FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — A hole-by-hole look at the Black Course at Bethpage State Park, site of the 45th Ryder Cup matches to be played Sept. 26-28:
No. 1, 397 yards, par 4
The opening shot from an elevated tee bends to the right, with a cluster of trees on the right blocking any approach that takes on too much of the bend. The left side allows for a better angle to the green that features a bunker on the front right. The front third of the green slopes sharply, so anything short or with too much spin could roll off the green. This is the smallest green on the course.
No. 2, 389 yards, par 4
The opening two holes are the only par 4s under 400 yards. This features an elevated tee shot and then a short iron to an elevated green. The fairway bends to the left between trees on both sides. The left side of the green falls off sharply, while the right side is protected by deep bunkers.
No. 3, 210 yards, par 3
The shallow green is angled from back left to front right, with bunkers on the left side so deep that players will only be able to see the top part of the flag stick. Anything long will drop off severely behind the green.
No. 4, 517 yards, par 5
While short by par 5 standards, it features a green some 50 feet above the landing zone for tee shots. The fairway bends to the left around a cluster of bunkers. The cross bunkers only come into play if someone misses the fairway into thick rough. The elevated green is protected by a series of bunkers. The safe play for those going for the green in two will be to the right, setting up an easy pitch.
No. 5, 478 yards, par 4
Massive cross bunkers hug the right side of the hole, though they can be carried by the longest hitters. The ideal play is down the right side because trees cover a ridge along the left side. The green is small and well-bunkered.
No. 6, 408 yards, par 4
A straightforward hole, with large bunkers making the fairway appear even more narrow. The fairway drops some 20 feet. Driver is a bold play to get down to the lower portion and leave a wedge to a small green surrounded by bunkers.
No. 7, 524 yards, par 4
This plays as a par 5 during public play. The tee shot is fairly straight before it turns to the right, with tall trees down the right preventing players from taking off too much of the dogleg. The approach is a long iron to a green that is not elevated and will allow the ball to run onto the green. A large bunker guards the right side, with a small one to the left.
No. 8, 210 yards, par 3
From an elevated tee, the green is guarded in the front by a pond, with large bunkers on the left that really only come into play for back pin positions. A tall oak and a steep dune are to the right of the hole. The bank in front of the green is shaved, meaning anything short is likely to roll into the water. The green has a ridge that could serve as a backboard.
No. 9, 460 yards, par 4
The hole bends to the left with a large bunker complex on the left side of the landing area. Playing short of the bunkers leaves a longer shot from a contoured fairway with a limited view of the green. Two deep bunkers protect the front of a relatively flat green.
No. 10, 502 yards, par 4
This is a straightaway hole that requires a strong tee shot to get to the fairway. Anything left will find tall fescue, bunkers or hollows. The elevated green is guarded by bunkers.
No. 11, 435 yards, par 4
A blind tee shot to a fairway tucked between dunes should favor the right side for a better angle into the most severe green on the course. The putting surface has a false front, causing problems for any putt or chip from beyond the hole. Bunkers protect the front part of the green.
No. 12, 496 yards, par 4
Arguably the toughest tee shot on the Black Course, players can hit driver over cross bunkers to shorten the hole, or play safely out to the right of the bunkers. Any drive hit too straight could run through the fairway into the rough. The second shot is straightforward to a large green with severe undulations.
No. 13, 608 yards, par 5
The longest hole is made slightly easier because it is straight and reachable in two by long hitters on firm turf. A large bunker on the left is in play off the tee, while cross bunkers some 30 yards short of the green will be a problem for anything that comes up short. The green slopes slightly from back to front, with a bunker to the right among the deepest on the course.
No. 14, 161 yards, par 3
The shortest hole on the course is the only par 3 that played under par in the two U.S. Opens. The short iron is over a valley to a green that slopes from back to front and from right to left, with a shelf on the top. Gaping bunkers will grab any shot that comes up slightly short. This is the second straight birdie chance before the tough finish on the other side of the road.
