Pat,
You raise a very good point about the recovery shots. Even a slightly downhill green makes recovery more difficult for all levels of players. I knew if I made you respond enough eventually you would stumble on something that makes sense.
However, this is true for any green with a back to front pitch, because most higher handicaps will miss greens short and struggle with their recovery shots.
Just as I need to see Mountain Ridge again, YOU need to come see Hackensack. It is NOT a short Biarritz, it is longer than most. There is a new black tee which plays 255 and can be stretched to 270. The blues use the old back tee half the time so the hole now plays between 210-245, and the Whites 190.
I've only played Yale once, and the pin was up front, but I recall that the back section is pitched back to front. It seems designed to help stop the running shot.
Look, I give up. I was just throwing out an idea that might restore the original design intent for single digit handicap players. If guys like you who are good players and know a little about architecture are gonna whine like babies, then my idea won't work. Which means the answer to Scott's question is that Biarritz holes don't work, except for guys who hit it so short that they can't fly it to the back.
Today's equipment has rendered it an antiquated design concept, unless you are prepared to make the hole 280 yards long as George Bahto suggests.