Winged Foot West - 12th hole lengthened

[GeoffreyC]

I have never been a fan of the par 5's at WFW (I think these are its only real noticible weakness) and adding this length to the hole does little or anything to improve this.

One thing I always love about Tillie's Sahara bunker complexes is that they make sure that the drive is at a premium.  If you put the ball in the fairway, the cross hazard is not so much a problem.  Hit it in the rough and your layup in front of the hazard insures that the thrird shot to the green is MUCH more difficult if at all possible. The bunkering on #12 never did that before and it certainly doesn't do that now.  It's very hard to build thoughtful and meaningful second shots on par 5's and the 12th at WFW never had one. As a very long 2 shotter its green complex created a lot of interest but as a 3 shotter its pretty much a yawn (IMHO).

[Neil Regan]

A correction:

I wrote:
12th 640 tip, 600 front of back tee, any yardage from 640 to 470

Actually, the whole long ramp is not kept mowed to tee box height (but could easily be.)
The back (blue) platform goes from c640 to c615. The next (black) platform resumes at c575 to about 540. I forgot to measure to the next (white) platform, but it's about 510 to 470. The original tee box, just off the 11th green, remains. The "new" tee was first built in 1958 and tipped at about 540. The newest tees have extended this back to 640, and the whole set have been slightly re-directed.