Hole 4 – 372 yards
As with the third, the fourth hole at Southern Hills is another mid-length par four of a varied nature. The fourth is much less rigorous in its requirement of accuracy from the tee. But it is much more stringent in this regard on the second. The tee shot is out to what appears to be a blind landing area. Truthfully the landing area will run dramatically from left to right. The longer hitters will gain an advantage as they will be able to possibly clear this depression if the wind from the south is not too vigorous.
In most cases, the approach will be a short-iron or wedge into the wind, depending on the club taken off of the tee. Players will be confronted by an awkward lie, with the ball below their feet. Those in the depression and to the right will have the more severe lies. This will complicate the shot into the green. Full wedges could be a problem as they could easily spin off of the front part of the green and roll into the bunkers in front. Also the wind could be tricky and create a situation where a ball will fly over the green and into the hazards behind.
The elevated green is an example of Maxwell’s philosophy of using the elevated portions of the course as much as possible. This green is possibly the steepest sloped putting surface on the course after the changes to the ninth and eighteenth holes. So anything above the hole could be adventurous, thus increasing the need to guess correctly on the approach. Due to the length of the hole, chances are all the pins will be tucked close to the sand hazards around the target. As a side note, this hole may have been the inspiration for the seventh hole at Augusta when Maxwell laid out the new green in 1937.
Here is the hole layout from the club's website.
Here is the view from the tee. Note the bumpy terrain in the fairway.
View from behind the green. From behind the green you can see much better the tilt of the fairway and make out the low area that is a strategic element to the hole.
Again, here is the routing for reference.
Link to third hole.
Also a special thanks to George Pazin for providing me education on how to put up links this week.