Holein1
France |
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2024 @ 1:14:07 PM at |
IP Logged |
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This world-famous course is very pretty and quite challenging with all its water holes and wide bunkers, often surrounding slightly-elevated and undulating greens. With two straight holes to start with (par-5 1st, par-4 2nd), most of your tee shots should not be a problem, even with the following doglegs (except for a couple of lakes to watch for in the corners), as the fairways are quite wide and long, but getting to the greens is another story with approaches either over water or large bunkers, making this par 72 a real pleasure to play. Not surprisingly, the most noteworthy holes are those where water comes into play, such as on the beautiful and tough dogleg right par-4 3rd, along a lake, visible midway (on the right) and ending next to the green, and the nice par-3 4th, with a tee shot over part of a lake (on the right) landing onto the green, set near its edge. After the dogleg left par-4 5th hole, and its elevated green, surrounded by five big bunkers, you will move later on to one of the toughest part of the course (from the 8th hole through the 11th). The par-5 8th hole is simply gorgeous, with a big lake (midway, on the left) and an approach over part of another lake (on the right) in the direction of the green, just like the par-3 9th, with a tee shot over a wide lake offering a nice panoramic view as you reach the green. You will start your way back with an eagle opportunity on the short dogleg par-5 10th hole, along a lake (on the left), with a tough second shot past some palm trees and over the water to get to the green, guarded by two bunkers in front (slightly to the right), before enjoying the picturesque and straight par-4 11th hole, with a huge bunker lengthwise (and a lone palm tree), two-thirds of the way, in the middle of the fairway. Then, after the scenic and long par-5 12th hole, set between a lake (midway, on the far left) and trees and villas (on the right), with more bunkers around the green (slightly to the right), you will face another pretty hole with the dogleg left par-4 14th, with a lake flowing into a big creek (along the fairway, on the left) and running past the green. Finally, after the par-3 15th hole, with bunkers surrounding its slightly-elevated green, and the dogleg par-4 16th, with a huge elongated bunker (in the inner corner) and more bunkers around the slightly-elevated green (surrounded halfway by water behind), you will walk over later on to the Doral's signature hole, the spectacular dogleg par-4 18th, with water along the fairway flowing into a big lake (with a beautiful fountain in the middle) over which you will hit your approach to reach its small green. Overall, with its nice plantings, grandstands, beautiful fountains and small bridges, this CGX Doral 2015 course is not only visually attractive, it is also quite difficult with plenty of shots over different shapes of water hazards and its greens, hard to reach. So, if you don’t want to have the blues on this... Blue Monster course, you will have to hit pretty accurate shots in order to master this monster, nicely designed, once again, by the CGX team !
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