Mike Clayton (8)

OK, it’s time to start talking about Mike Clayton’s golf course design at Peninsula Country Golf Club again – the North course.

1 North.

My only comment is regarding the pin location board at the first tee. What’s the point of having such a thing if it’s wrong half the time?

3 North.

A very large proportion of second (or third) shots on this hole will find the collection area on the RHS of the fairway about 100m out. Doesn’t matter if you hit a good solid shot straight down the middle or a topped shot down the left or right. Chances are it will end up amongst the diviots in the collection area and you have to have a fair bit of luck to get a clean lie.

Any hole that has such a collection area is badly designed in my view. Again, it means that luck comes into the outcome far too much (with respect to the lie), as well as the fact that the fairway in that area sustains much more than the normal amount of wear and tear.

6 North.

The uphill, flat green makes a difficult approach shot with anything other than a pretty short iron (particularly if the pin is tucked behind the greenside bunker). This means you have to be fairly aggressive with the tee shot if you decide to play to the right of the fairway bunkers, or extremely accurate/lucky if you play to the left.

The landing area to the left of the fairway bunkers is quite small and slopes steeply down into the bunkers. If you drive to the right, the shot must avoid or clear the first fairway bunker and the tree overhang just to the right of the women’s tee. If you achieve both of these then you run the risk of going too far and being stymied by the large tree on the right of the fairway.

Whenever I play this hole, I always feel I need a fair amount of luck as well as hitting good shots to achieve par. I think the hole would be greatly improved if one of the following were done:

- the landing area to the left of the fairway bunkers increased in size and flattened

- the tree overhang near the women’s tee removed

- the first fairway bunker removed

- the large tree on the RH side of the fairway removed.

This would make this hole, again, more a test of golf than a test of luck.

9 North.

I’ve no problem with this hole as such, just worth commenting that the recent changes made to the hole once again support my view that Mike Clayton is not the golf master of the Universe at Peninsula that a number of committee and Gary Richardson would have us believe.

12 North.

In my view, the most difficult hole at the club. The severe ridgeback fairway will severely punish any tee shot or second shot that is even slightly off-line. I have no problem whatsoever with difficult holes, provided they are fair. That is, they reward a good shot and don’t unduly punish shots that are ever so slightly off. I don’t know of anyone who likes this hole and what’s the point of that? It might give Mike Clayton a devious sense of gratification to know that all golfers at the club struggle with this hole, but I would have thought building a good, fair, albeit tough hole would be more in line with good golf course design than a ridiculously unfair one.