Hole 1
This hole is a slight dogleg left. Most hitters will be aiming
past the dogleg from this tee and landing the ball a bit crosswise to
the fairway. Even though the fairway is wide, this angle of approach
narrows the fairway down quite a bit. Unless you have confidence in your
ability to hit the ding, avoid putting backspin on the ball here.
Backspin amplifies the effects of a mishit, and there's just not that
much room to miss. The landing area is a half dozen feet below the tee
box, so plan on your shot being a little long anyway.
On the
right, just past the dogleg, there's a big bunker just waiting for a late hit
shot.
Pulled shots will usually find the 30-40% rough with no look at
the pin. The best position is on the right side of the fairway as far up
as you can get it.
The Approach
From a good
fairway lie, this is usually a short iron into an upsloping green that's
5' or 6' above you. The green has a fair amount of room in front if
your coming in with a mid iron, but don't expect a lot of run. The
upslope of the green causes many approaches to stop short of their
intended target. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
The danger
of this back left pin placement is in being long or being off line and
pin high. Long shots will have a very fast putt coming back and often
roll 5' or 6' past the hole. Shots that go off line are dealing with
that slope from a profile view. Approaches that land short usual have a
heavy, but safe putt up the hill for an easy two putt.
If you're
approaching from the sand or the 40% rough, you can still make this GIR,
but you have to be smart about it. Run it up the throat of the fairway
and roll it onto the green. You're not going to have an easy two putt to
save par, but it's not unreasonably difficult either. What is
unreasonably difficult, is trying to save par from the greenside bunker
which you had no hope in hell of carrying, but went for anyway because
the laws of physics don't apply to you. Run it up the fairway please.
Hole 2
Tee Shot
Club up and add backspin.
A long
iron at least. This is maybe the hardest par 3 of all the courses to
birdie, but not necessarily difficult to par. The green is 20' above
you, so your shot is going to come in low and flat and have all the bite
of an elderly sea cucumber. You'll skip right through this green and
into the 30-40% rough that Congressional uses as fringe, probably.
With
a strong headwind and a high trajectory club with lots of backspin, you
might hold the green. The risk in this scenario is drifting left or
short which will most likely put you in a deep greenside bunker.
Another
option is to run this tee shot up the mouth of the green and try to get
it to stop within 20' for a long, severe right to left breaking putt
for birdie. Overall, I think this is the smarter play when the wind is
coming from right to left. If it's blowing the ball away from the hole,
it's a coin flip.
Assuming you're around the green, but not on
it. Remember the thickness of the rough and the slope of the green. The
rough is going to kill any backspin you put on a pitch or a flop, and
you'll most likely be attempting from somewhere above the hole, so it's
going to run fast and far. If you take those two factors into account,
this is a makeable shot. I've holed out pitches from the rough on this
hole several times and come close a dozen more. Play it as a lag and try
to get the ball to stop at the hole. It's easy to run it 6'-8' by the
hole.
From the bunker, par is still well within reach. If you're
high in the bunker, you can pitch it onto the perfectly flat green
between you and the pin. If you're deeper in the bunker, a full swing or
flop is in order.
Hole 3
This hole is a long par 4 that gives up very few birdies. The tee
box is as much as 35' above the fairway so look for a tailwind, add a
little backspin, a dash of salt and you'll be looking at a 300+ yard
drive. It's a wide fairway and forgiving. Avoid the rough, what do you
want me to say?
The best lie is on the right side of the fairway
to get a good look at the back left pin placement. From there, you can
bump and run it up to the pin, which is the safer shot.
The Approach
Almost
invariably, this is a long iron approach shot. Depending on the wind
and your irons, you can fly it up to the hole or run it up the fairway.
The green is probably about 15'-20' above you, but don't interpret that
as automatically clubbing up. Much of the distance between you and the
pin is green. If you bump and run, the ball rolling on the long green is
going to make up for the distance lost to the elevation. You can play
this shot pretty close to the rated distance of your irons and a
centerball hit. This is a nice option to have when there is a strong
crosswind and you want to keep the ball down.
Flying to the pin
is the other option, but because of the elevation, you have to allow for
a shorter ball flight and a longer roll out.
Hole 4
A dogleg right long par 4. Birdies are rare. Pars are well done.
