course breakdown: Kingsley #1

#1 Kingsley

Between the two loopers at Looper Lids, we have over 15 years of experience caddying at the Kingsley Club. With all of that experience, and considering the quality of the golf course design, we’ll be using plenty of examples to support our lessons and tips.

The first hole at Kingsley is a beast of a par 5 that generally plays into the wind. With a long par 5, you typically have to make a strategic decision about where you want to place your second shot to set yourself up for success on your third. The magic of this hole is that Mike Devries (the course designer) forces you to make a decision right from the tee shot.

There’s a grouping of bunkers in the middle of the fairway, starting at 170 yards and ending at 225 yards. Again, this hole generally plays into the wind, and you need a very good drive to get over the bunkers. You have the option to hit the ball left or right of the bunkers, but each option has its downsides.

The left side is wide open but narrows and slopes right to left, with trees coming into play from the left. If you hit the ball over 220 yards, you’re pretty much guaranteed to encounter tree troubles. Even if you hit a great drive up the left side, you’ll likely face a tough angle to hit the ball far enough to have a good look at your third shot.

The right side plays steeply uphill until it crests at about 205 yards, then slopes forward and right to left, down to the center of the fairway behind the grouping of bunkers. With a strong, hurting wind, I’ve seen a golf ball fail to reach the 205-yard crest and slowly creep back down the hill about 80 yards toward the tee box. Two more golfers had hit their tee shots by the time the ball stopped moving. It was hilarious.

As you can see, the average golfer has to commit to one of these two options, and if they make the wrong decision, they can quickly fall out of position, leading to an uphill battle to make par. When I’m caddying, I suggest a route based on how far the golfer hits their driver. If the golfer hits it less than 210 yards, I encourage them to go left. They simply won’t hit the ball far enough to get into trouble on the left, and they avoid getting "Dikembe Mutombo’d" by the right hill.

For the bigger hitters, it makes more sense to aim right of the bunkers for a few reasons. As mentioned, the left side is a terrible miss for anyone who can hit the ball over 220 yards. The trees and the left-sloping terrain completely block any chance of having less than 170 yards or so to the uphill, into-the-wind green. Even if you don’t hit the ball pure, chances are it’ll still be far enough up the hill to give you a good angle to advance your second shot up the fairway.

Next time you feel like a golf course is giving you distinct options, ask yourself, “Which option best suits my game and gives me the highest odds of success?”

After a good drive, a golfer will have the choice of laying up short of the bottleneck or getting aggressive and trying to hit it past. I’m usually about 280 yards out, with the bottleneck at 180 yards. When I’m deciding where to lay up, I think the most important factor is: What is the easiest path to the current pin location?

The green on the first hole at Kingsley has a 5-foot middle slope that divides it in half, creating two tiers. My decision to stay short of the bottleneck or hit into it depends on where the pin is located.

The back half of the green is like a catcher’s mitt, and the ball tends to end up in the same spot regardless of where exactly on the green you hit it. Any pin position is pretty easily puttable from that part of the green, so I’m comfortable with that result. Because of this, I don’t take the additional risk of trying to hit past the bottleneck. Whether I have a wedge or a short iron in hand, I feel confident I can hit a good enough shot to find the green and leave myself with some sort of birdie putt.

The front pin is pretty narrow, with a bunker short right and a large right-to-left slope on the right side of the green. The 5-foot middle slope can be used as a backboard, but I’ve seen it work too well, with the ball coming off the front of the green. If you hit the ball onto the top tier of the green and the pin is in the front position, you might putt the ball off the green.

With this in mind, when the pin is in the front, I try to hit the ball past the bottleneck to leave myself a chip shot into this pin location instead of a full swing. It comes with additional risk, but for me, I think it’s worth it because it makes my third shot much easier.

Next time you’re out on the course, make conscious decisions about when it’s worth getting aggressive and when it’s better to just hit the ball in the fattest part of the fairway.