I just got to spend the weekend at the Kingsley Club and played the course for the first time. I hadn't seen this thread before but read all the way through when I got home and wanted to post my thoughts on the course.
We had a little rain each day that made the course play softer than it normally does but the ball was still rolling some in the fairways. The greens were holding much better than they normally (at least that was my impression).
The course was simply fantastic! You never wanted to stop playing each day. While the two nines had distinct characters they felt connected. I think this was because of the alterations and tree removal on 10 and 18, 14 and 15, and 17. That seems to have really brought the nines together as the older pictures I saw with the trees just didn't look right. The routing was spectacular. I particularly liked being on the second hole and having all of the action around you. That would be great fun in a club tournament. The back nine routing had tremendous flow and pacing. I thought the score had plenty of opportunities for scoring and wasn't overly difficult as others have thought. Of course, I probably played it in the easiest conditions possible (see above) even though we had some wind.
Someone asked how they would split rounds with Ballyneal and Kingsley. I would go 6-4 with the edge to Ballyneal because I think Ballyneal has just a little more variety and a few more options for changing the nature of the holes based on what "tee" you play from. Although Kingsley had some fun par 3s we made up. Unfortunately we didn't get to play the reverse routing devised by Andrew Lewis that may have swayed me to 5-5 on the round split.
The front nine has some stand out holes. In fact, many of the individual holes may be superior to the individual holes on the back nine. However, I liked the back nine better because of the pacing of the holes. I didn't sense as much difference in difficulty between holes as I did on the back nine, which hard more half par holes. My favorite stretch on the course, which was just sublime, was 13-16 and I could almost through in 11, 12, and 17 as well.
Here are my quick thoughts on each hole.
1 - Great opening par 5. No real way for to reach the green in 2 or even just bomb 3 wood on the second shot, which is a rarity any more. Great second shot that makes you carefully decided to lay up or challenge the pinched fairway at the 100 yard mark and makes it hard (almost impossible) to get that perfect sand wedge distance. The third shot is way more uphill than you think.
2 - Fantastic short par 3. Doak wasn't fan because there weren't bailt out areas. I saw two - the back bunker long and hit a sand wedge or little pitching wedge in the rough about 25 yards short of the green. From either spot you should be able to get the next on the green and make four. But who wants to bailout on such a short par 3, which is the genius of the hole. Any slight miscue gets severely punished. I would think this could rack up the most others of any hole on the course.
3 - Great driving hole. One day I played from the right wing of the golf tee on #5. That was a really interesting drive. Next time I will play from the white tee on #5 making it a real cape hole.
4 - After the first time through this hole seemed a lot easier. I found the play to be down the left as it shortened the hole and left a manageable wedge shot even though it was partially blind. Really good green site and I loved that the middle ridge was big enough to put pins on.
5 - Nice punchbowl green site. Any of my shots that found the green always seemed to find the same spot no matter the club or how I hit them, which detracts from the hole a little. Might need some more plays to figure out to get to other parts of the green.
6 - Similar to 4 in that the drive got easier after the first time through. Really like how the green is benched into the hill. It is either really hard to judge the distance of the second shot (as mentioned in the thread) or I was really afraid of going long and left as I was always short of the flag. A back left flag would have some serious pucker factor.
7 - Despite birdieing it the first three times I played it, this was my least favorite hole on the course. Lay up off the tee. Lay up on the second shot. Wedge it on the green. Not very exciting. The slopes are just too severe to challenge with the driver (I did once from the blue tees but have no chance to do so from the gold) and the reward isn't that great as you end up in the bowl just past the left trees. That's a very difficult shot if going for the green in two.
8 - Good hole. The green looks like it would be really tough to hit to if they were their normal firmness.
9 - I found this hole much easier than 2 although I didn't like it nearly as much. Mayhugh and I even played it from next to fairway bunker on #8, which was about a 5 iron to the far left pin. Cool shot with a totally different perspective since it was up hill.
7-9 was probably my least favorite stretch of the course. That doesn't mean they were bad holes though.
10 - Totally different looks from the blue and gold tees. Really like this green site and the options on how to play your second shot into the green. Next time I will tee off from the driving range, which makes the hole a little longer, plays more uphill, and again changes the angle.
11 - I thought this a subtly brilliant par 3. The front bunker guards that part of the green nicely but you have the small kicker slope on the left. The back tier would be quite frightening to play too from the back tees. The false side on the right gathers many more shots than you think it would. I can see why some think it's a breather hole, but it could bite you if you aren'y careful.
12 - First time through I didn't think there was much to this hole. Each time through I appreciated the green more and more. I could never get the tee shot quite right as four out of the six times I hit it on the hill to the right.
13 - Favorite hole on the course. An drivable par 4 that actually have a chance to drive it on. I did the first day from the right blue tee with a three wood. I didn't carry a scorecard so the first time through I was trying to figure out if it was a par 3 or par 4. Every time I played this hole I wanted to run back to the tee and play it again. We asked the super for a back left pin after the first day. He obliged with two holes on the green for the rest of the weekend - one on the back for us and another hole for everyone else. We couldn't get enough of playing to the back left flag and trying to figure out how to make par.
14 - Great fun standing on the back tee and trying to just blast it over the bunkers. You can really let it rip on this hole. Loved the green site and how you could run it on the green in two up the right, which brought the bunkers in play, but if you go slightly left you catch the slope and are left with an awkward third. But there are lots of green contours you can use to get the ball close from left of the green.
15 - Earlier comments said good players often don't like this hole. As a good player all I can say is what a bunch of pusses. I loved this hole. The knob in the left side of the fairway really messes with you. Don't challenge it enough and you be playing a fade on your second. Go a little too far left and you have a tough second from the rough. The last time we played the hole from the blue. I hit a great drive that gave me a straight shot at a back left flag with a 4 iron. I pured the 4 iron but it drew just a yard or two too much and bounded into the back left bunker. I hit a great bunker shot to 10 feet. Missed the putt and made 5. I hit what I thought were three perfect shots and didn't make a par. Has to be the hardest hole on the course.
16 - I can't think of anything more fun than playing your shot out to the right and watching your ball bound left, disappear, and reappear on the green. One day from the back tees I aimed just inside of the trees on the right and ended up on the left side of the green. The last round from the blue I was trying to play a low drawing 5 iron. The line was good but I got a little too much of the low part as I hit it thin and the ball didn't get much more more than 5-10 feet off the ground. When my ball cleared the hump short of the green and I saw it running to the middle left flag I said don't go in (can't have that as my first hole in one). My ball stopped a half inch short of the hole. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything.
17 - Great fun. I was only able to get it over the hill one time since we were usually into the wind. My best shot of the weekend came on this hole. I smashed a drive from the gold tee. The ball was about 10 yards of going over the hill on a slight upslope in the right fairway. I had close to 280 into a slight breeze. I hit the best 3 wood of my life that was just a towering shot. Landed on the green, rolled about 3 feet and came to rest 20 feet from the hole. Unfortunately the putt was the saddest attempt at eagle ever. It will be impossible for me to get it over the hill from the new gold tee I think.
18 - Good transition back to the openness of the front nine. Another fund punchbowl green site.