The original Biarritz

[DMoriarty]

Sven, I was joking about the men leaning on the tee.  I don't see anything resembling a golf course in that photo.  

Looking at the photos you recently posted again, I tend to agree with Bryan.  I think some of them are from further up the coast, past the spot where the Villa stood.  Same goes for the airfield which existed from about 1912 through the war, and the vineyards, etc. Some of the literature refers to that section of the beach as the Chambre as well.  

my stance being that without clear or corroborating evidence I'm not going to wander into conjecture.

I think we are well into conjecture at this point, but that's fine.  

As for the photo you've been using, I think it is a good one to use regardless of the date, because it shows some of the landforms.  I am just hesitant to assume golf features present in the photo (such as the greens) were in those locations in 1906.
______________________________________

Bryan,

That last photo doesn't make much sense to me either, but a few sites claim it is from the Chambre so I thought I'd throw it out there. It looks like it was taken with a very wide lens, and maybe a fisheye lens would distort the background like that, but that is just guessing on my part.  

It is a cool photo, nonetheless.

[Bryan Izatt]

David,

I suppose a fish eye could do it, but the background still doesn't look right, even f it was flattened out.  Also, the green and bunkers (half filled with sand?) appear to me to be more maintained than I would of thought for that era.  Maybe it's from later despite the sepia tones.  Here is a sample fish eye comparison.

[Sven Nilsen]

Regarding the sepia photo, you'd expect to see a portion of the cliff or a view towards the water in the background if this was a shot from in the Chambre.  

To help with dating some of the other photos, it helps to layout out the timeline of several key features that might be shown.

1884 - The first bathhouse (with a peaked roof) is built up against the edge of the beach.
1919 - Villa Zipa is constructed.
1928 - The bathhouse in the middle of the Chambre is reconstructed (this time with a flat roof) thirty yards inland from its old location.
1930 - Villa Zipa is moved to a new location.

So there are four basic time periods:

A. 1884 - 1919 - Peaked roof bathhouse and no Villa Zipa.
B. 1919 - 1928 - Peaked roof bathhouse and Villa Zipa.
C. 1928 - 1930 - Flat roof bathhouse and Villa Zipa.
D. 1930 on - Flat roof bathhouse and no Villa Zipa.

To apply it to the photos:

We already know this photo is from 1904 or before, but it fits time period A:



Here are two that have to be post 1930:

[Sven Nilsen]

Following up on David's questions about the location of the early version of the Cliff Hole, I think we all agree that it was located on the outcropping of higher land that extended along the northeast part of the Chambre running from the higher inland ground towards the ocean.

This photo, admittedly from some time after 1930, is the best image I've seen of the land forms in that area:



Here is a zoomed in shot of the cliff top and the land below:



On this shot I've highlighted two possible areas for the green and the area the tee would have been located down below:



Compare the exposed rocky areas on the cliff to the ones that appear in these photos:

From behind the tee:



From left of the tee showing the cliff face after it has curved around to the golfer's right:



Again from left and slightly behind the tee:



I posted this shot earlier (from the 1909 Golf Illustrated article).  My best guess right now is that the photo shows golfers on the Cliff Hole Green, with the background being the land on the other side of the outcropping on which it sat.



Finally, a couple of written accounts of how the hole played.

From 1899:

Now we are back in the eastern corner of the undercliff, and if we are ever going to reach the upper air of the cliff top...we must mount the cliff.  So there is a hole within easy iron shot range on the cliff head, on a green upon a promontory, so that if your are short you come tumbling down the cliff again on this side, and if you are strong you will go over the farther cliff beyond....

From 1903:

A little further on in the present Biarritz course there is a hazard of unusual nature.  This is a cliff face opposing you, up which you have to loft the ball sixty odd feet in the air, with a full mashie shot, or something of that kind.  There are many Biarritz golfers who have played there steadily yet never have ascended that giddy height – that is, never have persuaded their golf ball to mount it – and it is certain there are many who never will.

From 1904:

The fourteenth is the famous "Cliff" hole (see photo), an iron or mashie shot up a cliff 80 feet high, once there the green is large and good.

