I’m a BK breakfast guy. Love me the croissants.
We’re back with the back 9 at KECC!
#10 - Admittedly, this is the beginning of my least favorite stretch at the Elks. This is a perfectly-fine medium-length dogleg left Par 4. Honestly, if it was #1, I might say it was indicative of the rest of the course. But it’s not #1, it’s #10, and we’ve seen this song and dance before. It’s not a bad hole - but some holes have to be at the bottom of the list!
#11 - Okay, now this is a bad hole. 90 degree doglegs ain’t it for me. At best, L&M are trying to take driver out of your hand and make you hit a long iron into a difficult green. At worst, they ran out of room and had to cram an L-Shaped peg into a round hole.
#12 - A fun, short, postage-stampy Par 3. This typically plays as the 18 HCP, so it is kind of fun to watch good golfers make a 3-for-4. It’s bunkerless but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, with humps and bumps surrounding the tiny green.
#13 - Tight, tight piece of property here. At ~360 it’s on the shorter side, but pull driver at your own risk. If you pull it off, great, you have a wedge into a bigger green. If not, you’re going to be in jail on one side or the other and punch out. Really a question of how much you want to try and chew off here, with the looming risk of getting your hand stuck in the cookie jar.
#14 - Solid Par 5 here that takes two amazing shots or three pretty good ones to get home. I like the concept here as the tee shot plays uphill but then you get to come back down approaching the green. It’s just come to my attention that there haven’t been any bunkers on the back nine yet - but these seem like some of the hardest holes. What a mindfuck. EDIT: Solid gazebo nearby to hide from a hailstorm … ya know, if that sort of thing were to ever happen during this event.
#15 - Hardest holes you say? How’s a 205 uphill Par 3 onto a crescent moon green with a prevailing cross breeze sound? Three is a tremendous score here. Take an extra club, hell, take three extra clubs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone long on this hole.
#16 - Good 5 at #15, asshole - now you have a trio of bendy Par 4s to navigate on your way back home. This is the longest of the bunch at around 430 and bends to the right, meaning the preferred shot shape off the tee would be a cut for righty’s - only making the hole longer. