On to hole number 4:
Kingsley Club #4 - 411 yards - Par 4 This is a serious rollercoaster of a fairway. Just like hole 3, you can play for accuracy and an ideal look into the green or you can play for distance and be possibly hampered by a blind approach. The tee ball is quite challenging to keep on the hogs back, but ample room both falling off left and falling off right. Pretty much the only place you don't want to be is the right fairway bunker...that thing is nasty and deep. This green makes almost all of the shots fun though, it is overall sloped from back to front, with a somewhat double-bowl shape. If you can put your approach on the proper level, you will most likely be rewarded with a shortish putt at birdie. The back pin is really cool and my first "Kingsley" experience was watching Mr. Riefs' recovery shot bank off a side-board, funnel and continue rolling about 270 degrees around the edge of the green coming to rest about 4 feet from the hole
The view from the tee box - gives an idea how small of a target the top of the fairway isView from behind the green, almost showing the "double-bow" nature of the greenCrystal Downs #4 - 409 yards - Par 4In my opinion, Crystal Downs really comes to life on the 4th tee box. First of all, the tee is literally steps off of #3 green, which besides being just cool in general is absolutely ideal for walking. The tee ball is begging for a left to right ball flight hugging the right side of the fairway. Ideally, a ball will fight the reverse cant of the fairway for a good look up the green, not needing to carry the collection area short left.
This is probably going to amaze everyone, but the green and surroundings are again, really, really cool. In my opinion the collection area dominates the play and while collecting more wayward shots than a bunker, provides far more recovery options. After hitting a piss poor fade attempt into the woods, I played a miracle shot to get up and down out of the swale for a double.
View from just short and left of the tee box highlights both the cant of the fairway and the need for a left to right tee ball - just short of the greenside bunker in the distance is the collection areaThis is a really tough decision for me. As much as I love the 4th at CD, especially the green complex, I can't hit a fade for the life of me. The fairway and green at KC are really cool and work well together...an easier fairway to hit would make the green over-the-top easy...a more difficult green would make the hole over-the-top hard. The side-boards on the around the green are great. The green makes this hole for me. Kingsley takes this one. ALL SQUARE
Running Score#1 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 1 UP
#2 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 2 UP
#3 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs - 1 UP
#4 (Kingsley Club) - ALL SQUARE