Ok, it's been a 22 month rest in the clubhouse...
No. 10 Par 4 361 345 306Once confined by choking tree growth on both sides of the fairway, the frank vista of the 10th tee box has been liberated back to an appealing, strategically pleasing one. The visual effect is that of playing across a wide valley to a pinnacle on the far side. When playing your approach however, the green that was distantly visible when you began the hole is now elevated well above sight line; with only the top of the flag in sight.
Taken from the right of the fairway bunker, at the back of the 13th tee. The 11th tee halfway house in the distance
Though not a true “skyline,” this feature tends to confound distance judgment (even though the shot is generally short at 145-120yards). Once again, brute strength alone will not do; for even the longest hitters who successfully challenge the right fairway bunker will be confronted will a delicate semi-blind pitch off tight and sloped ground to a green that is filled with subtle contour and requires exact distance control to that day’s pin locale.
While not as “pushed-up” or volcanic as the sites in North Carolina, this bold surface is reminiscent of the “Pinehurst” style that shrugs off approaches and putts to all sides. Indifferent approaches and misjudged putts gain deceptive and outrageous momentum around the center of the convex surface, and many shots of this ilk start by looking good, but end up yards away from their intended target. These dynamics make for putts that are rarely straight and often prove to be exacting tests no matter how close they may be. Siwanoy players and caddies generally agree that it is the toughest green to read.
No. 11 Par 3 199 186 138In the playing experience of the design, number 11 is a transition hole at Siwanoy, not in its landscape or topography, but for its signal that the round is going to toughen.
You had to hold water on #s 1-3, but from #s 4-10, there weren't many hazards or opportunities for penalty; you had some free swings. There were reasonably short irons and wedges in your hands on all six approaches. Starting here on this longish downhill par 3, you begin a closing stretch of eight holes that makes significantly more heroic demands on your long game and stands to punishes you with hazard and lost ball penalty if you're not up to it.
The hole itself is somewhat reminiscent of the previously played par-3 third in its distance, and its downhill view. But the greens couldn’t be any different, as the contours of this one are similar to the triangular tip of a gravy bowl pouring towards the tee. Left and right bunkers narrow the entrance, but it is plenty open in front. Along with the downhill, downwind nature, it invites a lower semi-running shot; one that lands 10-20 yards short of the green and scoots on into the cradle of the open bowl.
No. 12 Par 4 359 353 280Just as the par-3 11th is suggestive of the one-shot 3rd, the 12th hole will remind a player of the 8th. The primary difference between them is that here you face a downhill approach shot that is not protected by the deep bunker face that guards #8, but by a small pond that laps up to this green’s entrance on its lower left. This once-trifling visual hazard was expanded to its current status as a "carry" hazard in the Kay renovations and significantly increases the penalty available on the hole.
For 80 years this approach to #12 was guarding by a fat stream 25 yards short of the green; now expanded by Stephen Kay into a menacing pond.
For good or for ill, this alteration has strengthened the difficulty of the hole at medal play. With no evidence that Ross intended the old stream hazard to factor as it does now, this is the lone instance where the Kay "restoration" became "modernization -" it did not uncover or restore a designed shot value; it made a new one to challenge the contemporary golfer. Kay created an even more visually dramatic hazard created on the right side of the 16th fairway, but that one can be said to enhance the strategy of that hole as Ross located it.
The 12th green deserves some mention here as it is a wavy little potato chip that can be very troubling to putt upon. The green has a little more lateral width in its diagonal orientation but it is effectively less than 20x20 paces of real playing area. Yet, in such a compact space it holds so much bold and slippery contour that certain putts of 20 feet can be hit as softly as six-footers and break near twelve. But position that same putt 5 feet to its right or left and it can be a triple breaker that you're better off hitting straight.
No. 13 Par 3 190 175 95 Though membership and tradition has never spoken definitively, it would be hard to dispute the claim that #13 is Siwanoy’s “signature” hole. It both thrills and frightens the player visually from the tee; an uphill giant that lists up to 190 yards but, with the elevation change and prevailing headwind, may effectively play as much as 225 on certain days. The tee box is a long thin strip of 40 yards (well seen in the first photo of #10 above), squarely orientated at the blind green center, 35 yards beyond the maw of an enormous “Sahara” bunker almost directly in the line of play.
The total effect of the presentation, replete with a large flag pole looming majestically behind the hole, is like ascending a monumental or ceremonial altar.
Should a player be fortunate enough to weave a big uphill hit over the cavernous hazard and between its two green-framing cousins on the left and right, he is confronted with the quintessential Siwanoy green surface when they reach the summit; a tiny “burial mound” with more contour in shorter space than can be imagined. The player encountered a similar green when he played the 7th an hour or so ago, only this one has bundled up the swells in an even tighter playing area with more treacherous pitch back to front.
The entire green, measuring a scant 26 x 15 yards, cants like a ramp from back to front and is broken up by two long ridges in the left and right center that also run back to front, swelling slightly in the middle of the green, before tapering back to the general slope of the whole complex at the green front. They create a “thumbprint” hollow between them – repelling and perverting attempts at chips, putts and sand shots from either side
From above any pin position, putts, chips and pitches are an absolute fright and only the most imaginative, delicate touches are rewarded as the pace is blazing. The funneling contours of the two ridge works against the player here, confounding allowance for break and roll beyond routine measure – swinging the ball sharply around the funnel and down toward the green front. At some hole locations, an attempt just missing an edge with anymore than dying force can re-gather and fall off in a long trickle as many 12 feet away from a target missed by millimeters.
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