I was one of 125-150 in attendance at Bel Air yesterday for the final.
When I arrived, save for the two guard house attendants and perhaps very few others, it felt incredibly empty. With that said, however, there was essentially no promotion of the event locally. In my opinion, there should have been more pomp and circumstance when we had the Open here in June. But, until the Sunday before the Open, you would have never known we as a region were hosting it (unless you drove on Wilshire for the two weeks before the Open when they placed the banners on the lightposts). As to the USWA, you read absolutely nothing about it in the local press, television and radio. It was our first USWA in Los Angeles since 1930, so there should have been a bit more attention to it.
At the first tee, there were maybe forty total. However, what an opening tee shot--get to see UCLA's northern campus, then towards Century City in the southeast. However, one had to walk all the way down to no. 18 green site, then back uphill to no. 1 tee. That wasn't much fun.
Mr Doak has it correct--getting rid of the unnecessary ponds on numbers three and eight certainly improved the quality of the course. I almost had a tear in my eye seeing the much improved no. 3. Seeing the pond there in 2004 for the USSA was a bit of a shock to the system.
The super and grounds staff had the place in immaculate shape--the players had nothing to complain about whatsoever about the course's conditioning.
I suppose I could live with Bel Air's version of the Baffling Brook on the back side. Still, it has on off-putting vibe to it.
There's plenty of construction on site--they're nowhere close to completion. The construction has closed the elevator running golfers from number nine to ten. Needless to say, it was quite the uphill hike from nine to ten.
I would argue the hole locations, especially on the front, encouraged aggressive play and to have holes won with birdies. Yes, it probably played a bit short, but it was a final match after all. As a point of reference, at the 2009 USWO at SVCC, scorecard had it at 6740; the final round played at 6303.
For me, the match turned on the seventh--Schofill birdied to win, then on eight, Stone bogeyed from the middle of the fairway where Schofill (I believe) found her swing after missing both left and right through her tee shot on the seventh.
And, oh by the way, you can't find anymore of a tranquil location in the middle of the City than Bel-Air. Can't wait to return in 2026 for the Curtis Cup.
I think the Mid-Amateur crowd will have a field day with it in 2030. The first hole should play as a driver, 9 iron for most of them if it runs fast and firm. They should hit 9 irons, wedges on just about most holes--1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17 and 18 come to mind.