I think it is an aquired taste..which to me means it stinks but you choke it down till you can stand it.  For arguments sake here is George Bahto's description in his feature interview 2:

6. Please discuss your favorite Biarritz hole and the different ways to attack the varied hole locations.

Oh boy, how do you attack a Biarritz? Do you? - might be a better question.

I think of it more as a defensive situation. First we should remember that in nearly every case there was only a single tee built on these holes. Clubs were the ones that built the multiple forward tees and the rear tee is the ORIGINAL tee in nearly every case. Old scorecards often listed these holes at 215-yards or even less but that would be from the middle of the back tees, so add a few more yards to the hole. I would think 225-yards would have been the norm on the earlier courses (excluding resort-type layouts) and 235-yards and up, certainly the length of the later courses.

Attack? - I think not, in those early days. In today's world I think it still is a defensive play - sort of 'let's stay out of trouble and get to the next tee' if you are considering scorecard numbers. If you are thinking how fun a hole this is to play, well it doesn't matter, just be heroic and go at the pin. I would love to 'be allowed' to built a Biarritz at 265-275 yards today and keep the ground extra firm to simulate the hole as it was built in the 19-teen's and 19-twenty's - how it was meant to be.

There are less than a handful of Biarritz greens that have any semblance of putting features that they were originally built with and honestly, the 13th at my home course, The Knoll, has the best surviving green. Others have subtleties but not the strong features. There are also features on the approach areas that we still have intact.

Imagine the difficulty of these beasts when first built - in sheer length and positioning alone, then add to the mix these great undulations - a mighty hole.

It is treated as a target-golf type hole today but it was not meant to be that way - the Biarritz was always supposed to epitomize the ground-game.

All the above says to me is that after close to a century the feature still doesn't work, can't be maintained to work and offers no options from the distance it is intended to work.  note: I shuddered yesturday when reading Jerry Pate is building one in Florida...sorry..but it just needs to be let go..

Mr. Kavanaugh

Welcome to the site.  Rarely have I encountered a new member who has been so insightful and who has contributed so much.  

Welcome back John.  Your contributions have been sorely missed on this site.  Let's hope next time you yell fire in a moviehouse the right persons get trampled.

I agree with Bob -- it can make a very interesting par 5.  Here at Forest Oaks CC, DL III and crew put in a biarritz green on No. 2, with the dip right in the middle of the green.  It's a 553 yard par 5 from the tips, so it is really interesting watching the pros deciding whether to go for it in 2 or lay up and wedge it close, particularly when the flagstick is on either edge of the dip.

But, I've never seen a Par 3 version in person.

I guess I'm so old I may be one of the few on here who as a kid actually remembers advice of the old Scottish pro at my course as he explained to us kids how exactly to try to play two very interesting shots to two very interesting holes. It seems to me these two shots were the only times he actually thought to explain to us how a particular hole and shot should be played.

This was at Piping Rock about 55 years ago and that old Scottish pro's name was Spence. He always wore a fedora cocked at an interesting angle.

Those two shots and two holes were the Redan (#3) and the Biarritz (#9). I distinctly remember as the group of us kids stood on the tee of the Biarritz as Spence showed us how to hit our 4-woods low so the ball would land somewhere in front of the swale and run into it and then through it and up on the green. The thing Spence said was the idea and the interest was watching that ball dip into the swale and disappear for a moment and then reappear as it ran up the other side of the swale and onto the putting surface behind the swale.

Then we'd all try it. Some didn't get the ball to the swale, some of our shots the ball would go into the swale and not reappear but when some of us got the ball to disappear into the swale and then reappear as it ran up the other side onto the greens we'd all scream with delight and Spence would nod his approval.

George Bahto is absolutely right about how the Biarritz is supposed to be played, how it was designed to be played. The Biarritz does not need to die out of golf and architecture as John Kavanaugh suggests----the Biarritz just needs a few more people like old Scottish Spence to show young golfers how to play the "Biarritz shot".

Tom P:

How does the Biarritz represent "diversity" ??  It's as formal as Versailles and it has been repeated often already.

  The Biarritz is a long difficult hole.  Raynor, Banks and MacDonald used this hole in most cases with the other 3 three template holes.  The short hole was a test of the short irons.  The Eden and Redan test the mid to long length clubs, and the Biarritz was a test of long length clubs.  The varying lengths of the 4 templates compliment each other and provide balance.  Maybe this is one of the reasons the Biarritz is not often copied.  

Of the ones I have played, only the ones with some elevation change stand out in my mind as visually intimidating holes.
In my opinion a flat Biarritz is not a good Biarritz.  The original hole was played from an elevated tee to a green with nothing in between.  The bunkers right and left should be penal as are the 20 foot traps at Lookout.

probably the best answer to give you is the same answer that Sir Edmund Hillary gave to someone who asked him why he climbed Mt Everest?

Hillary said; "Because it is there."

Tom

You are wrong again.  That was Hillary Rodham Clinton when asked why in hell she had married Bill..........

Are we talking only of the classic par 3?

If not....#10 green at Erin Hills. No dirt was moved to create this biarritz green. The hole is a par five and i think the green is 90 or so yards long.

Bold visuals, multiple strategic possibilities, the thrill ride fear of the ball disappearing then then reappearing: what's not to like about the biarritz?

Surely one is sufficiently inspired and challenged when surveying the ninth at Yale or the excellent seventeenth at Black Creek.

Perhaps not so much on the eighth at Camargo, though I  like the hole.

Long par threes and par fives reachable with long irons or fairway woods- that's where the biarritz belongs, IMO.

Jim,

What strategic possibilities lie ahead for a 6 handicap when he is 225 yds out from a biarritz green that he does not have from any other style...

"Tom
You are wrong again.  That was Hillary Rodham Clinton when asked why in hell she had married Bill.........."

Rich:

Good one, but you're wrong too. That answer is the only true one about why either Bill or Hillary thought to run for the US Presidency in the first place. Those two can never be expected to tell the truth though. I expect that question of why she wants to run for the US Presidency will be asked of Hillary soon and I expect her answer will be something like;

"Because the Biarritz hole is there."


 
 

if such a green is too big, doesn't that take away the run-up nature of it; i.e., can't one just fly the ball to the hole and keep it there if there's lots of room?