From 1914:

The circumstances are these: The teeing ground is on the lower level, and it is only some fifty yards from the base of the cliff. The ground in between is rough and stony. The cliff here is about forty yards in height, and, if not vertical in the face, bulges outwards frowningly at the top, while a thin stream of water trickling down at one side seems to add a little more to the fearsomeness of the thing. At the top edge of the cliff there is grassy ground sloping quickly upwards for about a dozen yards until a line of wire is reached, and there the green begins. The fact that the green (which is tolerably large and in two parts, an upper and a lower) then slopes downwards away from the player does not make matters easier. Beyond it is another precipice, but wire netting is there to save the ball from this, and there is some wooden palisading to keep it out of trouble on the left. Then there is a local rule saying that if the ball reaches the top of the cliff, but does not pass the wire, it must be teed again, with loss of distance only, the man not being allowed to play it from the tee side of the wire.

[Sven Nilsen]

David:

Wanted to follow up on Hutchinson's timeline as well.  There's an 1899 article in Country Life in which he strongly suggests that he was on site in 1899.  In a letter to the editor regarding the punchbowls on the Biarritz course, he notes:  "on the very day of writing I have been shown one."

http://books.google.com/books?id=WRwiAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA480&dq=biarritz+golf&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zavBUoigGMWp2gX54oCYCA&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=biarritz%20golf&f=false

If he was indeed there in 1899, the article noted earlier in which the author notes they hadn't seen the course in fourteen years must have been written by someone else.

Sven

[DMoriarty]

Bryan,  I looks like it was with a fisheye, but even so I agree it doesn't seem to fit.  And even if we could fit it, I don't think it tells us anything.

Sven,  Well that ends my single author theory. I agree that at least the 1908 article was written by someone else, and others may have been as well.  As for the hole numbering, I am inclined to believe that for the period on question No. 9 played down and No. 14 played out, but there seems to have been a change or some confusion beginning in about 1908 or 1909.

As for the location of the original cliff hole green, I think our best source is the old plan.  

I don't think those Cliff tee pictures tell us how far the tee was from the cliff.

[Sven Nilsen]

David:

Here's a close up of the early routing map, focusing on the locations of 14 and 15 as marked thereon.



I marked the same image to highlight the positions of the tee and green (as noted on the map) and to draw a blue line approximately where the base of the cliff lies.  Note the 1914 report (copied below) that states the tee lay 50 yards from the base of the cliff.  Assuming that the 1914 version of the hole was the same as the one we see on this map, it matches up pretty well with a total hole length of 80 yards.  [I'm inclined to think that the various descriptions copied below are all talking about the same version of the hole, especially as they are consistent regarding the fall away nature of the rear of the green, something that wouldn't have been possible on the new or plateau version of the hole identified in other photos.  In addition, the description of the wire below which the player was not allowed to play from is consistent with the various photos we have of the hole when located in this section of the course.  I would note that the estimates of the height of the cliff range from 60 ft to 40 yards in the various reports.]



From 1899:

Now we are back in the eastern corner of the undercliff, and if we are ever going to reach the upper air of the cliff top...we must mount the cliff.  So there is a hole within easy iron shot range on the cliff head, on a green upon a promontory, so that if your are short you come tumbling down the cliff again on this side, and if you are strong you will go over the farther cliff beyond....

From 1903:

A little further on in the present Biarritz course there is a hazard of unusual nature.  This is a cliff face opposing you, up which you have to loft the ball sixty odd feet in the air, with a full mashie shot, or something of that kind.  There are many Biarritz golfers who have played there steadily yet never have ascended that giddy height – that is, never have persuaded their golf ball to mount it – and it is certain there are many who never will.

From 1904:

The fourteenth is the famous "Cliff" hole (see photo), an iron or mashie shot up a cliff 80 feet high, once there the green is large and good.

From 1914:

The circumstances are these: The teeing ground is on the lower level, and it is only some fifty yards from the base of the cliff. The ground in between is rough and stony. The cliff here is about forty yards in height, and, if not vertical in the face, bulges outwards frowningly at the top, while a thin stream of water trickling down at one side seems to add a little more to the fearsomeness of the thing. At the top edge of the cliff there is grassy ground sloping quickly upwards for about a dozen yards until a line of wire is reached, and there the green begins. The fact that the green (which is tolerably large and in two parts, an upper and a lower) then slopes downwards away from the player does not make matters easier. Beyond it is another precipice, but wire netting is there to save the ball from this, and there is some wooden palisading to keep it out of trouble on the left. Then there is a local rule saying that if the ball reaches the top of the cliff, but does not pass the wire, it must be teed again, with loss of distance only, the man not being allowed to play it from the tee side of the wire.

[Sven Nilsen]

After reviewing the map and photos a bit more, I'm thinking this is my best guess as to the locations of the green and tee.

