So if your tee shot finds the left bunker, can you just chunk it out and it rolls down the hill to the green?

So if your tee shot finds the left bunker, can you just chunk it out and it rolls down the hill to the green?

I assume you mean the central fairway bunker.. and I'm not sure it's that easy.  For one thing it's pretty deep, so any shot out of it would have to have a pretty high trajectory... and another, the ground isn't typically THAT firm such that gravity alone causes a ball to reach the green... you have to have some speed behind it.

Bottom line is that bunker is not a happy place, which of course is another part of the hole's greatness.  

This hole also reminds me a bit of #10 at Hanover (N.H.) Country Club, though the second part of the fairway doglegs slightly right and isn't as steep as Kapalua #6.

It's not good behind the hole, but not exactly death, as I recall. Death is more available along the sides of the green. Not saying its a replica, just the same idea. And I would say there are land forms at Hanover CC where #6 could have been duplicated...more or less. There used to be a ski jump in the middle of the course.

Tom IV --

You are absolutely right. The land on which Kapalua No. 6 was built does not exist anywhere else on Earth.

I can say this with absolute confidence, never having been there!

Dan

P.S. to Rick: No 18 at that awful course in Cottage Grove (honest to God, I've forgotten -- at least for the moment -- the name!) could have been built this way, couldn't it, right down to the river? (Offering the requisite death, if not the surfers, in the background.)

Dan - well I'm glad you see the truth here.

 

TH

Alright TH, you've carried Jordan's Water long enough. Kapalua is his baby, let him get a word or two in.

You're right of course.  But he's not present... when he returns, this is all his.

 

Northland has a hillside or two that would work, in the back nine -- doesn't it?

I'm not sure which hole at Hanover you speak of Rick, as #6 now is a downhill tee shot over the ravine (and crossing the line of play on #18) doglegging left uphill to the new green that used to face the fairway (and tee) straight on before the renovations.

The best aspect of #6 at Kapalua is that it takes both prevalent winds into consideration.  With the trade winds (those that make 1, 6, 7, 12, 17, and 18 downwind), the bunker is carryable rather easily, and for the pros, the difficulty lies in hitting the right slot to stay on the green without bounding over or right into jail.  With the Kona winds, the opposite effect for #6 takes place, as the bunker sits something like 250-280 in the middle of the fairway, and is much more difficult to carry.  Then the play must pick the correct side, and the preferred angle is obviously to the right, closer to the dropoff to the valley on the right side.

Most if not all the holes at Kapalua are designed with these two wind conditions in mind, which to me makes it even more captivating, and makes the PGA tour boys think every year.  There may not be a more wind-effected course they play all season (provided it doesn't blow at the Open).

Add the scenery, and you are hard pressed to name a better place for a relaxed game in the US.

I'm not sure which hole at Hanover you speak of Rick, as #6 now is a downhill tee shot over the ravine (and crossing the line of play on #18) doglegging left uphill to the new green that used to face the fairway (and tee) straight on before the renovations.

My mistake, Brad. I meant to type #10, not #6, at Hanover CC. It plays 313 from the tips:



Dan:

If Ross had shoved the tee way up on #14 at Northland, you might get a similar effect. Missing right, left or long on that green is tantamount to death (and could be worse if they let a bunch of gunch grow up around and behind it), but the slope of the fairway down to the green isn't as steep as K#6, and it doesn't very often get firm and fast enough to replicate that approach.



Jason:

 I've only played #11 at Wirth once, but as I recall, it has a lot of the qualities of K#6. At 335 yards from the regular tees, though, it's too long for the likes of me (and most golfers) to think about driving the green. You're kind of a gorilla, though -- have you done it?

Not just any flat to downhill works to replicate 6.It actually has a speed slot where a ball hit just to the right of the bunker will tumble down to the green but a blast over the hill in the middle of the fairway will hang up for an uncomfortable 60 yard downhill pitch.

At Kapalua: how do mortals, who can't drive the green, play their second shot, when the wind is with them?  Does the ground game come into play?  Can you fly onto the green and hold it?