Bel Air

[Jason Topp]

 I found it very surprising that all but two holes on the back 9 at Bel-Air played more difficult than average, and all but two holes played more easy than average in US Am Stroke play qualifying.

The difference could be due to the USGA changing pars on a few holes. 

For those that have played the course, does the course feel like it presents steeper and steeper hurdles as one goes along?  If that sequence fun or does it detract from the quality of the course?

Link to the statistics:

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2017/u-s--amateur/course-statistics.html

[David Royer]

I'm scheduled to play in about 10 days.  Looking forward to the feedback on your inquiry.

[Joe_Tucholski]

I found it very surprising that all but two holes on the back 9 at Bel-Air played more difficult than average, and all but two holes played more easy than average in US Am Stroke play qualifying.

Jason I'm not sure I get what you are saying.  Maybe I'm the only one but could you clarify a bit.  I look at the linked stats that show the average score per hole and see only the first hole played below par.  I thought maybe you were talking about average with relation to par, but I came up with the average being .21 strokes over par and there were 3 holes on the back that played easier than that average (4 on the front).

[Tom_Doak]

Jason:


From the time we started consulting at Bel Air, I've been told that in club events, eight of the nine toughest holes are on the back nine.  The main reason for this is that the back is a long par-34 and the front, par-36, even though they are very close to the same length.


At one of the membership meetings someone asked if I was going to "fix" the imbalance, and I said that it had been that way since George Thomas built it, so he must have been okay with the imbalance, as am I.  The idea of "balance" in that manner is one of those outside concepts I've been railing against for the last few days, where someone's "ideal" gets in the way of what works best.

[Jason Topp]

I found it very surprising that all but two holes on the back 9 at Bel-Air played more difficult than average, and all but two holes played more easy than average in US Am Stroke play qualifying.

Jason I'm not sure I get what you are saying.  Maybe I'm the only one but could you clarify a bit.  I look at the linked stats that show the average score per hole and see only the first hole played below par.  I thought maybe you were talking about average with relation to par, but I came up with the average being .21 strokes over par and there were 3 holes on the back that played easier than that average (4 on the front).

Joe - if you look at the column titled "Rank" it ranks the holes in order of difficulty (in relation to par).   Bel-Air is very unusual in that almost all of the holes on the back nine are ranked as more difficult than the holes on the front nine.  I am not sure I have seen that before.

[Jason Topp]

Jason:

At one of the membership meetings someone asked if I was going to "fix" the imbalance, and I said that it had been that way since George Thomas built it, so he must have been okay with the imbalance, as am I.  The idea of "balance" in that manner is one of those outside concepts I've been railing against for the last few days, where someone's "ideal" gets in the way of what works best.

I recall your posts on here about Augusta National and how the flow of the back nine causes excitement in the tournament because players can make big jumps up the leaderboard on the stretch from 13-16 while the leaders are fighting their way through 9-11.  Bel-Air presents a very different model and a pretty extreme example.       

[Scott Weersing]

A nice story about the planned work at Bel Air


http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2017/u-s--amateur/articles/bel-air-about-to-get-back-to-basics.html

[Kalen Braley]

A side story on one of the competitors..


http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/player-dqd-us-amateur-using-slope-reader/?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

[Michael George]

I may be alone on this one, but I hate the site of that white bridge on that property.  Just kills the look of the place.


I may even prefer Trump Waterfalls to it 

[Alex Miller]

Not only is the back 9 much longer to par, but it plays in narrower (still reasonable) corridors often bordered by a creek and OB. I think most who've played would not find this surprising at all!

[K. Krahenbuhl]

Jason:
From the time we started consulting at Bel Air, I've been told that in club events, eight of the nine toughest holes are on the back nine.  The main reason for this is that the back is a long par-34 and the front, par-36, even though they are very close to the same length.

I wouldn't discount the La Familia effect in club events.

[Tom_Doak]

Jason:  yes, Bel Air has a very different pacing than Augusta, or Merion, or St Andrews.  But since it is very rarely a tournament site, I think how it works for that is not that important.


Michael George:  have you ever played Bel Air, or are you just judging the bridge from pictures? Either way, I think you are alone in not liking it.

[Terry Lavin]

I've played there a couple times back in the day. The Swinging Bridge is one of the coolest experiences in golf.