Thanks for sharing. Kyle, it looks like there was some sort of mini-apocalypse going on in the sky in your pics.
Where is Mark Ferguson with his thoughts? Somebody give him a nudge!
I don't want Kyle picking on me, George.
If you think the skies were apocalyptic, wait until the 3rd and 10th holes are discussed!
The 3rd and 4th holes are part of the routing excellence of the course; 1 and 2 are birdie chances for better players, 3 and 4 far more difficult. 1 and 2 also play either downwind or into the wind. 3 will have a drive crosswind, then an approach usually into or downwind. Despite short-hitting Kyle's protestations that the the corner is too far to cut, it is actually only 210 metres, but the width and low dunal nature of the fairway makes it look much further.
I have written this before, but many golfers seem to think that they can hit an approach shot into a green from anywhere in the fairway, and this is most emphatically not the case here on the 3rd. You need to be in the correct position in the fairway to fire at the flag wherever it is. Otherwise you need to forget about hitting it close and either land it on the front if the pin is front, left or front right, or go long if the pin is mid-long right.
Most pin positions the bottom of the flag is obscured, so you need to think about where to land the ball and what the green contours will do once it lands. If you miss the green short, you can use the contours of the green and the dunes surrounding it to funnel the ball back around to the hole.
MIke Clayton once wrote something along the lines that the 3rd, 10th and 13th holes here were designed to allow the scratch player to show why he is superior to the other low handicap players, and that if these holes were 30% easier, they would still be difficult for the average player, but wouldn't allow the better player to show his superiority. My friends who fit that description think 3,10 and 13 are some of the best holes on the course for precisely that reason.