I had to go back to the 2002 Team Tournament for pictures of this hole. Here is a shot looking back out of the gap towards the tee, which is not visible, but if it were it would be 200 feet downhill to the left of Dave, there.
The Crucible - Hole #10
Par 4, 500 feet
|
I had to go back to the 2002 Team Tournament for pictures of this hole. Here is a shot looking back out of the gap towards the tee, which is not visible, but if it were it would be 200 feet downhill to the left of Dave, there. |
Hole #10 is a sort of change-up hole. It plays uphill and its two main barriers
(both rows of trees) are perpendicular to the fairway. The first line of trees
is about, oh, 200 feet from the tee pad. The second is about 75 feet past that.
The basket is under three huge trees (of some sort whose names I feel like I
should know but don't) and, while a cool green, is not quite as cool as I thought
it would be.
| Overall |
Open Men
|
Pro Masters Men
|
Advanced Men
|
Open Women
|
|
| Average |
4.3 (12)
|
4.0 (9)
|
4.2 (10)
|
4.5 (12)
|
4.8 (5)
|
| Birdies |
17
|
10
|
2
|
5
|
0
|
| Pars |
110
|
29
|
14
|
65
|
2
|
| Bogeys |
48
|
6
|
2
|
39
|
1
|
| Doubles |
12
|
1
|
2
|
9
|
1
|
| Other |
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
 To continue our excellent pics from this hole, this is a shot from the same spot as the first one, just now looking towards the basket, which you can't see. If you could it would be, I think, directly behind Greg(g)'s left hand. |
I think I'm pretty happy, overall, with how this hole plays, which is to say dead even par for pros and way over for ams. This was one of the harder holes on the course to lay out. I think this one came together one day walking the land with Forrest when he gave me permission to make people make some funny shots. I think this hole, more than any other out here, lets people come up with innovative ways to get to the green.
I realize that some of you (me, for instance) will read that and say, well sure, there isn't a fairway so you have to invent one. But there are several very clean ways to get there. If you're willing to take two throws to the right (or one if you have a big arm) there's a huge opening to the green, but most people try the shortest route, which is also the tightest, or try to go over the top on the second shot. Anyway, the gaps to the green are bigger and more briar-free than those in the pictures.
Dagon Owen owned this hole, birdeing it 3 times and parring it the other. The only other person to birdie it more than once was Phil Arthur, who did it in the 1st and 4th rounds. I was talking to Brad Hammock about this hole, he said he thought it was the easiest of the par 4's to birdie and he was annoyed that he parred it all 4 rounds.
At the other end of the spectrum, there were 12 6's and one 8.
 And last in the series is a shot of the green which manages to avoid showing anything of interest. This is Dave putting out. You can tell this is from 2002 because Dave wasn't here in '03. |
Now on the subject of the pictures. I didn't have any from this year's tournament so I dug some out from the team tourney. My shot of the first part of the hole doesn't show the tee. My shot of the second part doesn't show the big trees or the basket. My shot of the green doesn't show anything at all. If, however, you want to work with me a bit here you can take that second picture and imagine a huge tree right behind Greg's head and the basket behind his left hand. There is a second big tree that you can actually see to the right of his right hand, but that only comes into play if you take one of the other approaches to the green. I could've sworn there were 3 big trees but I can't see the third so clearly I imagined it.