As I noted in a previous post, architect Charles Blair MacDonald got the inspiration for most of his of template holes from golf courses in the British Isles. The Biarritz is an exception to that rule.
The name comes from the par 3 third hole at the original Biarritz le Phare Golf Club in southwestern France. It was designed by prominent English golf professional and course designer Willie Dunn Jr. in 1888. Sadly this hole, which was known as “the chasm” no longer exists. It was damaged during World War II and a hotel was later built on the original site.
Typically features of a Biarritz hole include:
A long par 3 hole with a large green.
The green is bisected by a deep swale and protected by bunkers on both sides.
It gives the golfer options such as playing a high soft shot or a low running shot.
The key to success is placing your approach shot on the correct portion of the green to avoid playing through the swale.
Perhaps the most famous version of this green in America is the 9th hole at the Yale University Golf Course. It was designed by McDonald in the early 1920’s and is widely regarded as the finest collegiate golf course in the nation.
Bent Brook’s version of the Biarritz is the new 7th hole on the Windmill nine. As with our other templates, architect John B. LaFoy has done an outstanding job of creating a challenging but playable version of this famous hole.
The green is massive, measuring 52 yards from front to back and over 11,000 square feet. The swale that bisects the green, while prominent, is not as severe as other versions. With five different tees and such a large green, this hole can play anywhere from 85 yards to 275 yards.
To the best of our knowledge this is the only Biarritz green in the state of Alabama and we are excited to provide our patrons with the unique challenges of this iconic design.
In a previous post I introduced you to Charles Blair MacDonald the “father of American golf course architecture” and the concept of template holes. Today we will go into more detail about the Redan hole, which is probably the most famous and most copied of the template holes.
The original Redan hole is #15 at North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. A British military officer who served in the Crimean War is credited with giving this famous hole its name. He said it reminded him of fortresses or “redans” he had encountered.
Typically features of a Redan green include:
It angles diagonally from front right to back left
The back of the green slopes right to left and away from the direction of play.
It is protected by a large, deep bunker on the left side. Other bunkers may be placed both short and long on the right side of the green.
The approach shot is played uphill with at least a portion of the green hidden from the player.
C.B. McDonald himself said, “take a narrow tableland, tilt it a little from right to left, dig a deep bunker on the front side, approach it diagonally and you have a Redan.”
The first Redan hole built in America is #4 at National Golf Links of America and was designed by McDonald. Perhaps the most famous redan hole in America is #7 at Shinnecock Hills which has hosted numerous United States Open Championships.
Bent Brook’s version of the Redan is #6 on the Windmill Nine. It features the typical large bunker left of the green with three smaller bunkers on the right. The front portion of the green slopes toward the fairway with the back portion sloping right to left and away from the fairway.
Architect John B. LaFoy has done an outstanding job of creating a version of this famous hole that is less severe and more “playable” than the original while still providing an excellent challenge.
It has been said by many professional golfers, that the most important distance in golf is the six inches between your ears. I agree completely. Training or changing the way you think about yourself and your golf game, could be the door opener to take your game to the next threshold.
There is a lot of talk about sports psycholog these days. Is it worth it? Is it important? Is it a waste of time? It is my belief that it is terribly important. In life and certainly in golf, self deprecation can become normal and comfortable. It becomes a safety blanket from success. When you give yourself negative self talk you train yourself to fail. When you tell yourself you can’t, you won’t! Our minds are extremely powerful. But also very fragile. That being said, it is important to be mindful of what we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Obviously you can not simply cheerlead yourself to victory in golf and in life. You have to do the work. In golf that means many things. It means you must practice your swing. You must work on your strength and flexibility. Your putting, your chipping, bunker play, and so on…. But the best of the best separate themselves from the rest by mastering the gray matter between their ears. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus are masters of this. As are countless other athletes in many other sports.
As stated before, sports psychology and positive self talk will not make you a winner all by itself. There is no substitute for hard work on your craft. But, it is part of your craft. Some people are very good at training their minds all by themselves. Some people need the help of a professional. But whether a person is mentally strong all by themselves, or with the help and experience of others… Make no mistake, the cream of the crop are strong mentally.
The good news is anyone can get better between the ears. Much like we can all be better physically. The first thing that needs to be done is to personally asses your own ability to control your “golf attitude”. How good are you at not beating yourself up? How much do you self deprecate? How long do you hold on to the feelings of a poor shot?? There is nothing wrong with expecting a lot of one’s self. But there is a fine line between what is helping you get better and what is causing you to get worse. So give yourself a check-up. Then attempt to make some changes on your own. Just like working on yourself from a physical standpoint or golf swing standpoint, you may need the help of a professional. You may not. But either way, if you are truly trying to get better at this amazing game, you better pay attention to the six inches between your ears.
We have all been affected by this disease. I have personally had friends and family members who have had the virus. Some barely had symptoms at all while others were seriously ill and had to be hospitalized.
