Crystal Downs #16 - 588 yards - Par 5The 16th at the Downs is a true brute of a hole...at nearly 600 yards this is going to play as a lengthy 3 shotter for even the longest of hitters. The look off the tee is a good one, wide open and encouraging for the monster drive you need to hit here. I thought it was an interesting use of scale again, because it looks like you should be able to cut a bit off the corner, but in reality that fairway starts turning about 290 yards off the tee. The second shot here was really one of the only mundane shots on the course in my opinion. It actually is a blind shot off an upslope, so hitting a long iron or wood is not a simple task. I couldn't discern an optimal side to really lay up to, and middle of the fairway seemed to be pretty adequate. The green is fantastic, with a lot of tilt and well bunkered. An interesting feature is the dip in the fairway right off the front edge...I can imagine that is not a good place to be and certainly adds something to contend with on the approach. Like every other hole on the course, below the hole is ideal and there are a lot of subtleties to the green. I played 3 excellent shots, only to be faced with a 10 foot slider and was fortunate to walk away with par. A hole that, in my opinion, would probably grow and reveal a few secrets the more you played, but on the surface seemed like a straightforward beast that calls for proper execution.
View from the tee, with the green nowhere in siteThe approach shot to the heavily tilted and heavily bunkered greenKingsley Club #16 - 225 yards - Par 3A wonderful par 3, where options abound. Play it off the hill high and right, directly at the pin or a low, running straight on shot. This was great fun to play into the wind, down wind, from the tips, from short...everywhere. The bunker left is very imposing, gathering a lot of balls that carry too much steam off the hillside. The really fearsome place to miss however, is the depression short left. This gathers a ton of missed shots and is a really difficult up and down. The green itself is one of the flatter ones on the course, but a ton of subtle contours help keep the ball out of the hole. All in all a really fun par 3 and my favorite on the course.
Also, forgot to mention of nice looking this hole is from the tee - just really well doneEven though #16 at Crystal Downs is really good, and a nice change up from the previous few holes in that it has a nice open feeling, I really loved the 16th at Kingsley. I thought it was the most dynamic par 3 of a group of really good ones. As a set I feel the 3s at Kingsley are better than the pieces individually, but 16 stands on it's own as an excellent hole. Kingsley Club takes this one - Crystal Downs 1 UP
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
#5 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 1 UP
#6 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 2 UP
#7 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 3 UP
#8 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 4 UP
#9 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs - 3 UP
#10 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs - 4 UP
#11 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs - 3 UP
#12 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs - 2 UP
#13 (DRAW) - Crystal Downs - 2 UP
#14 (Crystal Downs) - Crystal Downs 3 UP
#15 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs 2 UP
#16 (Kingsley Club) - Crystal Downs 1 UP