Notes From The Yardage Book: Remember the 'W' tree
— -- By the time players get to the par-4 16th hole at Waialae Country Club this weekend at the Sony Open, they'll either be giddy with anticipation of a strong finish or in full "I hate this game" mode.
In looking at the yardage book, this hole seems just like another plain old dogleg-left, 417-yard, par-4. That's the beautiful subtlety of the hole.
For most pros, the 3-wood is the easiest club to draw and it makes sense here. The downside? That club is also the easiest to hook, so if you end up left of the fairway, you're going to have tree trouble.
Just take out driver and we'll play bomb-and-gouge right? Wrong.
See the dotted line on the green that starts just behind the front side arrows and meanders across the putting surface? That's a small spine that is the highest point of the green. Land a ball with no spin behind that line and you're over the back or praying you're in a bunker.
The sensible play off the tee is either a choke-down 3-wood or a 3-iron (depending on how hard the wind is blowing) and aim at the edge of the first fairway bunker. A 285-yard tee ball will leave you with 143 yards to the front edge. Still downwind, and even with a far back hole location (let's say 30 paces on), an 8-iron is the most club you'd be using.
You can see how well-bunkered it is around the green, although the two bunkers on the left are not horrible even if you short-side yourself. Just hope you don't get a plugged lie. The two places you don't want to be are long in the rough or in the front right bunker.
An experienced tour caddie's yardage book would have a couple of his own arrows on the other side of the dotted line showing a subtle break on the left side of the green that will fool many rookies when the hole is middle left.
On TV, this is the hole with the Big W behind the green. The idea was a shoutout (by member Ethan Abbott) to one of my favorite movies of all time, "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
In the movie, $350,000 is buried under it. If a pro in the hunt makes a birdie late Sunday afternoon on No. 16, his check will undoubtedly be even bigger.
Yardage books provided by Mark Long -- TourSherpa@gmail.com. Copyright 2016 Tour Sherpa, Inc. All rights reserved.
