Kevin
Thanks for the congrats.
Check out this link. From the forward tee it is a diagonal shot to the fat part of the fairway over the waste. One can layup directly in front of the tee and short of the hill - sort of a putzy shot if you ask me - just kick it out there. Or, one can drive blindly over the hill and a bunker the other side - think Alps. And as you say, its a straight shot up the gut between the hill and the waste, but this is quite narrow and imo just as penal as the other options all will eventually be. My suggestion for a tee left still requires a carry, but nothing close to 100 yards. It is still penal, but from that angle the green could well be in sight off the tee - which usually gives extra confidence to my "grandma". Of course, there doesn't have to be an easy street for my grandma, but on a public course, it isn't a bad idea. All in all, I am not overly keen on this drive because its nothing for the flat bellies to make the carry and it seems to hinder the short hitting player more even if playing from the forward tees. In other words, there really isn't a safe route for a slash master to seek a reasonably easy 5/6. I am not against this from a philosophical PoV, but if it were my course, I would be against it from a hitting my bottom line PoV.
http://www.tobaccoroadgolf.com/hole2.html
Ciao
Look at the attached pics from the front tee and from the back tees. From the front tee, it looks like you really don’t have to mess around with the sand, if you don’t want to.
When you mentioned bringing the tee to the front left of waste area, I assumed you would keep the same distance of the hole (300 yards). Since the area just over the ”heroic” part of the hazard is 150-160 yards from the green, that would mean a carry for grandma of 140 or so yards. If you were thinking 100 yard carry, then we’d be talking about a Par 4 of 260 yards of so, which is difficult to design into a course and still be challenging to “flat bellies” (of which I’m not).
Instead of making the hole a 260 yard “easy street”, Strantz stills gives a higher handicapper multiple choices (some of which can be easy).
A) a chance to lay-up short of the bunker on the right (160 yard shot followed by a 140 yard blind approach).
B) If you consider 160 yards a “putzy” shot, then you should have no problems if you aim a little over the sand left and try to hit the fat part of the fairway
C) Or try to be a real hero and thread a fade around the sand on the right
Now, from the back tees, I think you are right that the lay-up options are a little more difficult, but it’s still there. When I played this, I had a hard time visualizing the lay-up to the right, but you can see a decent lay-up area once you look at it from the front tee (again, Strantz and the “visual hazard”). I really can’t see how this would fail to qualify as an easy 5/6, even for a short hitter, since it tops out at 377 yards.
I think this hole is almost the reverse of #5, in that the “hero” gets a bigger landing area than the person laying up on #2, while #5 makes it much easier to lay-up. I like that type of variety. But in either case, I couldn’t call the holes penal, because there is always an option given.
As for someone who can “easily” make the carry, they don’t exactly get a free-ride. If a 215 yard carry is “easy” for you, then there’s a very real possibility you may run out of fairway or be blocked out if you pull to the left side of the fairway (Ron will attest).
For the “slasher” you described, I think he can easily try the lay-up to the right (once he can visualize the shot). But if the 175-210 yard carry from the back sets of tees is right at the edge of his limits, then I think that makes this hole even better. Say the “slasher” can pull off the carry 3 out of 10 times. I’d say “go for it” for the chance to pull off the shot. But if you miss the shot (say 10-15 yards short), it’s not like there’s a fatal penalty. Likely, you’d be in some fairly hard sand, in the range of 170 yards from the hole. At that point, you can try to be a hero & hit a hybrid at the green or advance the ball 100 yards & still be in a fairly easy position to make bogey.
And that’s why the nature of the hazard is the most important thing to me. If the waste area was all water, I’d hate this hole, because coming up marginally short meant you had to try the carry again (which may be a bit much to ask from the everyday player).
From what I can gather, I think your concern seems to be that this hole “reverses” the size of the landing area for the “safe” vs. “bold” shots, which may be a reasonable criticism, if all the holes were like that. But, as #5 shows, there is a variety.