The 9th Hole is a great finishing hole for the front nine. With the tees on one side of an arroyo and the landing side on the other, tee shots must be precise in direction and distance. The fairway wraps around a 75 yard long bunker complex on the right side with an unseen arroyo guarding the left side.

From the back tees, long hitters will be facing a carry of over 250 yards into the wind to clear the bunker complex to a small landing area short of the green. More daring players may elect to aim between the bunkers and the arroyo, but smart players will favor a long iron or fairway wood and play short of the bunkers to the wide landing area. From the more forward tees, a player who can hit the ball at least 200 yards in the air should aim left of the bunkers and be rewarded with a short iron to the green for your second shot. For those of you that find the fairway bunkers, I’ve found that they are much friendlier than the desert lies.

Your approach shot will be to a green that is well bunkered in front and back with a narrow entrance set at an angle away from the player. The green slopes from left to right in the back left and from back to front in the left front creating a bowl effect because of the bunkers that surround it. A smart high handicap player would be well advised to play short of the greenside bunkers and have an easy pitch to a green that will slope towards them. The middle of the green is bisected with a ridge that even mystifies me. The ridge has two sublime curves in it which present the player with a difficult green reading test. The ridge to the left has a more pronounced height than the one to the right which will normally make putts go away from the ridge. I say normally because the green will also slope from the right rear to the front with the ball wanting to go towards the drainage area in the right front of the green.

Good luck and maybe try out some of the putting drills I recommended above before playing it. I have never been very good on this green, but I do love it.