Mike Clayton (4)

9 South.

Another lost opportunity. An extraordinarily unfair green. For most golfers (who can’t fade a 7-iron 180m), the green offers about a 3m gap to hit your shot in order to hold the green. Hit left of the gap and you run 3-5 metres off the green. Hit right of the gap and you end up in the greenside bunker. The bunker is quite deep but narrow, resulting in the sand forming in a V-shape at the bottom, making an explosion shot onto the (away sloping) green almost impossible.


To make the situation worse, just to the left of the green, where the vast majority of tee shots end up, there are seven (count them - seven!) watering system covers to get in between the next shot and the hole.

If Mike Clayton had removed the bunker altogether, the hole would have been greatly improved. You would have had a slightly bigger gap to aim for, and an ever so slightly misdirected shot would not be so severely punished.

I don’t know of anyone who likes this hole, other than Mike Clayton.

So, both par 3s on this nine are holes where the vast majority of mid to high handicappers cannot hope to hit their tee shots onto the green. Oh what fun!