In
less than six months another enormous hotel structure, the
Belmont, has
disappeared from the skyline across from Hamilton
Harbour,
to be replaced by a
new hotel that
will go
by the
name of Belmont
Hills. The old Belmont
golf course
beside the
razed lodge has been
totally
ripped up,
itself. Veteran California
architect Algie Pulley
and his
shaper, son Jeff, have wrought
their magic to
redesign and
rebuild the links on a
claustrophobic
site of well under 100
acres.
For
weeks the
site looked like a war zone,
with rocks and topsoil in piles
everywhere, as the
heavy machinery tore into
the limestone
beneath the
tees,
fairways and
greens.
Such
was the perfection of the Bermuda rock as the machines took
down the level of
the 16th fairway that the stone cutters
moved in to
quarry it from dawn until
dusk seven days
a
week--a nice bonus for the
ambitious new owners of
the
property and their general manager, John
Mason.
Pulley and his
son relocated to
Bermuda to work seven
days a
week. Jeff even
got married in this most romantic
of
island settings, a
popular venue for such
ceremonies. Already
all 18 of their
greens are
complete--once again the
surface of choice is
TifEagle--and are
puttable, and
most of the
heavy earth moving
work has been
finished.
I
am lost in admiration of the new layout, which will total only
about 6,100
yards. There are at least two tiers on most of the
greens,
and the bunkering is
severe
throughout.
Fairways are
narrow enough to
place a
true premium on
shotmaking ability,
and the last four holes
are
as
good a finishing quartet as
one
can
find on the island.
Two
large and beautiful ponds interconnected by a handsome waterfall
have appeared
on the seven holes south of
the main
road that
bisects
the course. The water is
pumped up
from the bottom end
and reappears
via a big rock with a hole
running
through it at
the top. The ponds
will come
into play at no fewer
than four of
those holes. The parallel
first and 10th
holes are served by
the biggest double
green I have ever
seen. It measures 17,000
square
feet, but is quite
shallow,
and
measures over 100 yards
from side to
side. A bunker complex guards the front
of this
unique
feature, as do two sentinel palm trees set one-third and
two-thirds across its front edge, actually cutting
the green
into three
sections
as one
approaches
it.
