Being far from the longest hitter in the world I found the 14th an extremely difficult hole irrespective of which tee I used. In such circumstances I’ll probably play cautiously aiming for drive, second shot layup, third shot pitch to the green and hopefully one putt. Not so straightforward on the 14th at StP though.
After a shortish drive, one that hasn’t reached the corner of the dogleg or one that’s bounced left, which is where many of my various playing partners seemed to hit their tee shots, the second shot is really a tough, awkward, challenging one and not necessarily for the obvious reasons either.
The view towards the green from way back is narrow, the beach is close left and the green itself can’t actually be seen, all of which is fine. In addition, from a long way back carrying the tall blowout bunker on the right side not far short of the green, ie not the blowout bunker on the corner of the dogleg, is unlikely.
So a layup hoping for an up-n-down would seem the most appropriate play. Except that the layup is damn awkward because the fairway at best layup length is extremely humpy-bumpy which makes laying up a combination of challenge and likely unpredictability with small differences in landing spot resulting in quite a variations of bounce and roll, including sideways.
I tired several different methods to approach the 14th green, specifically the length and angle for positioning the layup, all attempted after decent tee shots, without ever achieving an outcome I was happy with. Damn awkward. Fun and frustration and thought provoking combined, which is terrific. I’d love to play the hole many more times to experiment with further methods of laying up.
Not for a moment am I suggesting anything needs changing though, just a playability observation from a short hitter……it’s rub of the green and you take what you get. Sometimes holes favour shorter hitting players and sometimes they don’t. Ce la vie and all that. Be fascinating to know/hear how a long hitter, a much longer hitter, views the hole.
Atb