Most
likely, the landing area will be very close to the knee of the dogleg,
maybe a little past. You're goal is to be as far right as possible, but
still in the fairway. This will test your driving accuracy. Missing the
fairway will put you in 40-50% rough. The upside to that result is you
are no longer faced with the insecurity of figuring out how to hit a
good approach. Just lay up. You're decision is made.
For the Legends, just try not to hit the big tree some idiot planted right in front of the tee box.
The Approach
At
a buck and a half, you're probably a mid-iron away. But wait, the green
is 20' up, but it looks perfectly level on my screen, maybe a half
dozen feet, but surely not 20'! This is the problem I think most golfers
have on this hole, because every single damned one of them ends up
short and in the bunker.
It really is 20' up, you really do need
to club up, and it really is going to come in low and flat. Be careful
of tailwinds because you need to keep the ball between you and the pin.
Running past this pin will result in a very fast downhill putt, though
probably not with a lot of break.
Left to right winds also bring
the tree into play. Which tree? Why, the magic tree of course. The tree
so strong that a single outstretched twig, no thicker than a pencil, can
stop a careening golf ball dead in its tracks and drop it back to earth
like expelled bluejay poop. Anyway, if you over correct left, or
otherwise miss left, you'll bring it into play.
It's really a
very simple shot, just adjust for elevation, add backspin, correct for
the wind, keep it below the hole, carry the bunker, and hit the ding.
Easy right? This shot on this hole is one of the more difficult shots in
golf.
From the bunker, it's not a difficult up and down. If
you're going to miss, there are worse situations to be in. Just hit
every shot on this hole perfectly and you should be ok.
Hole 5
A genuine birdie chance, short par 4.
The tee shot on this
hole is just a joy. A nice wide fairway that sits below you 10' or so
and makes a graceful arc to the left. Usually, the wind will help you
here by coming somewhere from the right. If it's behind you a little,
all the better. Just give your drive a half ball of backspin and miss
the ding just a hair with the wind. You'll be rewarded with a nice long
drive that seems to be following the centerline of the fairway around
the bend. It's really a nice drive to watch.
The Approach
This
is where it gets a little trickier. The hole is below you 5'-7'. If
there's any kind of tailwind, trying to stick the ball by using backspin
is likely to cause your approach to sail past the hole 6 yards. If the
pin is in the front right location (I think that's the only location,
but I'm not sure), then come at it from the left. The green slopes away
from you and to the right toward the pin, so a better shot is a short
iron that lands a few yards short and left, then trickles to the hole.
Because
the hole is below you, your ball will hit Earth at a little steeper
angle than normal which will cause it to roll a little less than normal,
so take that into account too.
Hole 6
Easily birdied, sometimes eagled par 5.
The fairway is
like 30' below you. If you have a tailwind, add some backspin and pick a
spot 30 yards farther than usual to land your ball. Don't cheat the
fairway here, play for the middle. If the wind is in your face, just hit
it in the middle.
The only mistakes to be made on this tee shot are not expecting the ball to travel that far and missing the ding.
The 2nd and 3rd shots, lay up or approach?
Again,
elevation is going to come into play. The fairway and green are both
below you. That means with any kind of tailwind and full backspin with
your 3w (or even sometimes 3i) you can add some serious carry. Whether
or not that means you can reach the green is up to you. If you can, you
have a real shot at eagle.
If you're not sure, play it to land in
the throat, or simply lay up next to the water and take a full wedge
into the green. It depends on the wind. If the wind is blowing left to
right, try and ride that wind around the water and up to the green. If
the wind is blowing right to left, lay up to your best wedge distance.
As always, it's easier to hit a 60 yard full swing than a 35 yards half
swing.
Hole 7
An uphill par 3 with a two tiered green.
It's 20+ feet
above you, so the instinct is to club up. Not necessarily. Much depends
on the ball flight of your irons and the spin your ball will accept, but
I rarely club up from what the caddy offers me. I use full backspin and
a 185 4i to get it to fly 170 ish and roll the last 6 yards. If there's
a headwind of any kind, then you do need to club up, maybe even more
than once if it's especially strong.
The real danger is missing
left of the pin. The green runs toward you at about 45 degrees from
right to left. The back half of the green is the upper portion, the
front half is the lower portion. Bisecting the two halves is a steep
2'-3' rise. The pin is on the edge of the precipice on the upper half.
