Hole #3 - par 4 - Sahara
Back tee - 375 yards
Middle tee - 345 yards
After playing the first two holes, the first time player that is familiar with the routing knows that the course is about to be revealed in all its glory. As soon as you can muster up the courage to send the tee shot over the ridge of death that awaits. The carry is not overly demanding, but the ridge is just far enough away from the tee and just high enough to force the unsure golfer to swing a bit harder than usual. We all know bad things can happen when this occurs, particularly when there is a little wind waiting.
After clearing the ridge, the golfer makes one of the toughest hikes on the course... up and over to the other side. The fairway is as generous as it needs to be given the blind nature of the shot. Extreme width to miss a far right or long as you'd like, though the tee shots that run through the fairway will potentially face a second consecutive blind shot. Left is ok, as long as you don't go too far left of the tree. Most shots to the left side of the fairway will funnel down the fairway with a nice look at the green. Too far left is probably one of the worst spots on the course to miss, but you have to be pretty far left to get there. Short of the ridge might only cost you one stroke, but it could be worse depending upon the lie you get.
The third isn't too long, so you don't need to do too much with the tee shot. The tee shot will generally play as a bit of a diagonal or cross wind. One faces a somewhat helping wind in the summer and hurting in the winter. I suspect the winter wind we faced on opening day was just enough to leave a few golfers facing a second shot over the ridge after a poorly struck tee shot. There were a couple in our group's three rounds.
The Sahara features another great green, though I suspect the fairway will get most of the attention here. It's a great green on a course full of many of them. The fairway, on the other hand, has some really extreme movement with contours and a left to right elevation change that feels like something one might see at Sand Hills or Ballyneal.
The ridge makes its presence known from the very beginning of the round. Here it is seen as the golfer walks from #1 to #2.
Here's the view from the 3rd tee box.
The fairway looks like this
Looking back from the fairway to the ridge
The large green is in full view from the left side of the fairway
Coming from the right side parts of the green may be hidden from view
The far right side behind the mound
The green from behind
A little closer view of the bowl with the opening day pin placement
