I'm seeing a lot of Eastern States guys voting for North Shore without any discussion attached and I wonder if this is a case of people who have not played a hole not seeing its virtues through photographs alone? Forgive me, gentlemen (Mayday, Bill, Pat) if that's not the case.
Alex, what you say might be so for those capable of carrying the ball 230 yards with accuracy. That doesn't describe many of us, and for those who can, I'd argue a lot of Redan greens can be hit on the fly and held. If you do take the green on here and fall short, you're in a pretty fearsome bunker.
The day I played Riv, three of us were in the group. Player 1 hit it arrow straight at the right fringe and stayed there. Player B hit a drawn four wood that landed about 10 yards up the hill and settled about a foot off the green. Player C hit an even more pronounced draw with a three wood, landed 20 yards or more right of the green and his ball was in the right centre of the green.
The slope of the green also works in nicely with the kickpad, as it should.
Say what you will about kikuyu, but that kickpad absolutely works as it should on such a hole. There may not be a bunker right/long, but there is a drop down, which used to be, as I understand it, even more prounced before the days of clubs beaing fearful of litigation.
I haven't played North Shore, so I can't argue relative merits, but I do think the 4th at Riv gets sold short. It's a hell of a hole.