If you miss left, you will have to putt up a 2' wall and the end of your
putt.
On the other hand, shots that go long or right will have a
very fast downhill putt coming back to the hole. Now here's the fun
part. If you misjudge the speed coming down hill and overshoot the cup
by more than a foot or so, yup, it's going to fall off the edge of that
two foot wall and roll 20' away.
This is often when your stroke play opponent will quit.
Hole 8
A short, birdiable par 4.
This hole is the reward for
making it through 7. Most golfers will be cutting the corner of this
slight dogleg right at which point you'll be faced with a short iron or
wedge into this green.
The only real difficulty on this hole is figuring out where and how to hit the green.
The
green is probably 8-10' above you and there is the wind to deal with.
With the green above you, your shot will land a little shorter and run a
little longer. a quarter or half ball of backspin is usually enough get
your irons to act normal again, now just correct for the wind and then
it's target practice. Don't over think this hole and you should walk
away with either a birdie or a lame excuse about why you didn't.
Hole 9
A very long par 5 that you can't reach in two so just don't even try.
Unless
you're teeing off from the Legend tees with a subpar driver like me,
there's really no reason for the average golfer to try and squeeze every
last yard out of this drive. Your second shot is going to be a long
iron or hybrid lay up anyway, so why risk the danger of an errant shot
by adding all sorts of english to the ball. Just a clean center ball hit
right down the middle. Nice and boring like.
The Approach
Your second shot is where you have to be precise. You want to be as
far up the fairway as possible, but one foot past the end of the fairway
is 40-50% rough. To make matters worse, the farthest point of the
fairway turns into a downhill funnel that looks remarkably like the
pourspout to a tupperware pitcher. Anyway, if your ball rolls too far,
the fairway will "pour" you into the rough.
It's generally a
good idea to hit your second shot with full backspin to get it a high
and land as soft as possible. Because the fairway is far above you, plan
on a lot of roll. If you hit this shot well, you'll be about 105 yards
out and 6' below the hole.
The approach, a simple wedge to the
hole. As with all uphill shots, plan on a shorter flight and longer
roll. A little backspin will control the roll and extend the flight, but
there's really nothing complicated about this final approach shot. The
green is mostly flat but slightly up hill.
So long as you didn't
do anything stupid like try to bounce it off the cart path, this is a
very birdiable par 5. It just seems difficult because it rewards
prudence and punishes risky shots.
Hole 10
A long iron par 3 downhill and over water.
The further
back your tee, the greater the elevation change. From the front tees,
it's 156 yards and 18' down. From the legend tees, it's 208 yards and
27' down. How you approach this tee shot depends on your clubs and the
wind.
With zero wind and full backspin to maximize carry, your
ball will carry more than your club's stated yardage, but how much more
will depend on your club choice. From 208 yards with no wind, I would
like to hit a 200 yard 3i with full backspin. Unfortunately, my 3i is
only rated for 195 yards which will leave me in the rough perilously
close to the water's edge. Because I don't carry a hybrid, I'm forced to
choke down on a 3w which is not a good substitute and usually results
in over-shooting the pin by 5-10 yards.
With a headwind or
tailwind, this hole becomes easier for me personally. With a 10 mph+
tailwind, I know I can reach the green with a 3i. With a 10 mph
headwind, I play a 3w, full backspin, and use the meter as if there were
no loss or gain of yardage.
The green has a ridge just past the
hole that separates the green into the upper back half and lower front
half. Putts from the upper half hit the downslope, pick up speed, and
generally roll right past the hole. If I was given the choice to putt
from up top or chip from the rough below the hole, I would pick the
rough every time.
The ridge can be used to your benefit too. If
you faceplant your tee shot into the ridge, you can get it to roll back
toward the hole leaving a fast, but makeable 6'-8' putt for birdie. The
nice thing about the ridge is, no matter where you miss (right or left),
the semi-circular ridge will funnel the ball toward the hole (see my
replay "CCC 10 approach" for an example of this shot).
Anything on the green and below the hole is good birdie opportunity.
Hole 11
A long par 4 to an uphill green. Very few birdies here, but not impossible.
With
the fairway below you 20+ feet, a tailwind and judicious backspin to
get the ball up in the air, you can hit some pretty impressive drives
here, which is good because it's more than 500 yards from the tips. If
you have a headwind here, reaching the green in regulation is a
challenge.
