Here are my thoughts on BPB. I think it's a course that asks you to hit plenty of different shots. I also think it offers plenty of options on the way round. There is also quite a lot of penal golf out there too. I don't think that's to its detriment though. It's definitely hard. But it's also playable. So here we go.
1, depending on how far you hit it is either a driver or a 3 wood. For me it's always driver because hitting it through the fairway is not something I need to worry about. It's a hard dogleg right (despite apparent claims to the contrary). You have to favor the left of the fairway if you're not long enough to get by the corner.
2 asks you to hit a draw off the tee and then you play a shortish iron up the hill to a semi-blind green. You can miss the fairway on this one and still get there, but if you do you need to hit a really good shot for your 2nd.
3 I like quite a bit. It changes a lot depending on where the pin is. The green is huge and the run off at the back right is something I don't recall seeing very often anywhere else. You can always hit to the fat part at the front, but try to hit it close to a back pin and it's very exacting.
4 is a great hole. If you're playing the right tees, the fairway plays very wide. You have to decide whether to take on the bunkers. If you do, you're presented with an opportunity to go for the green. If you bail out to the right, you have a tough lay up shot to clear the huge fairway bunker. If you miss the fairway, you have a tough decision about whether to go for the carry or not. Then, if you're in prime position, you have an uphill shot to a green that slopes away from you. It's challenging yes, but it gives you the chance to hit it in 2. The more sensible shot is to play out to the right and then pitch up the green.
5 is another good one. It asks you to hit a fade with your tee shot and a draw with your approach. You pretty much have to hit the fairway here if you want to reach the green.
6 you have a decision to make. You can take on the left bunker and try get it down the hill and leave yourself 100 yards or so. Or you can play out to the right with a long iron or fairway wood (depending on the wind) and leave yourself about 170 in down the hill.
7 is another fairway that plays very wide. You can take on the shot near the trees on the right and if you succeed you can reach it. If you fail, you can be in one of the worst spots on the island. Or you can play safe off the tee and leave yourself too far back to reach the green.
8 is an exacting par three
9 is another hole where you can choose to take on the bunker or not. If you do you're level with the green and 100-130 yards away. If you play safe out to the right, you're miles away and likely won't have a look at the flag. Another sharp dogleg too.
10 is pretty exacting. Have to hit the fairway pretty much. You're probably better off in the bunkers than the rough if you miss it.
11 the fairway isn't that tight (at least it wasn't the last time I played it). It's hard because you can't see it from the tee. Good green and I am intrigued to see if they make use of the new back left ledge here.
12 I think again offers you options. You can hit a hard draw over the bunker and give yourself a mid iron to the green or if you hit a feeble one you're leaving yourself a long way back.
13 is beyond me to reach from where the blue tees normally are. I think this fairway plays fairly wide and it gives you a devilish decision on what to do with your second. The fronting bunker is a sneaky one that looks greenside, but is actually about 20 yards short of the green. Often makes you leave your approach shot short.
14 is a really good par three IMO. It asks you to be very precise depending on where the flag is. You have to be very brave to hit it to a back pin and if you're not, you have a shelf to putt up that's hard.
15 is possibly the hardest par 4 I've ever played. Another must hit the fairway or you're struggling big time. Blind approach up a hill with a long iron. Just tough all the way. I birdied it once and then the next three times I played it I took two 6s and a 7. It definitely got its own back on me.
16 is another long par four. This one has an elevated tee and I love the tee shot. It plays tricks on you and looks further to the left than it really is. If you miss the fairway and get a reasonable lie, this one gives you a chance. You can hit a running shot onto this hole as the front is open. You can do that from the fairway too and often that's the best way to get it up there.
17 is a very exacting par three. 200ish yards with a very shallow green and enormous bunkers all around it. It's hard to believe there's any actual green there on the tee.
18 gives you the chance to clear the bunkers if you hit a good one and it'll leave you with a flick up the hill. Hit it in the bunkers and you're struggling. Lay it up and you have a much tougher shot in.
I think the course offers plenty of choices. You're probably going to have to hit good shots a lot to keep yourself in the game. Yes it's hard, but if you take your medicine and play not to break par, but to shoot somewhere around your handicap, it's quite doable. I've never found it boring.
I was talking to Mark earlier about this and I think there are places where it may be more interesting if the fairways were widened. I think the 5th would be interesting if they cut down the left rough and had it be fairway all the way out to the tree line. It would entice a lot more people over there and leave them with either a shot over or around the trees to make the green. As it is you have to hit the right half of the fairway to have a straight shot in. There are others too. But in some ways, I think wide fairways that give you choices in how to play the holes really just mean that you can open your shoulders and pick based on the shot that you happen to hit. After all, if you think of it as you have a choice whether to take the difficulty off the tee or on your approach, you can just aim for in between them and let your shot decide which way to do it. If you could actually pick whether you were going to play the hole one way or the other and do it, then you'd be good enough to play Black as it is laid out. If you can't, then I think to some extent you just want it to be easier. I don't think every golf course should be like this. I've had more fun on wider courses that offer those options (not many of them), but I definitely think there is room in the golfing pantheon for a course like this one. There are also harder courses than Black around. WFW would be a good example. That's as challenging tee to green, but then throws a near impossible set of greens on the end. Black's greens aren't wild, but they're still challenging. There are plenty of them with tiering and putts that break (1, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17) and some that are devilishly flat (2 springs to mind) where subtle breaks can be very hard to spot.