Located on high ground overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the western shore of Southampton Parish, Port Royal Golf Course is one of the world’s most scenic island courses. Known as one of Jack Nicklaus’ all-time favorites, it is a government-run municipal course designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1970. This week Port Royal will host the fourth edition of the Bermuda Championship.
One of the shortest courses played in the PGA Tour’s annual rotation, it is characterized by its hilly terrain, challenging par-3s, and the seemingly ever-present threat of windy conditions. And with the current threat of a tropical depression forming just southwest of the island, we could be in for an interesting week of weather.
While the Bermuda Championship has never been known to have anything close to a “strong” field, the absolute weakness of this year’s field takes the cake. There are only five players in the field that are ranked in the OWGR top 100 including Seamus Power (the highest rated at No. 48), Polish sensation Adrian Meronk, Denny McCarthy, Lucas Glover, and Erik van Rooyen. Last year’s winner, Lucas Herbert apparently did not think it was worth the trip to defend his title.
No matter the field strength, this is still a full-fledged 132-player Tour event with 500 FedExCup points and a purse of $6.5 million, with the winner’s share coming in at $1,170,000. After a couple of weeks of no-cut events, the Bermuda Championship will have a 36-hole cut after Friday’s round with the top 65 players and ties making it to play the weekend.
Course History
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bOriginally known as Southampton Golf Club, the property was purchased in 1965 with construction led by famed architect Robert Trent Jones beginning in 1967. Though the design had to be changed numerous times due to land agreements, the course was finally completed and opened in 1970. In 2008, an original member of the design team, Roger Rulewich, was in charge of the $14.5 million renovation that also made Port Royal the longest golf course in Bermuda.
Originally used by the PGA Tour in 2019 as an alternate-field event played opposite the WGC-HSBC Championship, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was elevated in 2020 to a standalone event. Taylor Pendrith holds the course record with a 61 last year.
The Course
As a 6,828 yards long par-71, Port Royal is the shortest course played in the annual Tour rotation. Labeled as a “great resort course”, it definitely has all the attributes of a track on which any type of player can have success. The one “X-factor” that determines how easy or difficult the course will play is the wind. Blustery conditions have factored into each of the first three events here, and anyone attempting to predict player outcomes should definitely have past performance in windy conditions built into their model.
As Patrick Reed once said about Port Royal, “It’s one of those golf courses that if they didn’t have wind around here, you’d go out and you’d destroy. So I almost feel like they need the wind here to be kind of a defense mechanism for the golf course.” And it is not just the wind that can challenge, it is also the changing direction mid-round. Said Aaron Wise about the course, “It’s definitely not a bomber’s golf course. The crazy part is how much it changes because the wind’s blowing 30 miles an hour. Then all of a sudden, if the wind switches to the dead opposite way, a ball goes 50 yards shorter or longer than it did the day before.”
Winning scores have been 15-under (twice) and 24-under. Windy conditions obviously played a role in the lower-scoring events. All types of players have had success here. From shorter hitters like Brendon Todd and Brian Gay to longer hitters like Taylor Pendrith and Lucas Herbert, the wind also plays a role in which type of player has the best chance.
When the winds were increased last year and certain holes were playing longer, the scoreboard showed that the bombers off the tee had a definite advantage. Even so, the course is short enough that it cannot be overpowered either way. As you can see below, while Thursday and Sunday appear mostly calm, Friday and Saturday call for sustained winds in the 15-25 mph range with close to two inches of rain in the forecast.
Port Royal also features consistent elevation changes similar to the Plantation Course at Kapalua. And as should be expected by a Robert Trent Jones design, heavy fairway bunkering is another part of the challenge. For agronomy this week, players will see another course with 100% bermudagrass with the slight exception of Zoysia grass mixing in with the 2″ rough.
As for the holes themselves, the course is an interesting mix of seaside and parkland holes. The first hole tee box is perched on high with players hitting downhill as they head away from the ocean. In fact, the first seven holes are somewhat protected by trees giving the appearance of a tropical parkland course. It is not until you reach the 7th green that you get full panoramas of the Atlantic Ocean and the crystal blue waters off Bermuda’s south shore. This is also where the wind typically intensifies as players will have to deal with ocean breezes for the remaining holes with the exception of holes 11-13.
Including the effects of the wind, the par-3s at Port Royal are among the most difficult set on Tour. Three of the four measure over 213-yard measure over 213 yards and are the most difficult holes on the course. The par 3 16th is Port Royal’s signature hole. Widely considered one of the toughest par-3s in all of golf, it is a 235-yard crescent-shaped beauty with a carry directly over the Atlantic Ocean.
Eight of the 11 par-4s are less than 415 yards with the longest playing at 458 yards. Overall, Port Royal has the shortest group of par-4s on Tour that can also play as the easiest if winds are low. Historically, however, seven of the 11 par’4s have averaged over par in the three years of this event.
The three par-5s measure at only 507, 517, and 553 yards and have a birdie or better rate of 45%. Even in strong winds, players will need to take advantage of these scoring holes.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
With generous fairways, but yet enough hazards to get your attention, Port Royal does a great job of testing decision-making off the tee. With the shortness of the course, players can club down if they choose but yet on almost every par 4 and par 5 there are bunkers staggered down the fairway that will force golfers to consider their club selection and target landing area.
The driving accuracy at Port Royal has been only 53% over the first three editions, which is well below the Tour average of 61%. While the fairways are somewhat on the narrow side, the more likely reasons for the lower rate are the winds blowing tee shots offline combined with the 2-inch rough not being penal enough to scare players off using their driver. Also, as Brendon Todd mentioned, because of the cross bunkers near the landing zones, everyone is almost forced to use the same club off the tee to clear the bunkers.
As previously mentioned, distance can be very beneficial here if playing into the wind as was the case at times in last year’s event. While the Bermuda Championship is not an event with ShotLink data and thus does not have complete driving distance readings, it does take two drivers per player per round. On last year’s leaderboard, the top 10 golfers in distance off the tee all made the cut and had an average finish position of 26th.
Approach
While it is somewhat easier to flight your ball down off the tee, hitting approach shots into the wind, and especially higher lofted wedges from inside 150 yards will be a test for players. Close to 60% of all approach shots are estimated to be hit from that distance. There will also be a larger than normal rate of approaches from over 200 yards when considering the three long par-3 and the three par-5s. With fairly simple green complexes and an average GIR of 64%, it becomes a matter of judging wind conditions and trying to get the ball as close to the pin as possible to set up scoring chances.
Around the Green and Putting
With both scrambling and sand save % near the PGA Tour average, there is not much to be said regarding “Around the Green” performance. The numerous greenside bunkers and unpredictable bermuda rough can cause some issues, but overall, unless the wind is really pushing balls away from the greens, the main focus should be taking advantage of any scoring chances by making putts.
As is typical on coastal tracks, the green speeds are much lower than normal because greens that are exposed to the wind can become very treacherous and unfair. Depending on the winds, the green speeds at Port Royal have been as slow as a 9 on the stimp meter but typically run around 10. While there won’t be enough scoring to call it a putting contest, performance on the greens is much more important this week because Port Royal is a course that does not really allow elite ball-strikers to separate themselves from the field. Golfers who are especially competent on bermuda greens should be targeted this week.
Photo courtesy of Bermuda Aerial Media