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 and the 2019 PGA Championship.

In 1912, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum, a wealthy railroad executive, acquired 1,368 acres (5.5 km2) of land[4] in what is now known as Old Bethpage, NY, a hamlet adjacent to the Village of Farmingdale.

[2] Jesse Merritt of Farmingdale, Nassau County Historian, had convinced Robert Moses to name the park "Bethpage State Park" after the 15-square-mile (39 km2) tract of land purchased by his ancestor Thomas Powell in 1695 from three Native American tribes.

The park has picnic facilities, bridle paths, playing fields, a polo field, tennis courts, cross-country skiing trails, and hiking and biking trails including one leading south to Massapequa, but it is best known for its golf facilities.

The Black Course is adjacent to the exclusive Melville Court development in East Farmingdale and the Old Bethpage industrial area.

Opens had been staged at private golf or country clubs or at privately owned resorts that, while open to the public, were very expensive for the public to play, with greens fees of several hundred dollars per round.

To register for a tee time, guests must have their driver's license on file with the park's reservation system.

Commonly, golfers wait in line in the parking lot overnight to secure walk-up tee times.

[14] The Polo Grounds at Bethpage State Park offers a 900-by-400-foot (270 by 120 m) field with bleacher seating.