[Sven Nilsen]

One of the lingering questions after all of this is when did the transition take place from the old version of the Cliff Hole to the new version.

A May, 1921 article by Dunce Scottis (a pen name?) in Golfer's Magazine answers the question.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XOsxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA87&dq=biarritz+north+berwick&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jzbCUsTZC-GIygHZwoHACw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=biarritz%20north%20berwick&f=false

"The famous chasm hole across a gully from cliff to cliff has been abandoned, but there is a thrilling mashie shot (108 yards) from the beach to a plateau green (it would be called a freak hole in Scotland) near the top of the cliff.  Then there is the excellent eigth hole of the winter course which runs from and along the cliff (338 yards) down to the beach near a cave called the "chamber d'Amour"...."

The article has two relevant photos:

The first is a shot of golfer's on the 8th tee, which matches the numbering for this hole given in the 1909 Golf Illustrated article:



The second depicts the 108 yard plateau green hole described above:



This second photo is of particular interest, as it depicts what I have previously identified as the "new version" of the Cliff Hole.  Not only is the yardage different from the old version (108 v. 80 yards), but if you examine the photo closely you can make out stone walls both in front of and behind the plateau green (the walls are more evident in other photos of this version of the hole).

Some time between 1914 and 1921 the course was altered so that the exit from the Chambre D'Amour was moved closer to the location of the tee for the hole that took you into it.

[DMoriarty]

Interesting in the first photo that the new green is not visible.  I guess the angle could be a little off.

The angle is different in the second photo as well, but the tee location looks similar to the photo where it looks as if the golfer is standing in the rough.

[Sven Nilsen]

This new version of the Cliff Hole is marked on the three later routing maps that have surfaced.







The change would have meant that at least three holes were no longer in use, that being the hole leading up to the old Cliff Hole, the old Cliff Hole itself and the old 15th which played from near the location of the old Cliff Hole green to a green up above where the new Cliff Hole was located.  The following map is marked to show these old holes in blue and the new hole in green (the holes preceding holes being marked in orange).  Since we know that this hole was in use in 1921, it predates any changes made to the course based on Harry Colt's recommendations, as the first correspondence between the architect and the club did not take place until 1922 and the changes weren't implemented until 1924.



Here are some additional photos of the hole (all of these are copied from earlier in this thread).

From below the plateau green:



The green as seen from near the 8th tee:



A shot at green level:



Here's a current image of the location of the green:

[Sven Nilsen]

David:

My guess is that the green is obscured by the brush in that first photo.  Note that the other photo I just posted is taken from a higher angle, bringing the green into view.

The two photos from below the green make it seem like the tee shot was closer to straight up the hill, as opposed to angled along its side.  But the markings on the cliff line in the background are identical and consistent with other photos of the man made stone walls both in front of and behind the green, a feature that is not found anywhere near the location of the old Cliff Hole (nor in any photos of that version).

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

There are two photos I'd like to get a better look at that I've only seen in slideshows available from the club's website.

The first is found in the slideshow accessible by clicking on the photo on the bottom left of this page:  http://golfbiarritz1888.ovh.org/Parcours.html

The second is one of the photos in this gif:

[Jim Nugent]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it: one of those articles Sven quoted, from 1899, that talked about the original chasm hole, also said another hole back then played out to the lighthouse.  It called it "the lighthouse hole."  

My guess is the lighthouse hole immediately followed the original chasm hole.  But I don't recall seeing that on any of the routing maps or suggested routing maps we came up with.  Doesn't that put a different twist -- another routing -- onto the Biarritz table?  

[Bryan Izatt]

Sven,

Sometime back on page 2 I ovelaid the early routing on the a modern aerial.  At the time I didn't go as far north as the cliff hole as I was focused on the chasm hole.  The routing was to scale and overlaid nicely on the current road system.  I've now done the overlay for the original 14th.  It is where I placed it with current photos back earlier in the thread.  I think you're positioning with the oblique aerial is pretty close.  The tee should probably be a little closer to the cliff and a bit to the right and the green a bit to the right.  The tee was approximately equidistant from the curve in the road and the base of the cliff to the right.  I have highlighted the old road in yellow.  

If the original routing map 12th was CBM's inspiration, the green must have been close to the "bains" house or perhaps the bains was built on the green site.  The original 12th green is now under the pool of the current hotel.

