[Brandon Urban]

I'm playing a little catch up on this thread. #2 may be my favorite par 3 anywhere. There's just something about the way it's benched into the dune and the fantastic green. I agree with Kyle that the front hole locations are definitely the friendliest. The one I fear the most is back left. All I can say is I wrote down a very large number there.

#3 is definitely driveable but I don't know if there is any way to keep a ball on the green. The front bunkers aren't necessarily a bad place to end up off the tee, though. Jason, the dune to the left is definitely not the place to miss... once again, another big number. This seems to be a recurring theme with me and PD!

I know alot of people say #4 is similar to #2 but I have always thought they play very differently. #4 ususally seems to play a club longer for me. Since I am giving everyone the place not to be on each hole, I will nominate the back backer on this hole. It's pretty shallow but one always seems to end up with a downhill lie which is alomost impossible to get to stop as the green runs away from you.

I haven't played #5 from the new back tee, but I have always thought it was a stout test even downwind. Like Mark said, it is pretty difficult to stop a ball on that green downwind. In fact, I never realized there was a bunker long and left until the last time I was there. The wind was howling from behind and I jut had a wedge in. It didn't stop and I discovered something new about PD that day.

Looking forward to the rest of the tour.

[Will Lozier]

Mark,

I LOVE the pic of #2 post-construction!  Would really like to see more old pics of PD if you have any.

Thanks for posting this tour!

Cheers

[Ari Techner]

Great thread.  I love Prairie Dunes and I think one could easily make an argument for PD being the most overlooked of the USAs great courses.  I have not seen the new tees and changes made but I look forward to making a trip soon to see them. 

[Greg Ohlendorf]

Hey Ari,

Just got back. We'll have to coordinate a trip out to Hutch sometime.

Best,

Greg

[Mark Saltzman]

Note: Hole 6 now plays 378 yards from the gold tee markers


The 6th plays downhill to a diagonal fairway.  When the prevailing wind is blowing from the right (I presume) it is very difficult to find the preferred right side of the fairway.

Back tee view:




All tees but the back set play the hole more straightaway:




From the start of the fairway a large hump in the fairway is more easily seen.  Most well-struck tee shots will easily clear this mound, but shorter tee balls (or tee shots played into the wind) will be semi-blind.




Much like the 1st, shorter tee shots that are played to the inside (left) portion of the dogleg will face a semi-blind approach over a dune.






The single bunker guarding the front portion of the green must be carried from nearly all angles.






While the bunker appears to be green side from the fairway, there are several between the edge of the green and the bunker.  A bit of visual deception and added penalty for a poorly struck approach.




And many looks at the green:

From short-left:




From short-right:




From right:






From back right:




From behind:






From back-left:

[Will Lozier]

One critique...those wooden hole diagrams are awful!

[Phil McDade]

Will:

Disagree! Those signs lend a certain low-key, old-fashioned, almost muni-charm to the holes.

Mark:

Great thread so far -- one of the things that really stands out in your photos is how the rolls in the greens are reflected in the rolls of the land there; tremendous symmetry between greens and land, which I actually think is hard to do.

[Will Lozier]

Will:

Disagree! Those signs lend a certain low-key, old-fashioned, almost muni-charm to the holes.

Muni-charm is right!

Cheers

[Jud_T]

Mark,

I assume you finished the round with the same ball you started with.

[Mark Saltzman]

Mark,

I assume you finished the round with the same ball you started with.

  reasonable assumption. Unfortunately, I lost one ball and it was with a well struck iron shot at the pin on the par 3 10th.  We don't know if it got plugged in the face or just stuck in the yucca at the edge of the bunker but  wherever it went we couldn't find it.

[K. Krahenbuhl]

I love everything about the sixth hole.  This tee shot fits my eye more than any other on the course and even with a wedge in hand for the approach you have to put a lot of thought into where you need to land the ball on that green to get it to end up where you want it.  

[Scott Szabo]

From the pictures it looks like there's quite a bit of playing width between the thick stuff on each side of the fairway.  I'd always heard how difficult it was to keep balls out of the gunch, so maybe the pictures are a bit misleading.  I do understand the wind blows a bit in those parts as well.

Great thread Mark.  You've had quite the last two years of golf, haven't you.

If you make it back out in our area, we need to get together for another round.

[George Freeman]

A photo of the hole from shortly after construction.  Very nice to see how little this great par-3 has changed, though the bunkering now looks more uniform and slightly less natural.

How come the old black and whites of all these classical courses look better than the current iteration?  Man that picture looks phenomenal.  I'm not saying the hole in its current form isn't attractive, but I don't think it can hold a candle to that old picture.

Thanks for the tour Mark, Prairie Dunes has always intrigued me to no end.

[Greg Clark]

Really enjoying this thread.  Thanks for the effort Mark.  What a glorious looking course.

[Mark Saltzman]

Hole 7: Par 5, 512 Yards -- 'South Wind'

Though this hole is designed to play with a 'south wind,' the day I played it we had a north wind and it was a brute.  The first fairway bunker, at 215 yards, was just barely reachable, and the cleverly placed second fairway bunker at 270 yards was not in play.  I can only imagine how different the hole would play with a south wind, and I suspect the speed-slot at 280 yards becomes easily reachable making the hole play as nothing more than a mid-length par-4.

Tee View:






The bunkering on the outside of the dogleg guards the ideal line into the green:






280 Yards from the tee the fairway dips, rewarding those golfers that can hit it long and straight with a few extra yards.




The approach to the 7th is an intimidating one.  Though the green is open in front, bunkers and dunes surround the green on all sides, making the target appears smaller than it is.




