10th - Royal Melbourne West

[Jason Topp]

279 Meters.  North Wind blows right to left.  Not as tight near the green as I expected.

From the tee (flag is behind the bunker on the left)



From near the bunker:



  The result of my tee shot:



Occasionally a blind squirrel finds an acorn.  It was a thrill because it was the hole I was most enthused about playing on the trip.

In the last photo you can see the current state of the damaged greens.  I'm sure they will be back to normal soon.

[John Kirk]

Jason,

Great pictures of a fantastic looking golf hole.  Thanks a lot.  Nice shot too.  I guess you drew it in there.

[Brian Walshe]

Jason,

Not sure if I agree about it not being tight around the green.  From 50m out in the right spot it isn't but have a go at the green from the tee and your next post is likely to be "37 ways to make triple".  I think I have had a go at the green probably 6 times for 5 scores of 6 or greater and one birdie.  Left is dead in the trees.  Right (normally if you are right you are long and right) is dead in the trees. Long and over the back - well good luck from in front of the 11th tee.

In the practise round before the President's Cup I waited over an hour on that tee for the 4 ball of Couples, Tiger, Mickelson and Duval to come through.  Couples was the only guy to have played the course before and was advising the other three on strategy.  He said to knock 3 wood or 2 iron (before the ball went silly) up the right and take the pitch and NEVER go at the green - it was instant triple.  Everyone did exactly that except for Mickelson who cold topped a 3 wood 80m down the hill into the crap.  They gave him all kinds of grief.  He wandered down played the greatest 5 iron I've ever seen.  Shocking lie in the rubbish and he knocked it to 6 ft and made birdie.  The other three all made par.  Funny game golf.

[brad_miller]

Looks something like the 10th hole at one of our US classic courses, although it looks somewhat more driveable.

[Jason Topp]

Brian:

I am sure you are right, particularly given how hard the ground is, which makes the right side play much tighter than it looks.  There is quite a bit of space over to the right, but being used to softer American courses the space may not provide as much comfort as I felt.  

[ed_getka]

bump

[Tyler Kearns]

Of note, the depression that the fairway wraps around are filled-in bunkers from the original Royal Melbourne course located over the Sandringham property.

Excellent golf hole, I played a little too conservatively with a 5-iron off the tee, leaving a totally blind approach played from an uphill, sidehill stance (thankfully it wasn't blowing!). Definitely the play is a longer iron or fairway metal to the top of the hill, which offers a look at the green and a flatish stance. If the greens are quick, over the green is not a good position to be in, with the green sloping strongly from back-to-front.

TK