Hello,
In my continued quest to study The National, I’ve reached the 3rd hole “ Alps “ and had some observations about what I see from the 29 images that I have of the hole. For those of you that have played this incredible course, I’m wondering if, as before with the 2nd, you’d share your personal insight with me. I’m not having any problems understanding visually just how stunning the 3rd is, but I do have a couple questions about specific design elements…so as before, I’ll share my idea of the hole based on the images I have.
Off the tee, you’re faced with a swale in front of you, and a small fairway extension fronting a massive bunker that runs parallel to the main fairway itself. The bunker is deep, and is fronted by a fairly large mound that is perhaps 3 to 4 feet in height and runs the entire length of the bunker, fronted between it and the fairway proper. To clear this bunker from the tee, a drive must be 225 yards.
The fairway sits at a lovely angle, and has 2 small oblong bunkers left (on the edge of the fairway), and a series of bunkers in the middle above the fairway on the side of the hill. There is a cross bunker nearer the end of the fairway, up closer to the green complex which basically runs about 2/3 of the way across the fairway itself, and also has mounding fronting it (closest to the green). The 3 bunkers on the hillside, nearest the fairway, have deep mounding around them, and 2 of them could be in play on practically any drive.
On top of the hill sits a small fairway shelf of some 50 yards in length, with singular bunkers left, right, and a large one at the end (nearest the green). The bunker at the end of the fairway is some 3 to 5 feet below the fairway, and some 2 to 3 feet below the surface of the green. There are also bunkers further to the left of this fairway, perhaps to catch a recovery shot from the aforementioned trouble spots.
The green has bunkers fronting it right front, center, left, and rear left. The bunker on the right is very deep, sitting some 6 to 8 feet below the green complex. It is highly sloped from back to front, looking to have a slope up towards the back of about 3 to 4 feet, and has multiple undulations throughout. It has a huge mound behind, with the famous bell tower donated by Joseph A. McBride on June 13, 1979, and the spotter’s flag.
So, what would be a good guess as to the height of the hill that fronts the green complex?
About how far is it in feet from the fairway on top of the hill down to the green complex itself?
It’s difficult for me to visualize the drop-off down to the green, since I only have 2 pics taken from the side showing the end of the fairway and the large bunker fronting the green.
Finally, the tiny fairway fronting the massive bunker…was this designed to help the golfer whom could not reach the fairway safely in a strong wind?
Any thoughts or comments would be most appreciated..
Many thanks for your time,
R.S. Barker
http://members.tripod.com/silverleaf_design/architecture.htm