The 6th hole is a par 4
396 from the Gold tee
373 from the Blue tee
Another hole that can leave the golfer confused on the tee. No good place to hit the ball. Unlike some of the other holes that come before this one, I actually found this tee shot more intimidating the 2nd time around. In our morning match, the group was 0 for 4 on finding the fairway. In our afternoon match, the group was 0 for 5. The morning shots were hit from close to the back tees. The afternoon shots were hit closer to the 373 marker.
Only one part of the fairway is really visible from the tee, and that part is of no use to the golfer. Land your ball in front of that first giant mound and I can only imagine the difficulty of the approach from there! To have a chance to keep your ball in the fairway, I think you need to hit your tee shot dangerously close to the row of bunkers on the right edge of the fairway, or be very long off the tee (the closer you get to the green, the less extreme the right to left sloping becomes.) I aimed at the bunkers, figuring to fade the ball a little left, and hit a dead pull right into the trash. Mike DeVries graciously volunteered to hit his bal that way as well, and off we went to look for our balls together.
If you aim at the middle of the fairway, your ball will surely roll hard left. The ball will almost certainly be completely out of the fairway and the slope is extreme enough that balls landing in the middle or left of the fairway could roll far enough left to be in some pretty tough long grass. From the tips, the tee shot is even more intimidating than the blue tees as the carry over the bunkers begins to look questionable to the one-time player.
The hole also provides a very different option and feel from a tee that plays around 300 yards. I suspect the green is drivable from this tee in the right wind for the longer hitter, which wuld be an interesting variation for a match. Not only is the hole shorter, but it plays from a different angle. The fairway is much more visible and looks to be much more receptive from this tee. I wouldn't recommend sacrificing your one shot to play the hole from the back tees to run up and play from the front, but with repeated plays I could see the allure of playing from the front tee from time to time.
Following punchbowl green, the crowned 6th green feels even smaller than it looks. Bunker await in the right, and a steep chipping area falls off to the left. Like many others on the site, I could see this green complex giving someone fits.
This is a fun hole to play, and yet another good par 4 on the front nine. While this was one of the holes I was better prepared for prior to the round (I had seen more photos of this hole than probably any other on the course) it was even more confounding and demanding off the tee than I expected.
The view from the back tee
The view from the middle tee
The very different look from the front tee
A closer look at the wild humps in the fairway and the bunkers from the angle of the back and middle tees
A view of the approach. The right to left slope of the fairway is evident.
A view slightly closer to the green as the fairway begins to level off
First look at the green from the approach
The front of the green showing the slope
A view from behind looking back at the green and fairway
Another angle from behind showing how the green plays smaller than its size
The green as seen on the 4th tee. The fall off left of the green can be seen from this angle
One more view of the green and bunkering from above and to the right of the green
