Alex Elias In an interview with Links Magazine, Bill Coore said, "There are so many people in our industry who can move earth spectacularly well. We just prefer to follow Maxwell's old adage about doing small things on suitable ground."
As Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are known to like short Par-4s, Coore, in the same interview, said, "But you can really only have this if the land gives it to you." At Old Sandwich Golf Club, the land on which the short Par-4 5th lies did just that, and more, as it perfectly suites a "Cape Hole," a C.B. Macdonald template. Although the defining characteristic of the template is a tee shot over water, the waterless hole at Old Sandwich Golf Club demands the same diagonal forced carry, but instead over a blueberry bush covered gully. "When most people hear 'drivable Par-4', they assume the line is to go straight at the flag, but the line on No. 5 is actually twenty or thirty yards right of the green." said Tyler Sprague. "You have to trust that if you play a right-to-left tee shot and limit the risk by aiming twenty yards right, then the contours of the fairway will kick your ball left, inevitably resulting in a shorter second shot than the one had you taken the aggressive line." Similar to the tee shot, the approach shot is a nervy one. A Cape hole’s green is undulating and surrounded on three sides by water or bunkers. Coore and Crenshaw's rendition at Old Sandwich Golf Club is no exception, as the green is protected by narrow bunkers left, right, and long, and a small, pot-like shaped bunker short. “The approach shot on No. 5 is so difficult because even if you hit a good tee shot, you have to navigate two ridges from 50-80 yards out. If your ball lands on the downslope, it can shoot towards the back bunker and if your approach shot doesn't get up enough, it can catch the front right bowl, where you'll be left with a putt that is one of the most difficult on property to read," said Tyler Sprague. "And if you play it too safe off the tee, then you're left with a blind second shot where you have to trust your number and aim line." Proving to be a superb rendition of a modern risk/reward hole, Tyler Sprague said, "When you have a short Par-4, you tend to think it's a guaranteed birdie, but because of the approach shot and undulating green, you often times just have to play it smart and find the putting surface and two-putt."
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