Bill,
Buda at Hoylake was before my time, and maybe after a few rounds my opinion would be different? However, there are two things which didn't help my experience.
Firstly, we played off the yellow tees about 2 months after Tiger's Open win, so the course was very firm and fast but also 1,000 yards shorter. So I was looking forward to taking on the 14th (usually played as 12) where Tiger holed his long iron for a two after laying up with an iron between the bunkers, however from a forward tee it was a driver over the bunkers and a flick with a wedge?
The other problem, I just hinted at. We played the holes as they were in the Open, so we teed off on 17 and the famous 1st with the cop and out of bounds right was our third. This though means every time I discuss the course with someone I have no idea which hole is being discussed...
Having said that I remember the 10th and 13th (sorry, 8th and 11th) as a great 5 and 3 in the dunes, so perhaps on another play I would start to love it more, and maybe see a bit more charm?
Cheers,
James
We were there not long after you, October 2006. The course had greened up nicely and was still pretty firm although we were rained on pretty hard while there. We played off tees that must have been back of the ones you had to play but not back with the tigers.
I have the same problem with the hole numbering, we were still on the Open routing, and I still have to convert the hole numbers in my head.
I really liked all the holes but the stretch of #7-13 was really great.
On the par 5 #10 (our routing), Bobby Jones was just short left in 2 and made a 7 chilly dipping his way up the slope. Jones quotes Bernardo Darwin in "Down the Fairway," Darwin saying a little old lady with a croquet mallet could have bested Jones' score by a shot or two. That was in the 1930 Open during the year of the Slam.
That's the kind of thing that I have to include in my appreciation of a golf course!
