Excellent observations on those alternate tees guys!
The par 3 tee on BD #17 is a great shot - we had some fun with it playing skins.
The upper tee on #2 at BD is a much better idea too. I really cannot square in my mind how they came to the decision to backtrack after the very first hole in such an angular fashion. It just has the wrong Feng Shui in the flow of the golf course. But up the hillside, suddenly the routing feels more seamless. Maybe they ought to use both tees alternately.
As to back tee the 13th at PD, well I cannot imagine using it unless it is a winter wind situation. I have played it 4 times with the following scores (in order): 3,4,6,11. I'm hoping for something in single digits next time.
The upper tee on PD #18 is breathtaking - I cannot wait to play it with the gorse in bloom.
I wonder, is there an upper tee above PD #14? It would sort of make sense in a Postage Stamp kind of way.
Addressing Mark Fine's earlier question as to what rating I would assign BD if it was limited soley to the architecture.
7 1/2. But numbers lie. Some golf courses are far more than the sum of their parts, and segmenting one particular category in such an antiseptic manner fails to recognize too many ancillary factors.
This might be one of those times when the more visceral Golf Mag rating system makes more sense.
Look, my evaluatory powers did not blow away in the breeze out there. It is just that there is such an unignorable thrill factor - mixed with constant temptation to try some derring-do - that the golf course is enormously entertaining to me.
Even when I get drilled (see #12), like the Coyote, I cannot resist the temptation to take one more whack at that Roadrunner.
Sure, there is some genius out there and some stuff that could have been thought through differently, so weighing it as a whole I think 7.5 is a realistic assessment of JUST the architectural elements.
But the whole package is great, just great. And I cannot wait to get back there in two weeks.