Is this Green Complex Fair?

I’m wondering what everyone’s opinion is of this green complex and suggested strategy to best play this hole…It’s a straight away Par 4 400 yards with a carry ridge @ 240 yards and usually a wet fairway with no roll…If you don’t carry the ridge the ball ends up being about 175 yards away…The right side of the kidney shaped green is about 4 paces wide and the left is no more than 6 paces wide. There’s also a swale to carry for the back section as you can see the pin is about a club length past the ridge on the back section…The slopes around the green are near 4 feet high and don’t hold a shot that either just trickles over, short, left or right. The pin locations are what you see with the one in the middle as in the picture or we have the front left and right tongues…The grass bunker in the middle is dead…It’s always unkempt and mushy with bare mud spots from the last guy that was in there…

Any suggestions on the best way to attack this hole other than fly it over 300 and hit a flip wedge? To me, if you’ve got anything more than a 9-iron coming in and/or not in the fairway, you’re looking at a bogey 8 out of 10 times…
10th Approach sm.jpg
10th Approach Closer in sm.jpg

Here’s a slightly better zoom on the green
10th Green Zoom sm.jpg

Mashie,

Sounds like plenty of challenge there. A run up for the front would be nice for short hitters like me, but nooooooooooooo.

What angle does the swale cross the green for your approach shot from a good spot on the fairway? Is it perpendicular to your approach or is it angled to deflect right or left toward the drop off edge around the green? Sounds shallow front to back for each flag but not sure. Square feet of green? It might be something to diagram the green. Thanks.

1TB,

I can get you more info on square feet etc…but you’re right it’s shallow…I’ve had a few 6-irons hold the green but that’s about it…From the fairway both swales are at 45 degree angles from the front middle of the green…and they deflect the ball as you describe.

It could be a struggle to count that hole when adding up the card Mashie.

Here’s a crude overhead…I’ve drawn in with a white line how the swales run…There’s no such thing as pin 4…Pin 2 & 6 there’s only one hole location useful in the middle…Pins 5 and 3 are legit and relatively flat…If you’re putting from the 6/2 location to the the location it can’t be done and vice versa.
10th Overhead View sm.jpg

Mashie, I am guessing you mean putting from 6/2 to the 1 location can’t be done and vice versa.

Yes 1TB…My mistake…thanks for the clarification

Thinking more about this green and the right approach especially to the Pin #1 location, I might give myself a new rule…If I have more than a 9-iron, I might aim to land the ball on the left side of the #5 location…Even If the ball ends up over the back middle to back left of the green, it’s OK to try to get up & down…

Doing exploratory probes to test that option could be great fun.

Who is the architect? It looks like a Robert Trent Jones or a Nicklaus green. I have played a fair number of Robert Trent Jones designs over in Alabama, and he is very fond of those green designs. But I do not like them. His courses are very long, so even if you get a G.I.R., there is a ton of work in getting a par. And even if you are not far from a green in regulation, there is no guarantee of bogey. Gary Nicklaus did a similar thing to Lagoon Legend in Panama City, an original Bruce Devlin/Van Hagge design.

Bobby Jones would not approve.

You’re spot on Eagle…I don’t really like the course either due to the design and the low budget they have…If the could keep up the course these shots wouldn’t unreasonable. It was designed by Pete Dye’s son…There’s another green that has a shallow finger that’s 90 degree off to the right of the main part of the green. Pete’s son thought he’d also like to bury an elephant in between the main green and this sliver.

Just as an update, I was out there today armed with my new strategy for the 10th hole…Lucky me the pin was placed in the #1 location…I had a choice of muscling a 7-iron/go at the pin or hit the 6-iron to the new landing zone…I went with the 6 and it landed exactly where I intended and unfortunately didn’t leave a ball mark therefore trickling over the back edge…I was hoping that it would stop because they just punched the greens on Monday…Anyway I left my chip much shorter than normal due to the sand top dressing/not my best chip and lipped out the putt…So I made bogey but very happy with this new plan…I’m confident I can score coming in from the back edge of the green…