What spot would you aim for.

[iacas]

18 minutes ago, 9wood said:

The greens on this course have the shortest and fastest turf of any course I have ever played. Take that combined with the firmness, slope and speed of the green and you have a challenging green. People who never played it say it's not difficult. Those who have actually played it say otherwise

Have you seen many scratch golfers playing it, or is it mostly 19.1 handicappers playing it?

I'm going to guess that it's a lot more of the latter.

Again, the PGA Tour likely has faster, firmer greens than this one.

If the green truly is that firm and sloped (though that isn't backed up by the Google Earth measurements), then I'm with the others: it's gimmicky, not "challenging."

[saevel25]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

If the green truly is that firm and sloped (though that isn't backed up by the Google Earth measurements), then I'm with the others: it's gimmicky, not "challenging."

Yea I am not buying it either. I've come across very few greens that most players could not hold. Especially when you are talking mid-irons to short irons. 

[Abu3baid]

11 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Yea I am not buying it either. I've come across very few greens that most players could not hold. Especially when you are talking mid-irons to short irons. 

Basically what you are saying is that you have come across very few greens that most players could not hold... Why are you not buying it?  Maybe this one is like one of the very few that you have come across?

[9wood]

56 minutes ago, iacas said:

Have you seen many scratch golfers playing it, or is it mostly 19.1 handicappers playing it?

I'm going to guess that it's a lot more of the latter.

Again, the PGA Tour likely has faster, firmer greens than this one.

If the green truly is that firm and sloped (though that isn't backed up by the Google Earth measurements), then I'm with the others: it's gimmicky, not "challenging."

You are entirely missing the point. My entire post was not about how well pro golfers might do on this hole. The main point was not to ask whether or not pros would be able to get a ball to sit on this green but rather how would you play it based on what I know about this green as well as what the management of this course has also said about this green.

And yes, it is challenging to myself as well as other golfers I have spoken with. But then, I'm not a pro either.

[Lihu]

58 minutes ago, 9wood said:

You are entirely missing the point. My entire post was not about how well pro golfers might do on this hole. The main point was not to ask whether or not pros would be able to get a ball to sit on this green but rather how would you play it based on what I know about this green as well as what the management of this course has also said about this green.

And yes, it is challenging to myself as well as other golfers I have spoken with. But then, I'm not a pro either.

If you don't like some of the responses, then perhaps you could qualify that anyone answering should have a handicap above 18 or something like that?

 

1 hour ago, Abu3baid said:

Basically what you are saying is that you have come across very few greens that most players could not hold... Why are you not buying it?  Maybe this one is like one of the very few that you have come across?

Logically true, but from a practical standpoint I'd have to agree with Matt.

[9wood]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

If you don't like some of the responses, then perhaps you could qualify that anyone answering should have a handicap above 18 or something like that?

 

 

I enjoy all the responses. Yet those who are good golfers shouldn't tell those of us who are bogey golfers that certain holes aren't challenging when in fact they are for us. I wish we all could be low Handicappers, but were not.

Secondly, the OP merely asked how someone might play this hole, not whether pros were able to get a ball to sit on this green. Once again, were not all good golfers, therefore we don't need people telling us bad golfers which holes are or are not challenging to us. We know better than anyone else which holes are challenging for us. If others are better than we are, then please just respect us lousy golfers when we tell you which holes present a challenge for us.

[Ernest Jones]

6 minutes ago, 9wood said:

I enjoy all the responses. Yet those who are good golfers shouldn't tell those of us who are bogey golfers that certain holes aren't challenging when in fact they are for us. I wish we all could be low Handicappers, but were not.

Secondly, the OP merely asked how someone might play this hole, not whether pros were able to get a ball to sit on this green. Once again, were not all good golfers, therefore we don't need people telling us bad golfers which holes are or are not challenging to us. We know better than anyone else which holes are challenging for us. If others are better than we are, then please just respect us lousy golfers when we tell you which holes present a challenge for us.

I don't think that is what has happened here. You stated that it's impossible to hold this green. If that's true, the hole is BS and the green should be renovated. 

I now understand that you mean it is very difficult to hold, but not by any means impossible. That's a very different statement. Hard holes are fine, challenging and sometimes even fun. Impossible holes are BS, not challenging (because they are actually not possible) and definitely not fun. 

[Lihu]

7 minutes ago, 9wood said:

I enjoy all the responses. Yet those who are good golfers shouldn't tell those of us who are bogey golfers that certain holes aren't challenging when in fact they are for us. I wish we all could be low Handicappers, but were not.

