How can the best beat Bethpage?

THE MANY golfers who will surely be praying for divine intervention as the 109th US Open unfolds over the next two days might well take encouragement from how Bethpage got its name.

It was “christened” more than 300 years by an English settler, Thomas Powell, who purchased a 15 square mile piece of prime land on Long Island from three Native American tribes. He called the property Bethpage, inspired by a passage in the New Testament of St Matthew which read: “And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him and when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethpage, unto the Mount of Olives.”

Well, another great multitude will walk the “new” Bethpage today, setting out at 1.06pm Irish time in the expectation of seeing Tiger Woods produce a divine performance and not too concerned as to how his fellow disciples, Pádraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera, might be getting on.