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Bayonet Black Horse, the 36-hole, full-bentgrass facility on the Monterey Peninsula, today announces that the Bayonet Course has been selected by the United States Golf Association ("USGA") and the Northern California Golf Association ("NCGA") to host a U.S. Open qualifier on May 10.
In selecting Bayonet for the qualifier, the USGA and NCGA cited the course's championship caliber layout and commitment to maintaining "tour level" conditions. The 2010 U.S. Open will be contested at Pebble Beach Golf Links, June 14-20. Pebble Beach — hosting the prestigious national championship for the fifth time — is just 15 minutes from Bayonet Black Horse.
"We take great pride in our affiliation with the USGA and NCGA and we're honored to be involved in the 2010 U.S. Open competition," says says Dick Fitzgerald, project director for owner/operator Seaside Resort Development. "Bayonet is widely considered to be one of the most difficult courses in California and it will challenge the area's best players. With the numerous enhancements from the Gene Bates redesign, it will also provide a fair test of golf from tee to green."
Bayonet and Black Horse re-opened in December, 2008 after a $13 million renovation by Bates Golf Design Group (Gene Bates). Both courses underwent dramatic view-shed alterations and hole re-routings to reveal new, breathtaking ocean vistas and improved playing options (including new bentgrass greens). They were included in Golf Digest's "Best New Courses" issue for 2009 in the ultra-competitive "Renovation" category.
The U.S. Open, the second-oldest USGA championship by a single day, is the jewel of USGA competitions. The event has evolved into one of the most prestigious championships played with many of the game's greatest players having captured this coveted title.
The event is open to professionals and amateurs with a handicap index of 1.4 or lower. The Open is one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the USGA, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.
Bayonet, with its narrow playing corridors and steep, penal bunkering, has long been considered the most difficult test of golf on the Monterey Peninsula. The par-72, 7,104-yard course has retained its famous bite after the recent renovation by award-winning architect Gene Bates, but playability and strategic options have been greatly improved. The uphill, dogleg right, 476-yard, par-4 ninth hole exemplifies the course's significant challenge. Black Horse, a 7,024-yard, par-72 layout, features sweeping vistas of the Pacific and is highlighted by fescue-framed fairways, bunkers with distinctive, serrated edges and slickly-contoured greens. The par-3 15th, created during the renovation, faces the bay and is sure to emerge as one of the great holes on the Peninsula.