As the golfer nears the green he can see that while the bunkers do surround the green, there is some fairway grass long, left and right.  I'm not sure it's easier to recover from the fairway grass, though.

It should also be noted that the rear-bunkerin is a recent C&C addition.  Once again, it has been integrated flawlessly.




Green site from left shortly after sunrise:





The 7th green has as much perimeter slope as any green at Prairie Dunes (and that's saying a lot). Shots that land near the edges of the green will not stay on the putting surface.  Several looks at the green, including a couple of black and white photos to show off the contouring.

[Doug Wright]

Great thread Mark. A couple of comments. The 5th fairway may be wide but the signficant left to right slope makes it play much narrower. One needs to find the left side of the fairway, which brings the fairway bunker into play. Brilliant. I thnk the 6th hole is my favorite on the course. The look of the downhill tee shot to the rolling fairway is just great, and although there is a lot of room you need to be accurate to have the best angle to and view of the green. And the slopes on the 6th green are terrific. Last, I agree that the approach to the 7th green is very tough. For some reason (perhaps the cross wind we had) I found the tee shot on #7 to be challenging too.

[Mark Saltzman]

Doug, very interesting that you're the 3rd person I've heard say the 6th is their favourite hole on the course.  Honestly, in the discussion of favourite holes at PD, that one wouldn't have crossed my mind.

[K. Krahenbuhl]

A current change taking place at the 7th - the rough surrounding the green is being transitioned to a tightly mown area.  This will bring the bunkers (especially the new one at the rear) more into play.

I don't think any other hole on the course changes more with the wind.  I've hit that green with a wedge one day only to hit driver - fairway wood - 6 iron the next.  Along with the 13th and 18th the 7th is one of the most demanding tee shots on the course.

[Doug Wright]

Doug, very interesting that you're the 3rd person I've heard say the 6th is their favourite hole on the course.  Honestly, in the discussion of favourite holes at PD, that one wouldn't have crossed my mind.

I like the 6th because it is challenging on all shots but not too challenging as compared to most of the other holes at Prairie Dunes (eg FW wood into 1, 5 and 8, FW wood into the wind at 4 and 15). I love the golf course but some of the shots required were outside my skill set, at least at the time and under the conditions I played it.

What is your favourite hole there?

[David Kelly]

While Bill Coore consults on Prairie Dunes the actual work behind the 7th green as well as the reconfiguration of the teeing area for 1,7, & 8 was done by Dave Axland.

I had mixed feeling about adding the bunkers behind the 7th when I first heard about it and when I saw construction pics of the bunker and dune complex being built I thought it looked terrible and actually thought that they had screwed up the hole.  However when I went to the course for the first time after the work had been completed I thought it looked great and now I am very happy it was done.

[Mark Saltzman]

David, thank you for the correction.  I was told Axland, but somehow it slipped my mind.

Doug, based on limited experience my favourite holes are 1, 2, 17 and 18.

[Josh_Mahar]

If Axland does it- it will be great.  C&C bunkering isn't nearly as good now that Dave isn't doing it all.  No offense to Jeff Bradley and others, they do really good work,  but there is only one bunker builder like Dave  IMHO.

Love this thread as PD is a cool course that our very own Wild Horse resembles very much due to the fact that Proctor and Axland hold PD in such high regard.

[Mark Saltzman]

Note: Gold Tee plays 468 yards with the addition of new teeing grounds


The 8th tee shot is not a difficult when the wind is calm, bit with the wind blowing hard from the left, finding the fairway is no easy task.




The 8th fairway is among the most undulating I have ever seen.  Longer hitters, depending on wind direction, can play over this wild terrain, but many (like me) will be forced to play their second shot from an uneven lie.

A few looks at the undulating 8th fairway:








Shots on the left side of the fairway leave a very difficult and blind approach.  Shots down the right side of the fairway leave a very difficult and semi-blind approach.  The flag is in view, but the terrain surrounding the green and the putting surface are completely blind.  There is plenty of room to miss left (though this is no easy recovery) but this fact is not obvious from the fairway.






Longer tee shots may crest this hill 300 yards from the tee.  If successful, the approach is far more appealing:






A look at the green site from the 4th green:




Once again, Maxwell intimidates the golfer into missing in the wrong place.  A false-front short and a nest of bunkers (complete with Yuccas) guard the right side of the green.  But, the green which slopes severely from back-left to front-right, must not be missed left or long -- from there finding the putting surface is near impossible.  While intimidating, recoveries from the right are certainly the simpler task.

Short of green:





Right of green:



Green site from 9th fairway:





From Ran's Review of Prairie Dunes: "Not content with just the difficult tee to green aspect of the eighth, Perry Maxwell built what is possibly the course’s most severe green with four feet (!) of elevation change from back to front and a ridge through its back middle....Of all his work, no single green is any more impressive than the one here.

Several looks at the green:

Front-right:


Back-right:



Back-left:





Behind:

[Brandon Urban]

The 8th is the hole that usually comes to mind when I stast thinking of PD. So many great things about this hole. The fairway undulations, the bunkering, and the fabulous greensite.
I have hit everything from a hybrid to a wedge into this green depending on the wind and my erratic driver.
I have had a putt from the back right of the green to a front hole location roll right off the front.
Like Mark said, you do not want to be long on the approach. I will add this to my "places you don't want to be" list for PD. Big numbers come into play back there.

[Chris Clouser]

Perhaps the best hole on the course at exacting any punishment for shortcomings in your game.  It is a great hole, but is the most exacting on the course... In my opinion, at least.

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