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Welcome to our review
in digital pictures of the 'Featured 18th
Hole' from the
Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort in
Maui Hawaii and the 2016
Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
This tournament marks the first in line of the official FEDExCup Cup
events of the 2016 PGA Tour season. Points will be accumulated over the year
with a Fed Ex Cup to be determined at the Tour Championship in late
September in Atlanta. Eligibility for the 'Cup' will be determined by a
player's individual performance over the 2016 golf season. The FedExCup Schedule is designed so that
a tournament of either 'Major' significance or a world tour event is
played once a
month to keep the playing fields stocked with more of the top players
again this year. The Mercedes Championship is that January 'Major' with
all of last season's tournament winners - who commit to play -
participating here this week. In
fact it's only those tournament winners who are eligible to play in the
'09' Mercedes Championship. This will be the 16th consecutive time
that the tournament will be held on the Plantation course in Kapalua, Maui Hawaii. I'll tell you one thing that is for sure -this place is one tough golf
course for a tour caddy to walk - it's built on the side of a mountain
with a rainforest on top! Enjoy the Pics! Also: See the latest Hyundai
Championship News; and Live
Scoring Here:
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Our
'Featured Hole of the Week' at this week's Hyundai Golf Championship is of
the signature par 5 18th hole at the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
This hole was pivotal back in the 1990's when Kapalua was
an unofficial 'silly season' year end event.
Now hosting the 16th consecutive Hyundai (formerly Mercedes) Championship and with the kind of wind that
can blow in January at Kapalua, it is likely to be pivotal again. (Only tournament winners from the
2013 PGA Tour season are eligible to play
in this season opening $5,600,000 event.)
The golf course which opened for play in 1991, was designed by Ben
Crenshaw, a golf historian, designer, and student of the game.
Like the old time designers, Crenshaw uses the 'lay of the land'
well throughout the golf course.
In so doing he retains the natural
beauty of these lush green rain-forest-fed and sloping manicured
hillsides and canyons, with their beautiful and distracting vistas of
the Pacific Ocean below and the island of Molokai in the distance.
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The
Tee shot off #18 here at the Mercedes Championship needs to be played down the
right side of the fairway and looks like you're hitting it into the forest on
the right side of the fairway off the tee.
Should you land your drive more towards the center of the fairway, however, you
will most likely end up in the left rough, and will have trouble controlling
your golf ball out and over the canyon that juts out and in the front left of
the green. (At about 70 yards in front of the green.)
The pro tee shot target is the scraggly tree in the pix (right) just above the
farthest right white gallery stake in the foreground This is a
fairly hard fairway and the prevailing grain is to the west southwest, or
slightly right to left and down in the picture, which also adds distance to the
releasing of the golf ball. |
|  This
picture (left) -gives you a more accurate view of the degree of
right to left slope of the drive landing area. With a helping
wind down or right to left a tee shot hit down the right side will
go all the way to the bottom and left hand side of the fairway.
You must be careful though on #18 here in the Mercedes Championship
though at Kapalua, as the ball may canter down too far forward and
left and into the tough Hawaiian bermuda rough.
Then you're likely to be stuck with a long second shot from that
wiry rough and forced carry over the canyon (in pix below) to a down
grain green. (That's the beautiful island of Molokai in the
distant view.)
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The Kapalua Plantation golf course sits on the side of a mountain
literally. In this view to the right you can see how rapidly the
fairway drops from the eighteenth tee (and the rainforest far up above that)
down to here where the picture was taken.
The wind can play havoc at this time of year and it blew all four days last
year. When it's calm the big hitters can have a field day. If
it's down wind at all you can get home in two on this long par 5 hole.
The
second shot can also be 'slung' in from the right side. As you could see
in the previous pics, though there may be plenty of room to miss it right or
play down the right side. But you must avoid the left side (pictured
right) and carry this last bunker or 'sling' you long second shot around
this corner - as you can see, it's nothing but into a cavernous barranca'
& lost ball.
The grain of the grass in Hawaii is very strong, and is a
factor both this week as well as in next weeks Hawaiian Open in Honolulu.
You must calculate the release of the golf shot when choosing the correct
club and shot to play into down grain greens Hawaiian Bermuda greens -at any time in Hawaii and particularly
into this one!
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 Here's
a good look at the entrance to the green and back at the second shot area from
a vantage point behind the 18th green.
You want to land your ball somewhere about the right front of the green
-that's just left of the golf cart in the pix left, if the pin is in
the first third or middle of the green. (The green is 49 yards deep)
And land it into the first third of the green if the pin is back or back left
and slightly down wind)
This is clearly a hole that you can score on, a four being a must against this
strong field, and you can expect to see some eagles made here this week!
Also: See the latest Hyundai
Championship News; and Live
Scoring Here:
New
in 2016! Click to see more pictures of the Kapalua
Plantation tournament course!
Click Here to Our New Tournament Page:
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this week's
2016
Hyundai Championship
Tournament's Page:
Also: See the latest Hyundai
Championship News; and Live
Scoring Here:
New
in 2014! Click to see more pictures of the Kapalua
Plantation tournament course!
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