205 uphill yards.
3 is a welcome score
9 at The Goat
Looks fake and good 💁.
Ciao
Personally, the above is what I consider a benched green: rudimentary / functional cut and fill (as per Marty’s diagram) on a consistent slope both below and above, not just a raised green at the bottom of a slope, as per many of the examples given after.
Yes it looks fake. Does it look good? Not to my eyes but there is a certain attractive simplicity… more importantly, does it play well? Generally no it doesn’t. A steep rise at the front giving no ability to land short. And a steep rise at the back meaning the play is often just to bang it in there and hope it comes back down.
There are plentiful examples in Ireland on good courses, always built by locals, sometimes to Hackett designs. Specifically there are two on courses I am working on: 4 at Strandhill and (old) 7 on the Hackett 18 at Carne. Neither of these are good green sites / complexes.
Fake?
I don't even know what that means.
Is there a golf hole anywhere that doesn't look "fake" in its landscape?
I guess that is the subject of a whole 'nother thread re: the importance of "tie ins".
As Ally, says, I admire the simplicity of the design and the demands of the shot in the context of the entire course.
In its original form it was a 257 yard par 4(that must have been a very long walk back from 8 green(It's already nearly 100 yards uphill from 8 green to 9 tee with the hole playing is current 205.
The benched green at the final hole at The Goat works perfectly as one has played 8 straight holes where there are various ways to run/bounce the ball onto the green, in fact I would argue this is one of "maybe" two holes on the course where the approach should land on the green on the fly.