Yep, my bad, typo saying the 12 tee moved back when I meant the 11.
Originally 1 and 2 were both par-5s, with the first tee up where the current cart barn (there is a practice putting green up there now) and the second tee being just behind the first green. The stretch from nine to 11 was three straight three shotters, with the 10 tee being close to the first tee, a lay-up before the barranca, and the 11 tee between the 10 and 16 green. Jones’ shot would have been a power slice over the 12 green and following the left to right (from below) contours of the 12 fairway. There is a reason it is still talked about today… it was an amazing shot, not a shot tried by mortals.
Personally I like the 11 and 12 the way they are now. When I was into scoring, my goal around the 10, 11 and 12 was to play them in 14 shots or less. A par and two bogies and I felt like I did a good job there. Sometimes I make a par on 10 or 11, and sometimes birdie 12, and I figured I played really well. I like the par 4.5 aspect of 11. Make a par there and you should be proud of yourself, make a birdie and you’ve done something rarely done. Congrats Shivas!
I remember one time I pared both 10 and 11 and was feeling read good until I made double bogey on 12. Still I should have been happy with my 14.
I’ve played Pasatiempo perhaps 50-60 times. Every time I finish playing 11, I look back and decide I’m going to try something different next time, trying to hit it as far up the fairway as I can. Almost every time I get on the tee I wimp out. When you are up at the end of the right side fairway you see you have all kinds of room up there. But from the tee it looks like you have to be very careful, it looks like there is no percentage in hitting it further, better to keep it toward the left side. I have a lot of trouble convincing myself that it is all an illusion. The hole is not nearly as doglegged as it looks from the tee.
If you really wanted an alternate fairway for 11: Eliminate the 12 hole, move the tee to the current 13 hole somewhere on the hill to eliminate a shot over houses, probably making the 13 a two-shotter hole. Eliminating the 12 hole and making golfers hike from 11 green to 13 hole would be a bad idea. Then make the one-shotter new 13 right of the current 13 green, between the 13 green and 14 tee. Eliminating the 12 green could allow you to move the 11 tee closer to that area, giving golfers a more realistic choice of fairways, but move the tee too far left and nobody would ever choose the right fairway.
For those that worry about par you are going to have a strange configuration:
4-4-3-4-3-5-4-3-5—35 4-4-4-3-4-3-4-4-3—33 –68 (New configuration)
5-5-3-4-3-5-4-3-5—37 5-5-4-5-4-3-4-4-3—37 –74 (Original configuration)
5-6-3-4-3-5-4-3-6—39 5-4-4-5-4-3-3-5-3—39 –75 (Jones’ score on opening day.)
Dan King
”Many good golfers consider the second nine holes at Pasatiempo the finest in existence. The short holes are specially good, and I think the sixteenth hole is the best two-shot hole I know. I certainly do not know of any hole which gives so great an advatantage for length and accuracy.”
--Alister MacKenzie