#16
Climbing up from the 15th green, one may head left to the “546 yard” tees or right to the tees ranging from 475-494 yards. The hole bends almost 90-degrees to the left at 200 yards from the green. This configuration makes it nearly impossible to reach the green in two from the longest teeing area barring favorable wind conditions. Tee shots that find a depression in the left fairway around 250 yards from the back tees will face a blind lay-up shot, often to a cavity found ~190yards from the green.
Seen in the foreground, this fairway cavity is a common destination, and leaves a testy, uphill long iron into the green from an uneven lie. Beyond the cavity, the fairway becomes very narrow from 150 to110 yards from the green’s center.
Some players will inevitably lay-up (or skull one from a downhill lie) just past the narrow patch into yet another hollow. From there, a wedge up the hill must be struck truly to carry the bunker found front and center greenside.
The green is a hair over 30 yards in depth and fairly benign with respect to its contours, aside from a significant false front that runs to the corner left and short of the putting surface. A small ridge separates the back right portion of the green from the front. I donated some of my leg flesh to a particularly prickly yucca plant while climbing the dune to capture this image.
From the Ballyneal website: A nice illustration of the wild fairway contours and the unusually constricted (by Ballyneal standards) portion of fairway.
The 16th is yet another hole that can yield a wide array of scores. Aggression is not always advisable. Choose wisely.