Mel Dickerson gets his drive up a bit too high. This one ends up...
... here. Not good when you're still over 600 feet from the basket.
The Crucible - Hole #3
Par 5, 970 feet
Hole #3 is a long par 5 that can be eagled (although it never has been) by somebody with a big arm and a willingness to risk a big number. It starts off with a long, straight drive with a pretty wide fairway. Distance is important on this hole, but nowhere as important as staying in the fairway. It's very common to see people gear up for a big crush and then turn it over into some trees or get it too high and hyzer out into the trees on the other side of the fairway.
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Mel Dickerson gets his drive up a bit too high. This one ends up... ... here. Not good when you're still over 600 feet from the basket. |
If you can get your drive to a decent spot in the landing area (which isn't really that far, maybe 325 feet or so to have an adequate second shot) you then throw down through (or over) a wide gap into a large-ish, sunken, square-ish area surrounded by trees on all sides. The hole finishes with a 125 foot tunnel shot which leaves our square going straight to the left from the back-left corner of the second landing area.
To have a chance at that eagle I mentioned you need to throw a long drive (400 ft +) and then you can try a big anhyzer through the top of the trees and, with a good bit of luck, you might have a look at the basket.
 Roger Roe shoots down into the lower landing area from the short edge of the good landing zone. The fairway goes straight to the left from the far back left of the lower landing area... which is where it appears Roger's shot is heading. He ends up with a bogey this time, though... |
| Overall |
Open Men
|
Pro Masters Men
|
Advanced Men
|
Open Women
|
|
| Average |
6.2 (1)
|
5.4 (1)
|
6.1 (1)
|
6.6 (1)
|
7.3 (1)
|
| Birdies |
10
|
9
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
| Pars |
41
|
21
|
5
|
15
|
0
|
| Bogeys |
62
|
9
|
8
|
45
|
0
|
| Doubles |
47
|
3
|
3
|
39
|
3
|
| Other |
28
|
4
|
3
|
20
|
1
|
I'm very happy with how this hole played this year. I was afraid that the big arms would chew it up, but that didn't happen at all. This hole played as the toughest hole on the course for every division, which doesn't surprise me much after last year (when it was even more of a bloodbath...).
Last year this was the consensus favorite hole on the course (although I don't know that it was my favorite), this year the opinion seemed split between this hole and #14. This is definitely a hole that, when you're done, you want to go right back up and do it again because you just know that you can do better. Each shot seems easily make-able, and yet somehoe we end up with a 6.2 average. I really like this hole.
As for who played it well, Brad Hammock and Sonny Ashby both
birdied it twice. There were 4 9's and 24 (!!) 8's on this hole. In general
people hit the big numbers when they were in a bad lie off of their drive
and then tried to do heroic things, leading them to a worse spot, from where
they tried to do heroic things, etc. If you keep your disc in the fairway
(which is, as I believe I mentioned, pretty wide at all times) it's a reasonably
easy par.
 Brett Porter throws from what would be a reasonably good lie for somebody playing for par. From there you're only a hyzer shot away from a long putt or a short upshot. Thing is, I happen to know that he was on his way to a circle-8. Alas. |
 Craig Hughes from the mouth of the gap to the second landing area. Lots of people turned their second shots too much (or tried to be too aggressive from a poor drive) and ended up in the rough to Craig's right. |
 Peter Wilkin looks at the shot from the edge of the last leg of the journey... ideally your second shot would be sitting here. Too often, though, it was their 5th (or worse). |