The second nine is all links, full on.
It begins with a mid-length two-shotter downhill dogleg that curls back up to another pocketed green that instantly reminded me of Waterville. Again, a plentiful but well-sloped green awaits a mid-long iron that heads back upwind. #10 was exactly where I knew this course had no shallow copying style. This 200+ uphill par three has nearly 1/2-to-1/3 of it's triangularly shaped green hidden behind a protruding dune, is surrounded by ample shaved chipping areas and is no bargain. I hit a beautiful cut 4 iron to what both my caddy and I thought would be tight, just to find a very tough 15-20 ft uphill slider. After shaking off the missed birdie, I arrived on the 13th tee to view the water and not-so-distant Staten Island straight below. This drop-dead beautiful par four heads down to an expansively generous fairway before leading your eye to a perfectly-situated right-to-left canted green that leaves you feeling like trying to hit a shot to a keeling sailboat deck. It's not as hard as it appears, but once again, this is a reminder of just how well Bayonne attacks and rewards your senses. From here on, the player must remind themselves to take extra stock of the wind and it's directions as the proximity to the water intensifies the effect. Like playing at Cruden Bay, Ballybunion, Lahinch, Turnberry, Bandon and others, the water magnifies the wind.
From here on, the course toughens up and tests every last piece of golfing meddle you have in the bag and skull. What is amazing is the variety of test and the importance of attending to the vagarities of mother nature. I found myself checking everything from the huge American flag at the top of the hill, to the ripples on the different fingers of adjacent water. The next 5 holes were far from over-hyped!
13 is a stiff uphill and bunkerless par 5 that winds it's way (with a semi-double dogleg) to an undulating green that instantly evokes Sand Hills #2 or LACC North #14. It is rumored that Jimmy Hoffa, half of his High School class along with the first two seasons of the Sopranos killed-off cast are buried underneath (but I didn't tell you that
). You climb up to the next tee to again view lower Manhattan and 200+ drop shot par 3 to a green that is much bigger than perception suggests. Wind here is the key, but the hole is bunkerless, crowned above considerable chipping areas and a sandy waste area that should never come into play. You might hit anything from 6 iron to driver on any given day!
#15 may sound short at just over 300yds from the tips, but imagine hitting to a large canted bowl with awaiting sidehill, uphill, and downhill uneven stances before trying to hit a short iron four or five floors straight uphill to a wide but shallow green that you can see little or no part of? Oops, I almost forgot to add that once you strike your second shot, it hits the jetstream just before heading down.....great fun if you remember to aim into it!
#16 is detined to become one of the most talked about holes in the Northeast. It's 453 from the blues, but sharply downhill with a small dogleg back right to well perched green on a bluff's end. Downwind, it's possible but unadvisable, to try driving it close. Instead a good tee shot will find a generous landing area, well humped and bumped, that gives no quarter when you seek a stance to try to hit a solid iron to this semi-isolated green. Here you can choose one of a dozen lower Manhattan sites to aim at. The green is sufficiently large to offer over a dozen different pins and I could have easily grabed a shag bag and spent the day perfecting approachs. It's that good a hole!
#17 is a "balls-to-the-wall" reverse cape with Tiger tees that are near ridiculous (they demand an into-the-wind 290 carry) to a very to thin fairway that departs sharply left to a perilously-pocketed and sublimely hidden green. Every last drop of golfing moxie is needed to make par and bogey feels like it, and rightly so. We played up at the blues (450yds) and it was all we could do get a ball on the fairway! #18 felt like a little bit of a letdown as a rock wall comes across the fairway at a near right angle and demands that the good long-hitting player hit either a well-shaped draw or a straight ball over a blindish left corner. The green, sharply up the hole's left side, is big, undulating and windswept. Still a great finishing hole and perhaps the end of what might well be the very best match-play course north of Ardmore or Clementon!
A few more interesting things of note:
1) This course is still going through it's grow-in phase and Eric has been wise to plant a wide assortment of flora and fauna (including blueberry bushes/vines that leave me eagerly awaiting a return to taste their harvest). It will take some time to completely shelter this land from it's less-than-pretty surrounds. The abundance of high fescue, while beautifully wavy in the wind, is very, very tough to play anything other than wedge out of (providing you find your ball). This penal planting will leave the place subject to considerable whining from the "Bomb & Gouge" crowd, but screw'em, the place is pure and will eventually find the exact mix of short and high grass.
The greens are hard and slick but will mellow ever so over age and are just superb in shaping, variety and challenge. The uneven lies and stances will cause the mid-to-high handicapper to cry, but if they play here with any frequency, they'll be better, more complete golfers for the experience. Many of the hole just scream for the ground game.
It might be easy and convienent to try to knock Bayonne for it's artificial heritage, but one only has to remember that Picasso, Van Gogh and Cezanne all started with a blank canvas. Eric Bergstol has created a golfing masterpiece and time will only make it better. Unlike it's new neighbor to the north which may well get the 2009 Florida Open (thus lowering passenger loads on Jet Blue), Bayonne will earn much much more. My guess is that the MGA will, once they see it playout, award it the Met Am and many more match-play style championships.
Bottom line: BAYONNE GOLF CLUB ROCKS!!!!!