform and cavalry style headgear and was adamant I could not enter.

Having seen my driver's licence, my most readily-available form of identification, the trooper then asked me what type of visa I held for the US, trying his hand at a little immigration work. I distracted him as I looked beyond him and caught a glimpse of a makeshift building that was the tournament USGA office.

The officer yielded as far as letting me enter the office to see what credentials I could muster up there. I was issued with a "one-day gate pass" which would tide me over until registration opened at 10 a.m. on Sunday. So I was in and ready to go and stroll the much-talked-about 7,214 yards of Bethpage Black in the peace and serenity of the light of a summer evening. Or so I thought.

I got as far as the environs of the clubhouse when I was accosted by more well-dressed policemen, and so the explanations recommenced.

I ended up in the back of another state trooper's car heading for the same office that had issued me with the temporary pass, and I finally got out on AW Tillinghast's masterpiece an hour after I arrived. I was to have similar difficulty on my arrival at 6.30 a.m. on Sunday.

Tillinghast's elegant, flowing and formidable design from the 1930s is a work of art. It is only when you see genuine craftsmanship like this that you realise how inferior the majority of new courses are. The bombardment of promotional advertising seems to be the only sophistication that applies to many new developments.

Having walked around the course once, I was able to remember each hole with vivid detail. Most newer courses demand serious memory jogging to recall a series of bland creations. Not so at Bethpage Black, the holes are not only well-designed but they are also good-looking, with a natural flow through trees, natural undulation and gently-swaying fescue grasses.

The original land where the course is located was bought from local natives for £140 in 1695. The State of New York acquired the land 70 years ago. The private golf club of Lenox Hill was included in the estate. This was opened to the public in 1932 as Bethpage Golf Club. Tillinghast was hired to redesign the course, now known as the Green course, although some locals claim he did not do it alone.

You could be forgiven for thinking you are at a ski resort with courses seemingly coded from the easier Yellow, through Blue, Green, Red and culminating in the most difficult, Black.

It was the Black that caught enthusiasts' attention in 1936. The architect himself compared it to his finer creations in Baltusrol and Winged Foot, also on the US Open roster.

The USGA went to investigate the much-talked-about public facility in 1996 and announced that it would be the US Open venue for this year. The architect Rees Jones was comissioned to redesign the course to bring it up to today's standard and length required to find a true champion.

Jones, who has tinkered with so many other Open venues in the past that he has become known as "the Open Doctor", added 350 yards and restored the massive, irregular and flowering trademark Tillinghast bunkers.

With the more desirable of public facilities like Pebble Beach pricing themselves out of the average golfer's budget (Pebble Beach is $350 a round) Bethpage truly deserves its nickname of the "People's Country Club".

At $31 a weekday round and $39 on the weekend, this represents the best value of any course in the world by a long way. No wonder then that the punters sleep in the car park in order to get to the top of the queue when the clubhouse opens.

The clubhouse open at 4 a.m. and the first tee-time is 5.30 a.m. The downside is that the round can take up to six hours - you may understand why when you watch the best golfers struggle with the Black Beast this week.