[Sven Nilsen]

Bryan:

When CBM visited, the hole going down into the Chambre was either the 8th or 9th hole (see my posts from the last two days, specifically those dealing with the articles from 1904, 1908 and 1909 and David's post which contains the actual articles).  This means that the hole you note would then have been the 9th or 10th.

The early routing you used for the overlay doesn't reflect two holes that were added down in the Chambre, both of which are evident in photos.  I've covered this interim routing a few times earlier in the thread.

My best guess at this point is that the 12th in 1906 was one of those two new holes, both of which lay on the inland side of the road.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it: one of those articles Sven quoted, from 1899, that talked about the original chasm hole, also said another hole back then played out to the lighthouse.  It called it "the lighthouse hole."  

My guess is the lighthouse hole immediately followed the original chasm hole.  But I don't recall seeing that on any of the routing maps or suggested routing maps we came up with.  Doesn't that put a different twist -- another routing -- onto the Biarritz table?  

Jim:

Take a look at post #205 in this thread.  There's an early description of two holes that linked the location of the chasm hole with the holes in the Grouse Moor.  I included a rough guess of the routing based on that description, and its possible that the hole I marked as #4 on the map in that post is the one noted in that quote as playing out to the lighthouse.

Sven

[Jim Nugent]

Sven, I saw that routing.  But I thought the lighthouse was/is in a very different location than number four on that map.  I thought the lighthouse is up in the area that is covered by the scorecard box.  Probably around the yardage listed for number 12.  

Here's the exact quote from the Golf article you excerpted:

"A great feature of the old course used to be the "Chasm" hole.  That particular hole is taken away.  At one time there used to be a particular hole out to the Phare, the lighthouse.  That ground too, has been used by the builder....Ground has since been taken into play which gives an area many acres larger than the area of the course when the "Chasm" and the "Lighthouse" holes were in use..."

So if I understand the quote right, the lighthouse hole went out close to the lighthouse, or at least in its direction.  Like the original chasm hole, it was lost to real estate construction.

On that routing map you laid out, I assume the lighthouse hole followed the chasm hole.  It tee would have been somewhere near the 3rd (chasm) green.  The hole played up into that little peninsula the lighthouse sat upon.  

If so, that would require another hole to get back out of the lighthouse area.  i.e. if I'm right, we're missing at least two entire holes.  

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

In that post 205, I noted the routing was just a rough sketch.  

The early descriptions of the Chasm Hole note it is was a drive and a pitch hole of around 200 or 220 yards (the carry over the chasm was only 80 yards), and probably extended further out towards the lighthouse than I depicted in that sketch.  If that is the case, then 4 gets pushed further out that little penninsula, and 5 is moved accordingly to bring us back towards the Grouse Moor.  This configuration is based on this 1893 description:

“[After discussing the Chasm Hole] The next two holes are short but abounding in difficulty; then at the sixth, the Pau golfer stands aghast.  "This!" he says; "what is this?  Is it a grouse-moor or deer-forest?"...He often says words to this effect, but more so, during the next three holes...but after the ninth hole the grouse-moor is left behind."

Does it help the analysis if the map is redrawn to look like this (again, just a rough sketch, especially so for holes 6-9 playing over the Grouse Moor, as I have no idea how those holes were laid out)?



Sven

[Jim Nugent]

Sven, that's my read of it.  

Talk about a fluid golf course.  Makes me wonder what kind of course they could have produced, had they been able to use the best holes of each version.  

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

An interesting thought, as I think there's a layout that could have used both versions of each of the Chasm and Cliff Holes (assuming no housing issues).  Add in the other holes into and down in the Chambre, the nastiness of the Grouse Moor, the interesting short but narrow 15th and the various features that dotted the landscape near the clubhouse (including the Punchbowl, Shand's Ravine and the Dell Hole).

It may not have been the longest course, but it would have been replete with interesting shots.

It is interesting to note that when Harry Colt offered his recommendations for changes in the early 1920's he commented on the plethora of short drive and pitch holes and that the course needed to be lengthened.

Sven

[Adam Lawrence]

It is interesting to note that when Harry Colt offered his recommendations for changes in the early 1920's he commented on the plethora of short drive and pitch holes and that the course needed to be lengthened.

Sven

I think that would have been true of almost every course whose bones predated the Haskell ball, unless they had been systematically upgraded since it's introduction.

[Sven Nilsen]

Adam:

I agree.  The point I was trying to make was that however interesting the "mythical" course that Jim and I envisioned, it would have been a collection of very short holes.

