Streamsong Red Hole 18

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Par 5
540 | 505 | 443 | 406 yards

The final hole is a memorable par 5.  Here an audience of sand dunes watches you finish your round.

Off the tee you must thread your tee shot between a chasm of sand that runs down the left side of the hole for 260 yards.  The right side of this fairway area is framed by sandy waste land that runs the length of the holes to the dunes rising in the distance.

At the end of the left side bunker, the hole turns left slightly as it rises towards the green surrounded by the dunes you see in the distance.

The fairway rises slowly from the tee all the way to the green.  A well placed tee shot should get you past most of the trouble with the left bunker.  Your next shot offers 2 approaches, a go for it attempt is not out of the question- or you can lay up to the heart of the second landing zone.

To go for it in two requires a right to left shot that must clear the bunkers that the green is tucked in behind to the left.  These bunkers end around 55 yards from the green.  The green itself is elevated slightly beyond this making a run-up shot unlikely.  An opening is available from the right edge of the green however, so an approach from that line could find its way onto the green.

The other approach (which I took) is to hit up to your preferred yardage.  Really anything outside of 100 yards is a generous target.  Once you move inside this the sand from the left starts to come into play.

Your third shot must carry the green enough to get over the front ledge in order to hold.  Shots hit long or left may find more bunkering.  Shots missed right of the flag stick's position may find the ball being repelled to the right as the green slopes left to right on the right half.

My ball hit the green but failed to hold and rolled back down the slope to just off.  Perhaps I finally had gotten used to the speed of the greens as I managed to chip one in close and one putt for a closing par.

A view back down across the green and down the hole.

Don't forget to stop and look around on your way back through the dunes at this amazing property.

I played the back nine fairly well.  I only hit 7 fairways and again 4 GIR, which was the same as the front nine.  My putting got a little better, with 4 one-putts.  Including the four-putt I suffered on the 16th, my putting strokes still fell to 16 on the back.  I stubbed my toe on 15 hitting into that bunker, and then on 16 with that putting performance.  Both of those holes produced double bogeys.  Aside from those, only one other bogey gave me a 41.  For a total round of 82.

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