Glad to see this is generating some interest.
The second putt from the bottom of the hill indeed wasn't that hard. For whatever reason the caddy waited until he hit the first two
just short to let him know he could play it off the backstop which he did with the third. (Although that one almost rolled all the way back down.) That being said I agree it should have been a 4-putt had the caddy spoken up a little before or if had we been playing it a second time.
I am not sure whether I think that the greens at this speed are absurd. I could argue it both ways. The greens were great to play on all the rest of the holes at this speed (around 10) and this is probably the one and only place where a putt was impossible to make. However it is a little ridiculous for a 25 HCP to hit a putt as perfectly as he could and get that result.
If there is indeed a way to keep that putt on the green, like perhaps hitting it to the far right corner and letting it come down at a more diagonal line to the pin, then I don't think it is unfair, just ridiculously tough.
When we play it again I am sure both of us would keep it well below the hole.
I thought it was a ton of fun to have the middle-tier pin, as tough as it was, after hearing here how rare it was here before we played. We had great pin positions all day, but then again are there any bad ones on these greens?