All:

Wanted to revisit this photo of the old version of the Cliff Hole which was the subject of a bit of confusion earlier in the thread.



I would propose that the photo was taken when the hole playing into the Chambre was the 8th (per the 1908 and 1909 Golf Illustrated articles noted above).  This would make the Cliff Hole the 13th, matching certain earlier interpretations of what is written on the white box.  The yardage on the box appears to match the 80 yards quoted for the distance of the Cliff Hole.

Here's the text of the 1909 article:

Two striking features of the course are the tee shot down [text cut off] to the eighth hole, and the approach up to the thirteenth; these [down] and up shots are rendered necessary by the fact that the [?] from eight to twelve are on the shore level, the others being [?] top of the cliff."

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Perhaps its time for the Cliff Notes version of the major points I attempted to convey over the last few pages of this thread (with due credit to the many other posters who covered some of this ground before):

A.  There was a longstanding and oft-cited belief that the inspiration for CBM's Biarritz template was the Chasm Hole at the Biarritz Golf Course.

B.  Pursuant to CBM and Whigham, the hole that served as the inspiration was the 12th, with each man noting the landforms leading up to the green as being the key features.

C.  Although, the Chasm Hole was cited as the 3rd hole on the course, reports claim it was also numbered the 12th.

D.  It is clear in the record by the time that CBM and Whigham visited Biarritz in 1906, the Chasm Hole was no longer part of the course, and no record exists of it ever having been numbered as the 12th hole (or anything other than the 3rd at any time during the existence of the original or shortened versions).

E.  Based on photos and contemporaneous reports, when CBM and Whigham visited Biarritz the 12th hole would have been located in the Chambre D'Amour.

F.  Due to a change in the numbers of the holes in the Chambre that occurred some time between 1904 and 1908 (assuming the reported facts in the articles accurately reflect the state of the course as of their published dates), the most likely candidates for the 12th hole that CBM and Whigham would have seen (and thus the inspiration for the Biarritz template) are the two holes preceding the version Cliff Hole in existence during that time frame.

Note I am not espousing any belief in this "most likely candidate" theory beyond the level of prudent conjecture (there's that word again).  Based on my study of the contemporaneous descriptions of the course, the dated and undated photographs, the various versions of the routing maps and a healthy dose of practicality, it is the answer that makes the most sense to me.  If others wish to delve through the 12 plus pages of this thread and offer any questions, contrary opinions or doses of skepticism, or if new information comes to light, I'm happy to listen.

To put the words of the theory into pictures, here are the two candidates for the identity of our mythical 12th Hole:

1.  If CBM's visit occurred at a time when the hole entering the Chambre D'Amour was numbered as the 9th and the Cliff Hole was numbered as the 14th, this hole would have been the 12th:





2.  If CBM's visit occurred after the hole entering the Chambre D'Amour became the 8th (and the Cliff Hole accordingly became the 13th), this would have been the 12th (with due credence given to Ally and others who pointed out this hole as a possibility early on in the thread, it took me a while to work out when and how this hole could have been numbered as the 12th):

[DMoriarty]

Sven,

In "C." you wrote "reports claim it was also numbered the 12th."  By "reports" do you mean modern claims that CBM was referring to the Chasm hole?  Because Iam unaware of any contemporaneous reports that that ever had the Chasm hole as the 12th hole.

As for the early routing, here is the Nov. 29, 1890 letter to golf from the Secretary of the Club (from google books.)  Note that some of the holes were the same as the later map, so fitting together the routing for the 1890-91 season should be easy.  (On your earliest routing you have holes in the Grouse Moor, but I don't think those holes were added until he course was expanded to 18.)

GOLF AT BIARRITZ.
To the Editor of Golf.

Sir,—Some of your readers may like to hear some account of our links at Biarritz. Our club, which is getting on for three years old, is now in a most flourishing condition, having gone through some difficulties, pecuniary and otherwise, during its infancy. The links are rapidly improving, and bad lies through the green, though still, alas not uncommon, are steadily getting less frequent; while the putting-greens are really very fair for so young a course, and turf does not grow so kindly as it does at Pau and other places. The hazards are numerous and varied—the Bay of Biscay being one of our largest—and comprise whins, ravines, roads, lanes, Danks, and almost every variety, except, perhaps, sand bunkers, for although this is a sea-side place, our links are more of the nature of an inland course, being situated high up, many feet above the sea level. The view from the links is very fine, having the broad expanse of the Bay of Biscay to the west. The snow-clad mountains of the high Pyrenees to the east, long stretches of pine forest to the north, and the low Pyrenees and the Spanish hills to the south. The club-house, a commodious villa, stands very conveniently in the centre of the ground, and is not a quarter of an hour's walk from several hotels, British Club, &c. Our resident professional, Willie Dunn, late of North Berwick, is always on hand to give lessons, and has a large stock of clubs, balls, and every golfing requisite. There is a ladies' club, and their course of nine holes is separate from the other links, and is a very sporting course, with plenty of hazards, not too difficult, but just difficult enough. I can only say that any golfers wishing to spend the winter in the south will meet with a hearty welcome, and opportunities of playing the game under by no means unfavourable conditions.