No. 15, 477 yards, par 4
The course crosses the road again to a hole that bends to the left and climbs up a steep hill over the final 180 yards to an elevated green that is protected in front by deep bunkers. Anyone missing the fairway likely won’t reach the green from the rough, or be able to hold the green. The green is 50 feet above the fairway with two tiers that slope from the back left to the front right.
No. 16, 490 yards, par 4
The tee shot drops some 60 feet down to a narrow fairway that angles from left to right and can be tough to hit because of the elevated tee. The hole bends gently to the left. A sprawling bunker is short and right of the green, with another bunker to the left. This is one of the few holes where the green can be seen from the tee box.
No. 17, 179 yards, par 3
The slightly elevated green is 43 yards wide and is divided by a spine through the middle, effectively making two greens. A deep bunker guards the front of the green, with other bunkers catching shots that are right, long and left.
No. 18, 411 yards, par 4
Among major championship venues in the U.S. over the last two decades, only Olympic Club has a shorter closing hole. The tee shot is downhill to a narrow fairway that threads a large cluster of bunkers and fescue on both sides. Players can stay short of the bunkers and only have 160 yards to an elevated green that slopes severely to the front.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writers
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield is leaving the ice cream brand after 47 years, saying that the independence it once had to speak up on social issues has been stifled by its parent company Unilever.
In a letter, which co-founder Ben Cohen posted on social media on Greenfield’s behalf, Greenfield said he could not “in good conscience” remain at Ben & Jerry’s — citing a loss of independence to Unilever, which he said had once agreed to give Ben & Jerry’s autonomy around its social mission when it acquired the brand more than two decades ago.
“For more than 20 years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry’s stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world,” Greenfield wrote “It’s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.”
Ben & Jerry’s, famous for its colorful ice cream containers with flavor names such as Cherry Garcia and Phish Food, has also long been known for its progressive political values — speaking out on a range of social issues over the years. And in his letter late Tuesday, Greenfield noted that the brand’s loss of independence arrived at time in the U.S. when the Trump administration “is attacking civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women and the LGBTQ community.”
“Standing up for the values of justice, equity, and our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,” he wrote.
Tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and its parent have heightened in recent years — with the ice cream brand accusing Unilever of silencing its statements in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza, among other conflicts. And Greenfield’s departure also arrives as the consumer product giant, based in London, is spinning off its ice cream business into a stand-alone company called The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Magnum said that it would be forever grateful to Greenfield for his contributions to Ben & Jerry’s and thanked him for his service, but was not aligned with his viewpoint.
“We disagree with his perspective and have sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world,” the spokesperson said — adding that Magnum is still committed to Ben & Jerry’s mission and remains “focused on carrying forward the legacy of peace, love, and ice cream of this iconic, much-loved brand.”
Meanwhile, Greenfield and Cohen have been pushing for Ben & Jerry’s to be allowed to become an independently owned company again, saying in a letter to Magnum’s board that they don’t believe the brand should be part of a corporation that doesn’t support its founding mission.
Ben & Jerry’s has been at odds with Unilever for a while. In March Ben & Jerry’s said that its CEO was unlawfully removed by Unilever in retaliation for the ice cream maker’s social and political activism.
In a federal court filing, Ben & Jerry’s said that Unilever informed its board on March 3 that it was removing and replacing Ben & Jerry’s CEO David Stever. Ben & Jerry’s said that violated its merger agreement with Unilever, which states that any decisions regarding a CEO’s removal must come after a consultation with an advisory committee from Ben & Jerry’s board.
Unilever said in a statement at the time that it hoped Ben & Jerry’s board would engage in the agreed-upon process.
Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 for $326 million. At the time, Ben & Jerry’s said the partnership would help the progressive Vermont-based ice cream company expand its social mission. But experts stress that preserving complete independence from a corporate owner is never promised.
