I’ll throw my 2 cents in (probably not even worth that), I don’t like it. I guess I could leave it at that but, I’ll explain why. I look at this hole and feel like Tom Hanks in the movie Big. The scene where he’s in a meeting with the toy maker big-wigs and playing with the skyscraper robot and then says ‘I don’t get it’. Why a skyscraper robot, what fun is that? Why this for an opening hole, what fun is that? What fun is the rest of course going to be after running into this on the first hole?
There doesn’t appear to any advantage going to the narrow right fairway. Smaller target, more risk and your reward is playing over the bunkers to pin. That’s if you aren’t blocked by the hazard tree.
Going left will result in a longer shot (if the tree allows an unobstructed 2nd) however, this route provides a chance to chase a thinly hit second shot onto the green. This is fine except the hazard tree.
I don’t know what a guy that has real life jump up on the day of his tee time and he arrives in the parking lot 5 minutes before teeing off, sculls a drive short of the crossing bunkers, has no chance at reaching the green in two and has to hit a ribbon of fairway that’s narrower than the green to leave himself a half-way decent chip. That second shot layup is going to be a big challenge for anyone trying to layup short after a poorly hit drive or just short hitters.
That previous paragraph is probably flawed in that even if the guy is arriving 5 minutes before his tee time, he will have 20-30 minutes to warm up because your average and worse golfers will likely struggle on this opening hole and back everything up.
Suggestions: Remove the tree between the fairways that can leave a good drive in the fairway dead for a second shot, replace it with one of the crossing bunkers. Remove the forward right bunker, average golfers tend to miss short right on second shots, hey put a bunker there and give them a 30-40 yard bunker shot for their 3rd, they love those, slow things down some more on the opening hole. Keep the two levels of fairway but make it one wide fairway, remove the tongue of rough and the shrubs (what? why? shrubs? May as well put a 6’ diameter of hole of water there, plays the same if hit into). Double the width of the fairway from the hazard tree to the green to give a recovery shot a target. Move the other crossing bunker to the tip of the tongue of the existing rough, but allow the crossing bunker to be playable for a layup shot, not too deep faced.
Remove the gimmicks, create interest with the crossing bunkers (one is a hazard, the other is for aiming/definition) and get the golfers onto the course without beating them over the head with a bad score due to hole being tricked-up. That may have been a harsh review, long frustrating day at work, but looking at this hole just doesn’t look like it and the rest of course will be any fun.
Looking at the course aerial, there doesn't appear to be any other holes that look like this one.
Gary K.