Secondly, the OP merely asked how someone might play this hole, not whether pros were able to get a ball to sit on this green. Once again, were not all good golfers, therefore we don't need people telling us bad golfers which holes are or are not challenging to us. We know better than anyone else which holes are challenging for us. If others are better than we are, then please just respect us lousy golfers when we tell you which holes present a challenge for us.

Agreed, but the way it was posed it seemed like the implication was that it should be challenging for everyone. I understand that if I read your posts literally that you always qualified to whom it was hard and not actually in general.

As to the OP, I would probably play 9i and hope for the best. I could hit short I could also run off the back. Even from 60 feet I would probably still putt. My logic is if it ran there it can also roll back. I'm used to long putts like that anyway as I have a lot of lag putts in the 100 foot range anyway, and don't ask me why.

[No Mulligans]

A hole I played this morning at Tecolote Canyon (executive style course) made me think of this thread.  I hit what I thought was a perfect pitching wedge that rolled off the back.  Come to think of it that happens just about every time I have a good approach shot on that hole.  Note for the future, I need to take maybe 10 yards off on my approaches on this hole.

It is kind of weird where they placed the bunkers on this hole.  Maybe to catch all the balls rolling off the back.  This is a Robert Trent Jones and Sam Snead designed course.

The green only slopes slightly towards the back. No divot on my shot, just a little dent, that's what causes the ball to roll off the back.  Maybe if I was playing a urethane ball...

(That was my longest 5w to date, i.e. not typical).

[newtogolf]

The course the LPGA is playing the Honda Classic at has some difficult greens.  I just watched Lexi hit a nice shot onto the green, it rolled into the first cut on the right side of the green, then rolled back onto the green and across the entire width of the green, into a ditch off the left side of the green.  

[DaveP043]

22 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

The course the LPGA is playing the Honda Classic at has some difficult greens.  I just watched Lexi hit a nice shot onto the green, it rolled into the first cut on the right side of the green, then rolled back onto the green and across the entire width of the green, into a ditch off the left side of the green.  

Yeah, some slopes can be pretty tough.  I looked back at the original hole in question, and I see a 5-foot drop across the green itself, which is 22 yards wide (all from Google Earth).  That's about 7% slope (4 degrees), which is pretty significant.   If the green is even moderately fast, that's going to be something of a challenge for most of us.

[vangator]

The course I grew up playing had really hard, fast, crowned greens.  Most shots would roll off the sides of some of them.  Some course were designed by beginners or poor designers.

[ppine]

I have enough trouble with the normal holes.

[9wood]

2 hours ago, Ernest Jones said:

I don't think that is what has happened here. You stated that it's impossible to hold this green. If that's true, the hole is BS and the green should be renovated. 

I now understand that you mean it is very difficult to hold, but not by any means impossible. That's a very different statement. Hard holes are fine, challenging and sometimes even fun. Impossible holes are BS, not challenging (because they are actually not possible) and definitely not fun. 

Nowhere did I state it's impossible

[Ernest Jones]

On February 24, 2016 at 6:55 PM, 9wood said:

You have 138 yds to the green. The green slopes off to the left rear and no matter which part of the green you hit you can be sure your ball will roll off the green and down a hill. So do you aim for a spot just to the right of the green which leaves you with a down hill breaking chip or putt depending on which cut of grass your ball lies in, or do you aim for a spot on the left side and just off the green which gives you an uphill chip shot or putt depending on whether you're in the first or second cut of grass

 

6 minutes ago, 9wood said:

Nowhere did I state it's impossible

Fair enough. I suspect the bolded in the above quote mislead many of us. 

[iacas]

6 hours ago, 9wood said:

You are entirely missing the point. My entire post was not about how well pro golfers might do on this hole. The main point was not to ask whether or not pros would be able to get a ball to sit on this green but rather how would you play it based on what I know about this green as well as what the management of this course has also said about this green.

I would play it by hitting my ball onto the green. If the green was firm, I'd bounce it onto the green by landing it just short.

49 minutes ago, Ernest Jones said:

Fair enough. I suspect the bolded in the above quote mislead many of us. 

Right. That effectively says you can't hold the green.

[RH31]

I'd try to land my ball near the front edge. If I couldn't make par from where ever it ended up, I'd try to get my next tee shot to stop as close to level with the pin as possible. I chip/pitch better when it's flat, regardless of break, than I do either uphill or downhill.

[DrvFrShow]

So looking at the hole from this perspective, the way to play the hole is to hit a 3/4 8 iron, which takes off spin, and land it just short of the green so it bounces up onto the green.