9th 645 600 530
09Top by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
Since I don’t use ponds near green approaches, there was little golfing ground of interest trying to route a hole along the border of the property. However, looking ahead to the upper corner of the property I could see a very short par 3. Since I wanted the challenge of making an interesting short par 3 for the best par 3 category, I routed a long hole to get me to the area of that par 3. It does cross the pond from the back to tees using the perfect lie obtained there, and some golfers may find an interest in that. I planned to heavily bunker the short par 3 so I began to think of the hill at the end of the hole as “Bunker Hill” (interestingly the website had the Capilano thread done about this time and after getting the name Bunker Hill in my mind, I found there is a hole at Capilano named Bunker Hill). Traversing up the hill there are a series of fairway bunkers to begin to set the tone, and to encourage play away from the property boundary. If I had more time, I think the best way to improve this hole would be to create more interesting bunkering along the way. As it is, I think it is the weakest hole on the course.
EDIT: Judge's comment
Hole no. 9 feels like a long, uneventful climb to the top of the hill with yet another green perched on top of a mound. This is getting really repetitive, as well as too tough for almost any quality of player.
09FromTee by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
The view from the left showing elevation change throughout the hole.
09FromLeftSide by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
The view from the right showing elevation change throughout the hole.
09FromRightSide by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
After the drive, the bunkers are shown along the left guarding the property boundary and the shortest route. They probably will have more interest for the somewhat random hitting high handicapper than for the low handicapper who has plenty of hole to play with.
09SecondShot by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
After the long traverse, the green is pretty wide open for the approach with bunkers helping contain the misses of those that have struggled to get there.
09ThirdShot by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr
From behind the green, you can see how the three shots of this three shotter move from plateau to plateau.
09FromGreenBack by
Garland Bayley, on Flickr