The following is a brief account of the nine holes, and it will take a scratch player fully forty to do the round on a fair golfing day. For medals and prizes, two rounds, of course, are played :—

1st Hole.—The " Pigeon Hole," so called from its being near the pigeon-shooting house. A fair drive brings you to the edge of some rough, broken ground, covered with clumps of sedge grass,'i6o yards from the tee ; a cleek, or brassy shot will easily carry the rough ground, which is about 80 yards in extent, and a short iron shot will be probably wanted to reach the green, which is 300 yards from the tee.

2nd Hole.—The " Sea Hole." A good drive will get you on towards the corner of the road, which is 200 yards from the tee ; from here, a full iron shot will reach the green. A careful approach is wanted here, as the hole is on a strip of turf, 30 yards wide, between the road and the edge of the cliff; a ball pulled round to the left will go over the cliff into the Bay of Biscay, a ball sent too much to the right will drop out of bounds, into some cultivated land, which entails loss of stroke and distance, while too gay a shot in the right direction will land you in some whins beyond the hole. The hole is 260 yards.

3rd Hole.—The "Chasm Hole." "Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm," as the Poet Laureate says, and on the edge of this chasm is the teeing ground for the third hole. The chasm is 80 yards across to the further edge, so you must loft that much. If you top your ball and go down, you tee another and play three, as there is no playing out of the chasm. The caddies, however, can get down and recover balls, so let not the golfer who has a frugal mind be deterred from coming here on that account. The green is 120 yards on from the further edge, so it may be reached easily in a drive and an iron shot.

4th Hole —The "Long Hole." Ten yards in front of the tee is a large and "hairy" hedge, then comes a skittle ground, and then a corner of a cultivated field, which is out of bounds, so a topped or foozled ball entails the loss of stroke and distance. But 60 yards clears all these impediments, and after the teed shot there are no formidable hazards to be encountered, only a disused road with a small ditch on each side, which runs parallel with the line to the hole for some distance. This hole is 480 yards.

5th Hole.—The "Punch-bowl Hole." Any drive over 120 yards will clear a bank and narrow lane which crosses the line to the hole ; a good brassy shot will then bring you somewhere; near the Punchbowl, a deep circular pit, with nearly perpendicular sides, and about thirty yards in diameter. This hazard is in the direct line to the hole, and some 300 yards from the tee, and 80 yards in front of the hole. The green may be reached in two good drives and an iron shot, and is 400 yards from the tee.

6th Hole.—"Shand's." A fair drive of 160 yards brings you to the edge of " Shand's Ravine," called after our President, Lord Shand ; a creek or brassy shot will take you over, but the lies are not bad if you get in, and a short approach shot will lay you on the green. This hole is 320 yards.

7th Hole.—The " Hole Across." This is an iron shot of about 115 yards across what used to be a maize field, and if the ball drops on the green this hole may be done, and often is, in two.

8th Hole.—The "Dell Hole." This hole is also a short one, being about 160 yards, a foozled ball is punished by bad lies, and in front of the hole is a deepish dell about forty yards across, but which is quite easy to play out of if you drop in, as many do.

9th Hole.—The " Home Hole." This wants an accurately directed teed shot, as there is the Punchbowl on the right, and the Dell on the left, both about 130 yards from the tee; but having avoided these hazards, you have good lying ground for 200 yards, then a narrow lane, with deep banks to cross, and 80 yards on to the hole. This hole is 360 yards.

Thus the nine holes are a few yards short of a mile and ahalf, and form a very fair and sporting course.

The ladies' round is a little more than 700 yards in length, and the holes vary from 50 to 120 yards, and want plenty of iron play.

I am, Sir,
Sec, C. De LACY-LACY, Hon. Sec.
Biarritz, November 29th.