He said there were too many quirky bounces (at Bandon Trails).
I must be fully indoctrinated into the GCA way of thinking. I don't see any of the four Bandon Dunes courses as being quirky. There are some lumpy fairways, and greens perched above the fairway level will yield some demoralizing bounces and results, but these features introduce difficulty.
One problem with this statement is the small sample size. If a rater plays a course and gets four or five memorable "bad bounces", he or she might be tempted to generalize, and say the course yields too many "unfair" bounces. I think that's a bad way to rate courses, and that's why it's so important to watch every player's shots to develop the largest sample size.
I think the primary difficulty of the 18th fairway at Trails is a large hill in the center of the fairway, which redirects balls hard left and right. If you land one yard right of this feature, balls get kicked hard to the right, into deep collection bunkers, with no chance of reaching the green in regulation. During my last round, this was a severe penalty for a half decent fade down the right center. Not unlucky, just severe.
In general, I've found you don't need a lot of club, even a long iron will do, but you must talk yourself into hitting the tee shot left, over the high spot in the fairway and down the speed slot to short iron distance. Such a difficult finishing hole. There are no easy shots here.
Hi Lou,
Thanks for the response. I had a great time with you that day. If you remember, Alex Stavrides played great don the stretch, including a 3 at #14.
John