HOMER ALERT: The two teams I coach are fortunate to play some practice and match nines at CCBuffalo. Since we play the front nine way more often than the back nine, we see this hole with regularity.
To begin, I'm not certain who took this image, what lens and camera settings were used, and what post-processing went into the creation of this artistic fiction, but ... you know how they say that television adds weight to everyone? Well, this particular work slimmed the green down to absolutely nothing, and made it appear way longer than it is.
The 6th at CCBuffalo is one of Donald Ross'
Volcano Holes. He has others, usually par threes. In fact, I have a theory that he built this one after he created another at the CCBuffalo 2nd course, the one that hosted the 1912 USGA Open and is now called Grover Cleveland golf course (a municipal layout on the Buffalo/Amherst border.)
The 6th at CCBuffalo plays normally between 123 and 167 yards. When Ron Forse and team did a renovation a few years back, they added a back tee to this hole, at 173 yards. As you guessed, the club was built on and in a limestone quarry, the second in this great land of fruited plains (after Merion, I'm told.) The hole is often at the mercy of the wind, but there's a catch.
As you can see from the image above {
http://www.ccofbuffalo.org/Golf/Course-Tour/6.aspx } the tees offer different angles of attack. Unfortunately, the graphic is from the old hole, as Forse & Co. restored the left bunker to its original spot, thirty-five yards below the front of the green. What Ross did was create a true front to the green, a lay-up area for those who like to rely on a pitch and putt to save par or bogey. It takes no more than wedge or nine iron to reach that area from any of the middle tees, and the entire green is accessible from there. I remind our golfers of this option, should they reach that stage of the match with anything on the line (or if their opponent should be in trouble off the tee.) In an 18-hole round/match, it comes too early for such strategy, but in a 9-hole, high school match, it is the perfect time to make a statement.
Back to the hole. The green is quite long, probably 30 yards from back to front. It is fairly wide at front, gets a bit wider 15 feet up, then narrows to the back ledge. As you guessed, it drops off at the sides and the back (quite precipitously, I might add.) It is a great place to learn to hit flop shots, but not a great place to have one in competition!!
Since the green sits at an angle to every tee, that spot 15 feet from the front is the widest spot (and it is quite wide, about 30 feet across.) With a 7-iron or less in your hands, you can hit that spot. If the flag is way back, you're not hunting it (unless you're daft) so every hole location is accessible from that spot I mentioned.
The hole is so much more playable than the opening image alludes. It is not unfair in the slightest and although visually stimulating, is also architecturally and strategically sound. If i were a member, i would live on this hole; it would be my version of the Seamus McDuff hole from
Golf In The Kingdom. CCBuffalo is fortunate to have two volcanic par-three holes (although this one is better) and two more that are their equal or better. The course is on a smallish piece of land, so the par five holes are reduced to two (one reachable, one perhaps not) and an intrigue of par-four holes that are the match of any course in the area.
In other words, this picture needs a thousand words to tell its true story, for the thousand-word picture it paints is a false one.