Francis A. Byrne GC - West Orange, NJ

This is a municipal course in Essex County, New Jersey. It is also designed by Charles Banks, making it one of the few golf courses that the average person can play designed by the Macdonald/Raynor/Banks crew. The course is not perfect and is certainly not National Golf Links or Fisher's Island. That said, it is easy to see what once was a tremendous golf course if you take the time to look. I've worked a bit with Anthony Pioppi, Executive Director of the Seth Raynor Society, to try and determine what template holes exist on the course. Years (scores of years, even) of degraded maintenance practices make this difficult. Indeed, the forward part of the Biarritz green was already in disuse as early as 1954 according to some old aerial photographs. So, a tentative listing of template holes:
1. Road (confirmed)
2. Biarritz (confirmed)
3. Punchbowl (partial, tentative)
4. Sahara (tentative, severely degraded)
5. Short (confirmed)
10. Bottle (tentative)
13. Cape (tentative, green only)
14. Eden (Confirmed)
15. Raynor dog-leg (tentative)
18. Home (Confirmed)

There are several other holes that I believe are likely template holes, but I can't yet place them certainly enough in a category to include them. With that, on to the ranking:

Variety of Design: The course has only one par 5 and it's the first hole, the Road. That hurts the course a bit. The par 3s have great variety, ranging from 235 to 140 yards. The par 4s range from 360 to 465 yards, so a fair variety in distance, but limited variety in direction. Of the 15 holes, 10 are straight, 3 work to the right, and 3 work to the left. The green sizes, while shrunken and degraded from their original sizes, all fit the shots required and work well. 7 out of 10

Flow of the Course: The course ebbs and flows through the round quite nicely. The start is difficult with the only par 5 followed by a very difficult par 3, but the course gives the player a break on the 3rd hole. The Short hole appears as the 5th hole and, while severely degraded from its original state, still mandates precision from the player. On the back nine, the holes alternate between difficult and moderate from 10 to 13, before playing the final par 3 and then 2 very difficult holes before coming out for a nice closing set in the 17th and 18th. 7 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Not very good. The fairways were reasonably smooth, but they were still spotty and were very damp. The greens were very soft and bumpy as well. The greens are maintained at slow speeds in an effort to improve pace of play; that should be commended. The course was just fair in condition. 4 out of 10

Walkability: The course can be walked very easily. There were a few significant hills, but one of the players in my group was in his 60s and was able to walk the course fine. There were a few slightly longer walks, but nothing major. 7 out of 10.

Atmosphere: None. It's a standard municipal course, not really the place to go expecting some cool vibe. Just pay the fee and go. And that's fine. 1 out of 10

Total: 58 out of 100. In my opinion, this is the best public golf courses I've played in New Jersey. I've played 3 courses in Gulfweed Magazine's Top 15 best in state (Neshanic Valley, Hominy Hill, and Galloping Hill). This course tops all of them by a pretty wide margin.

Pictures and a hole-by-hole look at the course will come shortly.

Template Holes of the Macdonald School: The Biarritz

The Biarritz is one of the four standard par three holes used by the designers in the Macdonald School of design, Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor, and Charles Banks. This hole was typically intended to be the longest par three on the course, sometimes out to 220 yards, a significant distance today much less in the 1920's and 1930's. The idea of the hole is that the green has a large front tier and a large back tier with a fairly deep depression between them.

The idea with this hole is that the player should be face with a long enough shot that he must land the shot at the front of the green and run it through the depression in order to reach the back of the green. Like many of the holes built by Macdonald, this hole style is not used very often in modern days due to the shift of golf from a running shot game to an aerial shot game.

There are two basic types of the biarritz, seen in the images below:

This one pictured above is from St. Louis Country Club and is maintained with the front plateau as part of the green. This allows the club to cut the pin on the front portion of the green and mandate the player land short of the green in the approach if he desires to roll the ball onto the green.

This one, from Chicago Golf Club, only maintains the the rear plateau as green. The front plateau and the depression are all maintained at fairway height. This mandates the player land the shot short of the depression on the fairway cut in order to run the ball back to the hole.

The newest Biarritz built, the 8th hole at Old Macdonald in Bandon, OR, is much shorter than the old standard and is meant to be approached with low running shots using mid-irons. Hardly the hole of year's past. The hole is a solid hole in it's own right, but not the long yardage hole with very long green and deep depression like many might have expected.

Overall, this is a superb hole type. If a hole of this nature were to be built today, however, it would need to be built out to 250+ yards in order to challenge the best players with fairway woods or drivers. Indeed, a Biarritz hole is in play on the PGA Tour, at The Old White TPC at The Greenbrier, and those golfers are approaching the hole with high lofted shots from middle irons, rather than low, running shots from long irons and fairway woods. Perhaps one day designers will take the risk and build another of these holes as it was meant to be played.

What is Target Golf

People often wonder how to define target golf. Many will define it as golf that is played from point to point, hitting only high shots to a given yardage to a specific target.
This hole, the 15th at Mike Strantz's Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, NC is a prime example of this definition.

There are no options or various plays to be had here. Of course the player could hit a draw or fade, possible higher or lower than usual, but this can be said for every shot on every golf course in the world. What does not exist on this hole is the ability to land a ball short of the green and have it roll onto the putting surface, such as on a biarritz hole, or hit a nice draw and have it kick off a slope and roll to the right down to the flag, such as seen on a redan hole. This hole really is a perfect example of the standard idea as to define Target Golf.

However, I tend to take a different view on Target Golf. I consider all golf to be Target Golf. Allow me to use a picture of a biarritz hole to illustrate what I mean.

On this hole, for those not familiar with the hole, allow us to assume the pin is in the position marked by the RED dot. The green is then broken into three distinctive segments, the front and rear portions are relatively flat, while the middle section, marked by a rough rectangle formed with the four GREEN points, will have a significant dip, very much resembling a half-pipe like that used by skaters and snow boarders. If the front run-up area is firm and maintained at fairway height, which it should be, the player has multiple options. He can aim some 60-70 yards short of the pin, by the PINK dot, and hit the shot with some speed, allowing it to roll all the way back, through the dip, to the pin. If he wants to get the ball in the air a bit more, but still run is a significant distance, he can aim at the front of the green, for the YELLOW dot, and once again, allow it to roll to the back. He can also play it to the BLUE dot or, if feeling very adventurous, can carry the ball all the way onto the back section, landing his shot where the ORANGE dot is located.

These shots all have one thing in common: in each case, the golfer must select a yardage to carry the ball, then pick a TARGET and hit the shot. As such, even though it has an abundance of options, the hole still amounts to picking a target and hitting the ball to that target, just like the hole at Tot Hill Farm.

I have a rare view of this situation, I know. But the truth is, with every shot in golf, the player has to pick a yardage and a target and hit the ball to that target in order for the shot to work out, or so he hopes. Therefore, I do break with the common definition of Target Golf and just go about saying that all golf is Target Golf. So, have fun, pick your targets, and go play golf.