Course Breakdown: Kingsley #16
The 16th hole at Kingsley follows a Redan-style template. A Redan-style green is situated on a hillside that slopes right to left. Anything to the right of the green kicks left onto or through the green, while the left side is protected by a false front to guard the front left portion of the green. The deepest bunker on the course is located to the left of the green and swallows any shot that finds its way over there. The green itself slopes from the front right corner toward the back left, with a few more bunkers behind the green. Playing a left-to-right shot is extremely favorable on this hole. From the blue tees, the 16th plays about 175 yards to the center, and the general wind direction is from the right. When caddying for a first-timer, I always remind them, “It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be right.”
The message behind this statement is to emphasize that you need to use the right hillside to attack the green. The story goes that my former high school principal, Mr. Moran, once hit a shot up the right side that never got more than 5 feet off the ground. It landed well short of the green but just kept rolling until it disappeared into the hole, much to his and his son’s disbelief. Mike may not have struck his shot perfectly, but he was right!
The location of the pin also changes your strategy for this hole. The friendly right slope becomes less friendly the deeper into the green you go. With this in mind, a good rule of thumb is: the shorter the pin, the more you can aim right. The deeper the pin, the more you’ll need to aim directly at the flag to avoid too big of a bounce left.
The worst miss on this hole is to the right of the right slope. If you find yourself in this area, you’ll be faced with a tight fairway lie and very few options to keep the ball on the green, let alone get it close. Most times of the year, any ball that rolls over the yellow-highlighted slope (shown in the overhead photo) will gain too much speed and end up in the left bunker. To avoid this, your best option is to simply putt the ball to the blue star on the photo. From here, the ball will snake its way down the slope towards the front sprinkler heads. The slope around the sprinkler heads then pushes the ball back to the right and onto the front part of the green, where it will roll out another 10 feet. It isn’t glamorous, but you’ll have a putt for par instead of having to go back to the cart to grab a wedge.
When the pin is in front, I usually play 5 yards less than the distance and aim about 10 feet right of the green. The right slope is very friendly to this pin, and anything a little too short gets a kick forward and left.
When the pin is in the middle, I play about the same distance as I would for a front pin but aim directly at the right edge of the green. As mentioned, the green slopes from front to back, so as long as you carry the front slope, the ball should release forward.
A back flag on this hole is tough to get close to. Again, the right slope gets too severe and tends to push the ball too far left. I aim just right of center and try to land the ball about 10 yards onto the green and let it release forward. If I’m between clubs, I’d rather be short than long when the flag is in the back.
