I don't want to highjack Carl's thread "Does Familiarity Breed Contempt" so I am staring a new thread to discuss Buille Rock.
In the earlier thread, Dan Herrmann nominated Bulle Rock:
"I'd pitch Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, MD. No doubt it's a very good golf course, but every time I play it my contempt increases. It's strange too, because I really want to like the place. The shot values at Bulle Rock just seem too "forced" to me, and the greens seem a bit uninspired. Strangely, I know that I liked it much more the first time I played it."
Personally, I couldn't disagree more. When I asked what he meant by "forced" he gave a number of examples, some of which I agreed with and some of which I do not.
I figured I would respond in a new thread so that more people can chime in:
Dan,
Well, we are pretty much in agreement on half of your examples but I still disagree with your main point!
I agree with you about 9 and 18. 18 seemed cliched to me and I never understood the right hand option on 9.
I think you are confused about 12. Isn't that a par 3? I think a draw would work into that green.
I don't think the par 15th, forces your hand. Quite to the contrary. The upper fairway isn't really an option for the tee shot. But the second shot is very interesting because you need to decide how aggressive you are going to be. If you are conservative on your second shot, it will leave a longer 3rd shot into the green. If are more aggressive you take the chance of leaving it on the hill (or worse in the creek) but if you are successful, you have a shorter 3rd shot. And given the contours of the green, a shorter approach is definitely a good thing. One of the things that I like about Dye's courses is his use of angles. I think 15 is so interesting because as opposed to a lot of his holes that use angles on the tee shots (e.g. the 2nd hole at the Pete Dye Golf Club and the 14th at Bulle Rock), he uses the hilll and the creek for the same purpose on the second shot.
But for me, the strong holes vastly outweigh 9 and 18. You spot on about the par 5 2nd. I think the 7th and 17th are both very good par 3s. 5 is my favorite par 4 on the course (I really like that green site). The combination of 5 followed by the short par 4, 6th I think works very well. I also think 13 is a very cool hole with the ravine to the right and the green tucked into that corner among the rocks. 14 uses the bunkers on the right side to again force you to decide how aggressive you want to be and if you bail out to the left it punishes you because you are stuck with a sidehill lie in the rough that makes the approach into the green much more difficult because it is not receptive to a fade.