For the best look at the pin, try to land your drive on the left side of the fairway.
The Approach.
This
is the money shot on this hole. It's probably a long iron or a fairway
wood to a pin that is 20' above you and protected by water on the right
and bunkers on the left. The choice is whether to fly the ball to the
hole or bump and run. The bump and run is the safer shot and can get
close, but involves a fair amount of luck.
Flying the ball to
the hole will require full backspin to have any sort of bite on this
elevated green. Adding backspin on a long iron shot so close to the
water is risky. The slightest mishit right can cost you a stroke, The
pin is also at the back of the green where it slopes away from you, so
even a dinged shot is likely to roll off the back side into the rough.
For
the bump and run, try to run it up the middle of the green. The overall
left to right slope of the green will pull the ball toward the hole.
The nice thing about the bump and run is that it doesn't require spin,
which means slight mishits are not the end of the world. The green will
forgive rolling shots that miss a little left. Rolling shots that miss a
little right will probably get hung up in the rough before hitting the
water, and sometimes they will even follow the right hand border of the
green and funnel back toward the pin.
All in all, running the ball up the fairway on your approach is a much better chance at a rare birdie here.
From the backside rough.
A
disproportion number of approaches will end up 7-10 yards behind the
pin in the rough. This is an entirely makeable chip shot. The key to
holing this shot is speed control. From behind the pin, it's a very fast
trip to the pin and it breaks from right to left. I prefer a pitch with
full backspin, and then play it about 75% power of what I would
normally hit at this distance. You might end up a little short, but a
tap in par is a good score on this hole.
Hole 12
This is a driver - mid iron hole for many, but it's one of the
few good birdie chances at CCC. The key to a good score on this hole is
an accurate drive.
Depending on your clubs and tee box, you will
either be playing to fly the dogleg or hug the left side at the bend.
What gets most players in trouble here is the bunker on the right past
the dogleg (unlikely from the tips), or the rough on the left short of
the dogleg. The back tees are 20' above the fairway, so you can plan on
some extra carry here. From the forward tees, the fairway is almost
level. From that perspective, this hole is a bit of an equalizer between
the tiers.
The Approach
The pin is protected on
the right by a large bunker. If you end up in the bunker, you are
looking at bogey for sure and possibly double bogey. There is simply no
way to get out of the sand and end up anywhere near the pin. With that
said, there is absolutely no reason why the bunker should even come in
to play.
The green slopes uphill from the fairway and generally
breaks from left to right. The correct approach is to fly the ball most
of the way and plan to land the ball on the left side of the pin to keep
the bunker out of play. If the ball releases at all, it will release
toward the hole.
Landing the ball short and right will also cause
it to trickle toward the hole, but not with any control as it means
rolling down a steep slope, and you have to flirt with the bunker. It's a
bad decision.
The common mistake is under-clubbing this
approach. From the numbers, it seems like a straight forward approach,
but the steep uphill slope of the green usually causes mid irons to stop
short of the hole. Play this one 3-5% longer than you think.
Left or right of the pin will mean a breaking putt, but putts from the left side of the pin will be level or uphill.
Hole 13
Uphill par 3
With the frontside pin, this hole gives you a lot of opportunity for birdie, but there are some factors to take into account.
The
upslope of the green and the raised elevation causes most tee shots to
be short. Play this hole about 5% longer than the stated yardage to
reach the pin. However, being short on this par 3 will leave a makeable
putt of chip back up the hill.
Don't be long! Be on line! Tee
shots that are long or off line will have to deal with a fast putt, a
hard breaking putt, or both.
Hole 14
A difficult from start to finish downhill-uphill-downhill par 4.
The
tee shot here may require a 3w. The fairway thins down to a toothpick
in the middle, so if you have the club length to get to the skinny part,
a wise golfer will club down rather than risk an approach to this green
from 30-40% rough. Bear in mind the elevation of the fairway which will
cause your tee shot to carry far.
The Approach
From
just short of fairway corset, you'll have a 170 to 190 yard approach to
to a green that is raised 25' or more. Pretend the green is level with
you. Seriously.
The bump and run, five yards left of the hole,
will roll right up the green and gently arc to the right toward the pin.
If the pin is 185 yards away, play it with your 185 yard club with no
action on the ball. This is one of those rare holes where less is more.
