I would be mildly surprised if the 13th hole could survive if it were built today. To be frank, I'm surprised it's survived in it's current form to 2024.
You need to hit it at the left edge of the green. There is a bowl there. It is a great hole that rewards those who figure out how to play it and execute a decent shot.
AGREED. Everyone has different tastes. But I have always thought 13 was one of the best holes on the course. It's a stand out par 3 for me. It requires more strategy than most par 3's and it's beautiful, hard, a half par hole, and a feat if you can par it. I absolutely love it.
I appreciate the response here. I played 4 rounds there with a scratch, a 2, a 7 and an 8 handicap. In those 16 shots, 0 balls ended up on the green. I can see that Jason is right that the bowl on the left will catch the call and allow it to hold the green. I'd argue that area is far too small to expect a player to hit from 180-200 yards out. Especially on such a windy site. I'm not sure how much strategy is really involved if you should aim for that left bowl regardless of where the pin is?
If it was built today, I wonder if it would be softened a bit. Regardless, I agree it is a beautiful and natural hole. I would not place it in the top holes on one of the best 3 courses I've every played, but that's a pretty high bar (and only my opinion)!
Sand Hills has such a different vibe than Ballyneal or Dismal. Us dreaded millenials may not have aged into the quiet confidence of Sand Hills yet. In that way, John is probably right that 30 year olds probably prefer Ballyneal. Sand Hills probably wants it this way, anyways.
We just spent 3 days there and one guy in our group is an 8 handicap and he made par on 4 of the 6 rounds. I think pretty much everyone else had 2 or 3 pars out of the 6 rounds. A couple of these rounds were in wind from 15 up to 20 mph. Options are left, front, front right, or even the right hand bunker is a nice play. The right hand bunker is not a hard up and down. Front and front right can be hard up and downs whether it is a putt or chip but certainly doable. Left has a smaller room for error but certainly a decent birdie opportunity if you can hit the green.
But the bottom line - it is a par 3.5 followed by a par 4.5, #14, which happens to be one of the greatest par 5's on the planet. So the balance of the two is fantastic.