Belmont
Hills, as the golf club is now named, will play to a par of
70 with only two
par-5s. The signature hole could well be the
par-3
seventh, which, at 150-180
yards in length, has
a green
that hangs over
the upper pond to
its left.
The
club hopes to
open this spring. I feel
this date
is a
little optimistic, but if
anyone can do it, the team of
Mason,
director of golf
Alex
Madeiros, and
superintendent Jose
Benvenides and their crew
can. It
makes no small
difference
that Kevin
Petty, one of the
owners of the
layout,
has an encyclopedic knowledge
of
Bermuda's trees and
shrubs, and where
they can be
obtained.
But
Riddell's Bay Golf and Country Club, dating back to 1922, is
still the island's
"garden" course, and is continually
upgrading that
aspect of its beauty. At
5,713 yards,
it is
very short by modern
standards, set as it is on
a
peninsula
measuring only 600 yards across
at its
widest.
There
are major plans in the works by American architect Ed Beidel
to give the layout
a really big par-5 on the inward half. At
present,
its only three-shotter, the
seventh,
measures but 471
yards. Even
better, the present
par-4 ninth
of 247
yards will
be shortened
by
moving its green
back down to the very edge of the
bay, across which
the tee
shot will still be
played,
thus
making the hole a bona
fide
par-3.
If
Riddell's Bay is the most visually attractive course Bermuda can
offer, Port
Royal, the public course designed by Robert Trent
Jones
Sr., has undeniably the
best practice area. The
government could do
little better than
follow the
example of
its private-club counterparts
and
upgrade
Port Royal with TifEagle
greens.
Of course, being less
dependent on tourist traffic,
Port Royal might
naturally resist the
rejuvenation going on
all around
it. I say,
better it
should capture
the island's
new
spirit and join its golf neighbors
who are so
newly
arrived in the 21st
century.