No backspin, no topspin, no clubbing up or down, just aim a little left
and roll it up there, it will consistently get closer than you think.
The
only exception to the above paragraph is dealing with headwinds and
tailwinds, adjust your club or power accordingly, but still play a
centerball bump and run.
If you get your yardage right, you
should roll right up the rise in the green just short of the pin. Even
though you'll end up with a fast downhill putt, if you make a mistake on
this approach, make it a little long. Usually being below the hole is
preferable, but this hole is the exception. The ridge immediately below
the hole makes misjudging the speed of the uphill putt a real
possibility. I would rather have a 20' putt that's 3" downhill than a
25' putt that's 15" uphill.
Hole 15
A lay up par 4.
A lot of other players will disagree with
my management of this hole, but to me, a par on this hole is like
getting 1/2 a stroke on the rest of the field.
I don't care about
my drive because I'm going to lay up at the end of the fairway left of
the bunkers. I'm might hit a 3w if there are tricky winds to deal with,
or a centerball drive in light winds, but there's absolutely no reason
to risk putting it in the rough off of this tee.
My lay up is
usually a mid to long iron up the throat of the fairway to 20 yards
short of the green. The worst outcome is over hitting the lay up and
trickling onto the edge of the green for a 100'+ hard breaking putt.
From my fairway lie, I have a full wedge to the pin and I virtually
assure myself of par, (see my replay "CCC 15 approach").
That's how I play it.
Regardless
of how good or bad your tee shot is, most players will go for the pin
on their approach (By the way, when playing in an AS match on CCC back
9, I will opt to tee off first simply to have the approach shot on this
hole. Par is almost always a win on this hole), if you go for the hole,
the elevation of the green will assure you won't hold the green and will
either be short and in the frontside bunker or long and in the thick
rough chipping downhill to the pin. All things considered, I'd rather be
long here.
Hole 16
At 515 yards from the red tees and 569 from the black, this hole
is pretty much unreachable in two. With a helping tailwind and two well
struck shots, I'm usually still outside of my preferred distance for
wedge accuracy, but I'm a short hitter so for most, I'd guess that
there's a real danger of ending up in that undesirable 30 yard range to
the pin.
Play your second shot to set up your third shot. If your
best wedge distance is 50 yards, try to leave it at 45 out (the upslope
of the fairway causes a lot of approaches to be shorter than expected).
Don't just hit without thinking. Plan for your ideal shot. There aren't
many opportunities to wedge and putt for birdie, don't waste this one.
If
you're planning on drawing the ball back to the hole with backspin, be
careful not to fly the green. There's not much room behind the back pin
location.
Hole 17
Another difficult par 4.
You have to add backspin! The
fairway is above you in the landing area then downhill in the rolling
out area, also, there is another pitcher spout at the end of this
fairway. If you don't put backspin on the ball, the drive's low angle of
impact when it hits the fairway is going to make it run far. When the
downslope kicks in, your ball will keep running until it is effectively
slowed down by the 40% rough. It's better to be short and hitting form
the short grass.
The Approach.
Like the first hole
at BPB, this hole plays long. There's no reason for it; the hole is
below you and the green isn't on big upslope. Still, a 165 iron, with no
wind, only goes 155-160 here, so add some power and plan to land the
ball a little left of the pin and it should trickle toward the hole.
Hole 18
From the tips, this is a 520 yard par 4.
The tee shot
here is a lot of fun. The fairway is below you so, right away, you're
going to get some extra distance. The fairway also slopes away from you
so that's going to add some roll. Throw a tailwind into the mix and you
could be looking at a 320-330 yard drive. But it's not that simple...
Most
hitters will try to cut the corner of the slight dogleg left to get a
few more yards out of their drive. This is short sighted.
Playing to the
right side of the fairway greatly diminishes the threat of getting wet
on your approach. Still, 80% of the time, I watch my opponent have to
carry a lot of water to reach the pin. The right side doesn't take it
out of play, but it does give you the option of laying up on the green
and still getting to the lower portion, (see my replay "CCC 18 green lay
up". In this replay, from view #2, you can see how the overall slope of
the green will run the ball from the back right side to the front left,
with a little more roll, this is a birdie opportunity).
Unless
the wind is strong and in your face, you will most likely need to club
down because the green is 30'-35' below you. If you are planning on
running the ball from the back end of the green, you may need to club
down twice.