My interest in RTJSR begins with his growing-up in Rochester, NY, near Buffalo. He often serves as a foil for the great golden-age architects and for their spiritual descendants. There ultimately has to be someone who swings the pendulum away from the original, the natural, in order for some future generation to swing it back. We see it in Star Wars and we see it in golf course architecture. I don't know that a Mike Keiser-figure ever approached him and demanded a shaggy, fast-playing, lightly-bunkered track.
And yet, RTJSR did a lot of good work, especially on some of his private clubs. Here's a breakdown on Black Hall
-of 14 driving holes, 7 are gentle doglegs to straight, while 7 more are hard-turning doglegs;
-only one driving hole, the second, has the type of pinched-drive-zone, bunkers on both sides, scenario for which RTJSR and his ilk are vilified;
-with the exception of the 15th hole, there is room to work the ball both ways from the tee;
-with the exception of the 14th and 16th holes, the fairway does not run out prematurely, truncating the long tee ball;
-the par three holes are somewhat weak, and I am convinced that RTJSR had a disdain for, or an inability to build, short par three holes with small greens;
Black Hall is unlike the other courses that we played, yet it was eminently playable from te to green.