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A Little History...

requires strategy and execution to successfully
complete a round of golf at Coral Ridge.
The 'Chasm' hole was played from an 80-foot-high cliff over the Bay of Biscay to a 50-foot cliff beyond.
A finishing hole of a highly regarded golf course The water carry was nearly 170 yards!
should be dramatic and challenging. For the long In 1888, Willie Dunn Jr. designed the original and most
hitters the landing area is made gradually narrow
famous namesake ‘biarritz’ at the Biarritz Golf Club located on
by the bracketing fairway bunkers which causes the northern coast of France nicknamed “the Chasm.” The
golfers to carefully manage their tee shots. A
chasm was adopted by C.B. Macdonald as a template hole
shorter approach shot to the Biarritz green makes and named “the biarritz.” Fellow architects were slow to grow
it easier to access the section of the green where
fond of the bold and controversial putting surface, but giants of
the hole is located. This is important since long classic golf course architecture (from the first half of the 20th
breaking putts on this deep green will make it
century) such as MacDonald and Seth Raynor often utilized the
difficult to avoid a three-putting situation.
biarritz on one hole of their golf courses. While both limited
The water on the left of the green should come the biarritz green to par-3s, modern architects have begun to
into play often since the approach shot is one of use it on par-4s and 5s, making the swale large enough to
the longest on the golf course. Shorter hitters accommodate a pin position in the middle.
should favor the right side. If the green is missed,
Being a Yale man, Rees Jones was all too familiar with a
recovery shots will be challenging since the green biarritz, as The Course at Yale — and its signature 9th hole —
is designed with three distinct sections.
is often considered Raynor’s crowning achievement.
The 18th hole has every element of a strategic
and challenging climax to a round of golf at The 9th hole on the first day that the Course at Yale was open in 1925
Coral Ridge. It is a great example of the Robert
Trent Jones mantra that a great golf hole should
be ‘a hard par, easy bogey.’”

https://thefriedegg.com/biarritz-template-hole/
http://members.tripod.com/silverleaf_design/biarritz.htm
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