Measures 1050, plays 419* due to 286-foot decline. Fairway measures about 275-feet wide for the first ~500 feet down the ski run. After that, the forest on the right side starts angling away, making the fairway ~450-feet wide by pin-high.
Despite the huge fairway, the drive is extremely technical. Good players miss the fairway 70-80% of the time.
Yes, the repeated refrain applies:
1. Throw low and flat.
2. Select a disc more understable than you think.
3. Better to throw your favorite fairway driver or even mid-range into the fairway than to get greedy with a distance driver.
Here's a useful little story of two consecutive throws on a typical day with a typical light headwind.
Player A (rated ~1000, throws ~500 feet accurately on normal holes): Rips a max-weight mid-range about 90% effort on a perfect angle. But he throws it straight out at tree level, not downhill or nose down at all. After about 18 glorious, tantalizing seconds, where the disc slowly drifts from the left side of the fairway over to the right, and then slowly fades back -- the disc lands softly near the left edge of the fairway. About 300 feet short.
Player B (~950-rated, strong but somewhat erratic, not accustomed to easily overpowering holes): Throws a broken-in mid-weight fairway driver about 65% effort, nose down and flat as heck toward the left side of the fairway. Out of his hand, it looks too low. As it flies, you swear it's going to hit the ground any moment. In fact, it's so flat, that it's hard to see. But it keeps on cruising. At about 6 seconds, it flies right over the previous golfer's drive. At about 9 seconds, it slides to a stop. About 100 feet short, right on line.
To spell out the moral of the story: Player A, a great thrower, executed his shot perfectly. It had zero margin of error. And didn't land anywhere near the hole. Player B, a good thrower, executed his shot well. It had the most margin of error possible on this hole. Had he missed his line or angle a little, he'd still have a good chance at a 3. Had he put 5% more zip into it, he would parked the first deuce ever.
Oh, wait, what about Lefties? Right-handed sidearmers? Well, the technicality and margin of error are even more challenging for them. And the standard refrain applies: low, flat, less stable, don't go high-speed. (Left-handed LS, who only musters ~350 on the flats, threw his lightweight fairway driver pin-high last year, about 80 feet right. It's true, I saw it.)
Also worth noting: RH, a well-known rhbh weenie-arm, claims to have overshot the hole by ~150 feet with a fairway driver. (I didn't see this one, hehe.)
*We calculated the effective distance shown on the scorecards by multiplying the elevation change by 3 and adding/subtracting from the measured distance. It's a convention that seems to work pretty well in most cases. On this hole, however, the standard adjustment falls short. The hole actually plays about 325.
Despite the huge fairway, the drive is extremely technical. Good players miss the fairway 70-80% of the time.
Yes, the repeated refrain applies:
1. Throw low and flat.
2. Select a disc more understable than you think.
3. Better to throw your favorite fairway driver or even mid-range into the fairway than to get greedy with a distance driver.
Here's a useful little story of two consecutive throws on a typical day with a typical light headwind.
Player A (rated ~1000, throws ~500 feet accurately on normal holes): Rips a max-weight mid-range about 90% effort on a perfect angle. But he throws it straight out at tree level, not downhill or nose down at all. After about 18 glorious, tantalizing seconds, where the disc slowly drifts from the left side of the fairway over to the right, and then slowly fades back -- the disc lands softly near the left edge of the fairway. About 300 feet short.
Player B (~950-rated, strong but somewhat erratic, not accustomed to easily overpowering holes): Throws a broken-in mid-weight fairway driver about 65% effort, nose down and flat as heck toward the left side of the fairway. Out of his hand, it looks too low. As it flies, you swear it's going to hit the ground any moment. In fact, it's so flat, that it's hard to see. But it keeps on cruising. At about 6 seconds, it flies right over the previous golfer's drive. At about 9 seconds, it slides to a stop. About 100 feet short, right on line.
To spell out the moral of the story: Player A, a great thrower, executed his shot perfectly. It had zero margin of error. And didn't land anywhere near the hole. Player B, a good thrower, executed his shot well. It had the most margin of error possible on this hole. Had he missed his line or angle a little, he'd still have a good chance at a 3. Had he put 5% more zip into it, he would parked the first deuce ever.
Oh, wait, what about Lefties? Right-handed sidearmers? Well, the technicality and margin of error are even more challenging for them. And the standard refrain applies: low, flat, less stable, don't go high-speed. (Left-handed LS, who only musters ~350 on the flats, threw his lightweight fairway driver pin-high last year, about 80 feet right. It's true, I saw it.)
Also worth noting: RH, a well-known rhbh weenie-arm, claims to have overshot the hole by ~150 feet with a fairway driver. (I didn't see this one, hehe.)
*We calculated the effective distance shown on the scorecards by multiplying the elevation change by 3 and adding/subtracting from the measured distance. It's a convention that seems to work pretty well in most cases. On this hole, however, the standard adjustment falls short. The hole actually plays about 325.
