Is it a bad hole or a great hole? I’ll say neither.
As with most severe greens, whether the hole gets silly is in the hands of the club, not the designer. As long as the green isn’t running too fast (it never has that I’ve seen), I don’t buy grumbles from low handicappers that can’t give their eagle putt a good run without worrying about rolling off the back. Like any other “not easy” hole, make your risk/reward calculation and get on with it.
Why don’t I think it’s a great hole? Think of it from the perspective of everyone that doesn’t have 300 yards in their quiver. 296 is the yardage from the 6500 tee. It’s 283 from the 5900’s. Most people playing the appropriate tee there can not get it green high from the tee. I also don’t know any high or even mid handicappers that “lay up to a yardage” rather than get as close as you can. For that vast swath of people, the tee shot almost doesn’t matter at all (beyond the obvious “don’t hit it in the woods”). The bunker isn’t in play and the right side of the green is not in play. If you’re anywhere in the fairway and short of the bunker, it’s an interesting shot to a blind surface, but that shot is the same almost no matter what you did off the tee. A mid iron leaves a wedge or short iron and driver leaves maybe a 50 yard pitch. Is that shot THAT different for anyone happy to walk away with par? From that position, the most diabolical part of the hole (beyond the bunker and missed right) isn’t in play unless you hit a horrible 2nd or putt off the green.
That 2nd shot and anything around the green is super interesting, but I want more intrigue on the tee for a great 2 shot hole.
That said, I think there are options to elevate it easily.
1) Move the tees up a bit. It doesn’t seem like low handicappers would be affected much strategy or skill wise just having to hit 3w instead of driver.
2) If the bunker was closer to the tee and away from the green. It would add some visual trickery, a la the Cleopatra hole at Jasper, though the shot value is different. That would make more people make more decisions off the tee, a hard slope where the bunker is now would probably shoot a drive down to the right, and being in that bunker would be even more of a penalty. Being in the woods to the left would be worse because the back of the current bunker functions as a nice backstop coming down the hill. The bunker would not be in play on the 2nd shot approach after laying up, for better or worse....probably worse. I don’t like the idea of adding another hazard somewhere. The beauty of the hole is already the simplicity.
3) This my favorite. Add a tee down to the right and occasionally play it as a long par 3 like the approach at the Road Hole, just with a mirrored angle. If you still want it to be par 71 on that day, play #13 way back and put the pin in an evil spot like back left on the little mound.
Compared to other short 2-shot Coore/Crenshaw holes, it falls short. The waste area is very much in play for a lot of players at the 3rd hole, and that green is great. The angle at Wekopa’s 10th (or 2nd for that matter) makes pulling driver more treacherous and the downhill nature makes the green more reachable for more players. Hidden Creek’s 8th has the bunker short much like I suggested above.
Of all the par 4’s on the course, the only one I don’t like better is #11. All of the others have as good, if not better, greens and all ask more questions off the tee to more golfers. In any other county it would be a standout hole, but it’s in a tough neighborhood.