Hole 17: Par 4.5
This one is a conundrum, or at least presents one. To begin, you can't tell where to go from the tips. It then follows that you shouldn't actually go where you're supposed to go. Hit a good one straight out into the fairway belly and you run through into a pond...nice reward for excellence. There is a deck some forty yards right of the regular tees, on the far side of the pond, that makes the tee ball a straighter, more obvious affair. The apparent answer to move the tees back isn't it, as you would then have a massive downhill slope right in the resting zone of the tee ball. To wit, the proper tee ball goes over the trees on the inside (left) corner of the hole. The approach is then played uphill with anything from mid-iron to hybrid, to a nicely-sited green. This one borders on interesting, thanks to the topography.
A very strange hole arbitrarily changed from a Par 5 to a Par 4 several years ago. As Ron said, it is the one hole on the course where I really have very little clue about the line off the tee.
I’d disagree with Ron that moving the tees back isn’t a possible answer. I wouldn’t mind the slope in the new landing area, as it would then present the great risk/reward trade-off of going for a Par 5 in two.
In reality, the over-the-top challenges in the landing area (visual uncertainty, sloped landing area, pond only in play for “too long” a drive) were geared towards defending the original designation of a short par 5. On top of that, the green is sited tight to out-of-bounds left. If you wanted to get an Eagle many years ago, you had to navigate a number of risks. But if you wanted to play conservatively, the challenges were appropriate.
This one harkens the whole debate of “does par matter?” This hole is a bit over-the-top in the challenge department. It’s all a mental game, but believing there is a “risk/reward” trade-off inherent in the mental concept of a Par 5 seems more acceptable than the “mandate” concept of a Par 4. Plus, for years, I liked that this was the only Par 73 course I knew.
Hole 18I used to think this was a “heroic” hazard, but going over the water really doesn’t open up any improved angles. Really, it’s a penal hazard to finish your day, especially from the back tees. However, from the White Tees, going over the water is necessary to keep you from driving through the dog-leg.