“What Ben & Jerry’s does spills over onto brand Unilever, and vice versa,” said Kimberly Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “If a brand wants complete and total autonomy, then it is best to remain independent,” she added.
Tommaso Bondi, an assistant professor of marketing at Cornell Tech, speculates that both Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s “underestimated” conflicts that would arise out of the arrangement — noting that the way that brands now talk about politics and social issues is “completely different” from when this deal was struck 25 years ago. And the size of the parent company today also piles on pressure.
“Unilever is just simply too big to be polarizing,” Bondi said, while speaking out on social issues remains a defining feature of Ben & Jerry’s identity. “In some sense, it was an obvious clash,” he said.
Particularly in recent years, the marriage has been on shaky ground. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop serving Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem. The following year, Unilever sold its Israeli business to a local company that said it would sell Ben & Jerry’s under its Hebrew and Arabic name throughout Israel and the West Bank.
In March 2024 Unilever announced the spinoff of the ice cream business — including Ben & Jerry’s — by the end of 2025 as part of a larger restructuring. Unilever also owns personal hygiene brands like Dove soap and food brands like Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
But the acrimony continued. In November, Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever in federal court in New York, accusing it of silencing Ben & Jerry’s statements in support of Palestinians in the Gaza war.
In its complaint, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever also refused to let the company release a social media post that identified issues it believed would be challenged during President Donald Trump’s second term — including minimum wages, universal health care, abortion and climate change.
Businesses across sectors have encountered growing pressure to take a backseat when it comes to social activism today — particularly amid the Trump administration’s wider crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in both government and workplaces across the U.S.
Vanessa Burbano, a professor at Columbia Business School, notes that her research shows that corporate stakeholders today “most appreciate” when companies take an apolitical stance, or try their best to distance themselves from politics as much as possible.
Still, Burbano notes that it’s a “tough line to navigate.” She and others note that there can be a sense of whiplash if companies stay silent on something today that they may have commented on just a few years ago.
“You need to know what your brand is. You need to know what your brand is not. And you need to be consistent,” said Beth Egan, an associate professor of advertising at Syracuse University.
While she understands that a company “the size of Unilever is being cautious in this political environment,” Egan adds that it’s important to recognize Ben & Jerry’s longstanding brand and nature of their relationship as a well-known subsidiary. “I think trying to silence them will probably backfire,” she said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon says it’s investing more than a $1 billion to raise wages and lower the cost of health care plans for its U.S. fulfillment and transportation workers.
The Seattle-based company said Wednesday the average pay is increasing to more than $23 per hour. Some of its most tenured employees will see an increase between $1.10 and $1.90 per hour. Full-time employees, on average, will see their pay increase by $1,600 per year.
Amazon also said it will lower the cost of its entry health care plan to $5 per week and $5 for co-pays, starting next year. Amazon said that will reduce weekly contributions by 34% and co-pays by 87% for primary care, mental health and most non-specialist visits for employees using the basic plan.
Amazon has a global workforce of 1.5 million workers.
Last December, seven Amazon facilities went on strike, an effort by the Teamsters union to pressure the e-commerce company for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
That same month, Amazon reached a settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that requires the online behemoth to adopt corporatewide ergonomic measures at facilities across the country. The agency claimed hazardous working conditions led to serious lower back and other musculoskeletal disorders at Amazon facilities.
In January 2024, Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, said that average wages for hourly workers would exceed $18, up from $17.50. The increase was due to Walmart introducing some higher-paying hourly roles in its Auto Care Centers last year, among other changes, the company said.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, had announced in January 2023 that U.S. workers would get pay raises the following month, increasing starting wages to between $14 and $19 an hour. Starting wages had previously ranged between $12 and $18 an hour, depending on location.
At Minneapolis-based Target, the starting hourly wage ranges from $15 to $24 for workers employed at stores and distribution centers, depending on the location, company spokesman Brian Harper-Tibaldo said.
The average hourly wage for a Target store worker is more than $18, he said.

