The first picture is No. 8, 440-yards. It is usually downwind, but occasionally there is a headwind coming from America. The better approach is from the right, but this requires negotiation of the bunkers and dunes. The left opens up, but descends by 15-feet. From the left you are headed well up (25+ feet) to the green and the dune pimple comes into play. From the right you are on higher ground and usually do not have so much of the dune pimple to contend with.
Tom — We left about 5-6 of the small dunes, but the tiny one at No. 8 is the smallest. Tim Taynor, my shaper on this work decided to save about a dozen extra dunes on No. 8 — probably because I kept painting so many when we staked the hole. When I got there the following week it looked like someone had forgotten to clear the fairway...but I appreciate his delicate hand. He and I both decided that there was something interesting about the tiny dune at the green. Also, because we had wall-to-wall SeaDwarf Paspalum, we opened the green up behind it and have now mowed an area as a tiny "extra" green, although it is connected.
A mother dog had her four puppies behind the green. She still lives in a great rabbit hole. Here she is wondering what we are up to.
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Second photo is No. 4, 140-yards. The tee shot is into a notch (This photo is taken right of the notch...at about 20-yards from the green.) You cannot see any of the putting surface except when you walk up behind the back tee. A pin right is in a punchbowl. A pin left is hidden mostly by the dune forming the notch. The small pot at the sleeper wall needs to be deeper...but we have had loads of blowing sand up until March. The sleeper wall holds back the natural dune that we etched a bit to form the green. It really is a matter of getting comfortable with your distance at No. 4 — and getting a hold on the wind. Because the hole is buffered by the dune, the tee can seem very calm.
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Third photo is No. 5, 400-yards. This shot is from the forward tee, which is right of the main tee alignments. There are two dunes with some turf in between. The second dune requires a 250-yard carry — usually into the wind. From the regular tees it is usually no problem to carry both dunes. It really looks more intimidating that the tee shot amounts to in reality. There is lots of room left and right, but any choice besides straight adds to the distance and sets up an approach that can be blind or partially blind.
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No. 15 (last photo) is 200-yards. (Photo is from the tee, about 35-foot drop shot. The tees behind are No. 9.) It is always fighting a cross wind. The four pads set into the slope and were created so we could form a green in this area. we simply took the sand that was there and flattened it in place. The result was a green with four flat-ish levels. The pin is on the upper level in the photo. There is another front, one back/right and one below to the far-right. we have had a lot of problems with this green due to blowing sand during building and, now, mowing practices that require careful hand work. I am working on getting the harsher ridges to soften — but not at the expense of losing the definition between levels. It is a crazy green. I putted from well right and hit my hickory about as hard as I could. I was 10-feet short on the 15-foot up-hill putt!