Sand Hills's Four Wild Greens (#2, #3, #6 and #8)

[Gene Greco]

But for all I know the wind was significantly different than what was anticipated when the pin was set.  Things happen, so I'm willing to give it a pass.  All too often I think folks around here assume that the conditions we encounter when visiting a course are the norm.  In my experience, the opposite is more likely to be the case. 
Ed

Ed:

   Very insightful and well stated. 

[Bart Bradley]

Ed - I am not questioning the "awesomeness" of Sand Hills - but if the greens are running so fast that you cannot putt out . . . wouldn't any other course get a serious demerit for that? Or maybe the greenskeeper was just grumpy that morning.

Rob, my view is that it was just a poor pin placement for that day's conditions.  I suspect things would have been fine if the wind was less severe or coming from a different direction.  Unfortunately, it was blowing extremely hard straight down the slope of the green toward the false front.  No doubt there were plenty of other pin positions which would not have yielded the same result.  But for all I know the wind was significantly different than what was anticipated when the pin was set.  Things happen, so I'm willing to give it a pass.  All too often I think folks around here assume that the conditions we encounter when visiting a course are the norm.  In my experience, the opposite is more likely to be the case.  So unless several more guys chime in with similar tales of adventure on #6, I am very comfortable characterizing my experience as an "anecdote" rather than a "demerit".

Ed

Rob:

I am going to concur with Ed.  He may have even been underestimating the strength of the wind that we faced that day.  I fully suspect that there were gusts in the 40+mph range.  The ball was sometimes oscillating in the fairway!  There are an awful lot of hole locations on many great courses that become unplayable in a gale.   It has no bearing on my architectural apppreciation of the course.  Sand Hills greens should be applauded for having contour and slope.  Many other hole locations on that green would have played just fine; the conditions were just too severe for that single choice of hole location.  Sand Hills is the bomb, plain and simple.  Zero demerits.

Bart

[Ed Oden]

Thanks Gene.  One thing I sensed at Sand Hills was a contrast between the scale of the greens and the scale of the rest of the course.  I mean, the course itself just feels massive in scope.  Yet within that expansiveness, the greens are typically very intimate.  Take #5 for example, which by the way is one of my favorites but seems to get lost amongst all the other great holes at Sand Hills.  From the tee the fairway is as vast as the panoramic views...



However, while the area within which the green sits is consistent with that expansiveness, the green itself is really not large at all and appears dwarfed by the surrounding features...



Personally, I loved the dichotomy.

Ed

[Ed Oden]

Bart, as I recall, I came closer to holing out on #6 than you did.  Does that mean I won the hole?

Ed

[Rob Rigg]

Ed and Bart,

Understood, my second round at Pac Dunes had similar wind conditions - fortunately the pins that day were reasonable and the greens were not stimping too high.