A Uniondale High School student was arrested Wednesday after attempting to enter the school with a loaded weapon. The student was caught by metal detectors, and law enforcement was immediately notified. The district praised its security team, emphasizing that “safety and security are paramount.” The type of weapon and the student’s identity have not been released.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge on Tuesday threw out terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, rejecting the Manhattan district attorney’s theory in a state murder case that the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “intended to evoke terror.”
Judge Gregory Carro kept other charges in place, including a second-degree murder count that requires prosecutors to prove Mangione intended to kill Thompson but not that he was doing so as an act of terrorism.
The ruling eliminated the top two charges in Mangione’s state case, sparing him the possibility of a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate is also facing a parallel federal death penalty prosecution. Carro said the defense’s argument that the dueling prosecutors amounted to double jeopardy was premature.
Mangione, a cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, appeared in good spirits and raised his eyebrows at supporters as police officers led him out of the brief hearing after Carro issued his ruling.
In a written decision, the judge said that although there isn’t any doubt that Thompson’s killing last December was no ordinary street crime, state law in New York doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.
“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote.
The judge also said there was insufficient evidence that Mangione intended to influence or affect government policy by intimidation or coercion — another element of the terrorism charges. He noted that federal prosecutors hadn’t charged Mangione with terrorism offenses even though the federal terrorism statute was a model for the state law.
But in keeping the second-degree murder charge, Carro ruled there was sufficient evidence that Mangione “murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution.” That charge carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
Afterward, Mangione lawyer Marc Agnifilo told TMZ: “It’s a big win and it’s the first of many.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office issued a brief statement, saying, “We respect the Court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts.”
Carro scheduled pretrial hearings in the state case for Dec. 1, just days before Mangione is next due in court in his federal case.
Mangione handcuffed and shackled for court appearance
Mangione, who has been locked up since his arrest, arrived in court in beige jail garb, handcuffs and ankle shackles. Making his first appearance in Carro’s courtroom since February, he was mostly silent, quietly conferring with his lawyers as the judge outlined his decision.
Echoing the scene at his last hearing, a few dozen supporters — mostly women — packed three rows in the rear of the courtroom gallery. Some were dressed in green, the color worn by the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi. One woman sported a “FREE LUIGI” T-shirt. Across the street from the courthouse, cheers erupted from a pro-Mangione rally as news spread that the judge had dismissed his terrorism charges.
Mangione pleaded not guilty late last year to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shoot Thompson from behind on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive arrived at a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of New York City.
Judge rejects ‘double jeopardy’ argument
Mangione’s lawyers have argued that the simultaneous state and federal prosecutions violate double jeopardy protections meant to prevent people from being tried multiple times for the same crime. But Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination because neither case has gone to trial.
Bragg’s office contended that there are no double jeopardy issues, in part because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories. The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked Thompson and do not involve terrorism allegations.
Mangione’s lawyers said the two cases have created a “legal quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously.”
Diary writings had been a basis for the terrorism charges
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in April said she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Mangione for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Bragg’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary as they sought to uphold the terrorism charges. In a June court filing, they highlighted his desire to kill an insurance honcho and his praise for the late Theodore Kaczynski, the convicted murderer known as the “Unabomber.”
In the writings, prosecutors said, Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing an industry executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.” They also cited a confession they say he penned “To the feds,” in which he wrote “it had to be done.”
Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit,” prosecutors said. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry.”
Carro noted in his ruling that terrorism “has been famously difficult to define.” He knocked prosecutors for emphasizing Mangione’s use of the phrase “revolutionary anarchism” in their attempt to bolster their claim that he intended to influence government by intimidation or coercion.
“Not only does this stretch the import of a two-word phrase beyond what it can carry, but it ignores other, more explicit excerpts from defendant’s writings in which he states that his goal is to spread a ‘message’ and ‘win public support’ about ‘everything wrong with our health system,'” the judge wrote.