77 The par-three seventh is a new hole, a little reminiscent of the famous seventh at Pebble Beach, with its green on a promontory surrounded by the sea on three sides top of this bed. The par-three fourth hole has been restored to Ross’s 1924 design, the green an island surrounded almost entirely by sand. The par-four sixth, which runs along Clearwater Bay, has been moved back to its original waterside position; lowered to provide a better connection with the water, and a new seawall constructed. Just to the south of this is the one new hole, the par-three seventh, reminiscent of the seventh at Pebble Beach, with its green on a promontory surrounded by the sea on three sides. This promontory was not available to Ross, and has been leased by the club from the town of Belleair. Most obviously, Straka has restored Ross’s original ‘cop mounds’ – sand dune-like features that are spread all over the course. I will admit that, at first, these look a little odd in an environment that is clearly not natural sand dunes, but when one becomes accustomed to them, they work superbly, breaking up the landscape and acting as interesting hazards to challenge players, though it is probable that wind-blown sand will be an issue the club’s greenkeeping team has to learn to deal with. It must also be noted that their shaping is superb, properly uneven as are natural dunes, quite brilliant work by lead shaper Steve Page. Ross’s greens, restored faithfully by Straka, are severe. There are big slopes, tall ridges and some quite enormous buried elephants, enough to make putting a real challenge; in the future, Belleair members are likely to be demons with the flat stick. Wisely, the club is aware that the greens are too severe to be allowed to get really fast, and intends to regulate their pace accordingly. The bunkers are not the normal, grass-faced ‘Ross bunker’ seen on so many restoration projects, but are sand faced and shapely, as were the originals in the vintage photography used as part of the research for the project. In short, the transformation of Belleair’s West course is nothing short of stunning. Architects Straka, Fry, their senior design associate Patrick Burton, and for that matter the rest of the construction team, can hardly have done much better than this in their whole careers. From basically nowhere, I expect the course to place highly in rankings of the state’s best. Everyone involved should be incredibly proud of what has been done, and if the course does not win a Best Renovation award or two I shall be amazed. Kudos to all. GCA “ The transformation of Belleair’s West course is nothing short of stunning” Photo: Vaughn Halyard
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