Hopefully, most of you who are reading this have only dealt with the inconvenience of having some of your daily habits changed. No doubt some of you have suffered significant loss such as a death of a loved one, business closure or job loss. My thoughts and prayers go out to you.
So far, the golf industry has survived pretty well with some courses actually thriving this year. At Bent Brook it is has been a mixed bag. On one hand we are seeing a high demand for golf. On the other hand, we have seen a decrease in rounds mainly due to the social distancing requirements that mandate each golfer has a separate golf car. This limits the number of players we can have on the course at a given time and makes it impossible for us to keep up with demand. For those of you who have been frustrated when you cannot get a starting time, we apologize for the inconvenience and hope you understand. Our “inventory” of starting times has been limited by factors beyond our control. No one is more frustrated by that than we are.
Despite all the negative impacts of Covid-19 there are some positives that I am particularly thankful for. I will list just a few:
I am thankful to work for a caring and generous owner. Throughout this pandemic he has put the safety and well-being of Bent Brook employees and patrons ahead of profit. We have consistently followed all public health orders and industry best practices, even when the result has been a loss of revenue or increased operating expenses.
I am thankful for my outstanding staff. They have gone above and beyond the normal call of duty, in particular with all the enhanced cleaning and sanitation practices we have put in place. They also covered for me when I was forced to quarantine for two weeks when a family member tested positive for the virus.
I am thankful for all the patrons of Bent Brook Golf Course and the Hank Johnson School of Golf. We have endured some setbacks and inconveniences this year. Hopefully, the worst is behind us, we can continue to make progress for the remainder of 2020 and can look forward to a banner year in 2021.
This week we have one of our students from the Hank Johnson School of Golf at Bent Brook making his PGA TOUR debut at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, MS.
Isaiah Jackson has been a student of Bent Brook Director of Golf, Mickey Smith, since 2012. He recently won the 2020 Mississippi Men’s State Amateur and earned an exemption into the Sanderson Farms event. www.sandersonfarmschampionship.com.
Isaiah’s 2016 graduating class from Red Bay High School had 48 students. Being from a small town and a small school he went unnoticed by Division I college golf coaches. He played at Meridian Community College for 2 years where he had 4 tournament victories and became the top ranked player in NJCAA Division II golf.
In 2018 he transferred to the University of Memphis www.gotigersgo.com, where he won the prestigious Patriot All-America Invitational.
The Patriot All-America is an elite individual tournament that invites players who have earned PING All-America honors at all levels of NCAA men’s golf including Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA and NJCAA. With the possible exception of the NCAA Championships, it is arguably the toughest field in college golf. Isaiah’s victory gave him his first taste of professional level competition by earning him spot in the 2019 Wichita Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Two years prior to Isaiah’s victory, the 2016 Patriot All-America was won by Cameron Champ. Two years ago, the Sanderson Farms Championship was won by none other than Cameron Champ.
Will history repeat itself? Unlikely, but it is fun to speculate.
As his swing coach I am hoping he plays well and learns some valuable lessons from his first official PGA TOUR start. Hopefully there will be many more.
GOOD LUCK ISAIAH!!!
I can’t be with you this week, but Coach Mickey will be following your progress at www.pgatour.com.
I did not get to see very much of the 2020 U.S. Open Championship, but based on the media recaps and the portion of the telecasts I did see, Bryson DeChambeau’s victory has created a huge buzz around the world of golf. He is a proven winner on the PGA Tour, so the fact that he won is not as surprising as the manner in which he did it.
The championship was held at Winged Foot, one of the iconic venues in U.S. Open history. Many experts were predicting a winning score of over par. The typical U. S. Open setup places a premium on accurate driving with narrow fairways and tall, thick rough. Additionally, there was no gallery this year. Not only was the rough thick and lush, but there was no foot traffic to mitigate the severity of the rough.
If there was ever a course set up that was not conducive the modern “bomb and gouge” style of play, many experts thought this was it.
Bryson shot an incredible score of 6 under par and was the only player under par for the championship. Stunningly, he did so while hitting the fewest number of fairways of any winner in U.S. Open history.
In the third round, eventual runner up Matt Wolff moved into the lead with an unbelievable score of 65 while hitting on 2 fairways all day.
These guys epitomize the modern player and the vital role that power and club head speed play among current elite level male golfers. If you are strong enough and swing fast enough, there is no longer a premium on driving the ball in the fairway. Earlier this year, Golf Digest published an article examining how distance off the tee has increased over the years. The pros are definitely hitting it longer: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/heres-how-much-driving-distance-has-increased-on-the-professional-tours-over-the-last-two-decades
Is this good for the game?
Should the ruling bodies do something about the advances in equipment that have placed such a premium on distance?
The debate rages on and no doubt the 2020 U.S. Open will add fuel to the fire.
One this is for sure for now, those of us who teach the game better be teaching our competitive players, especially the guys, to hit the ball hard.
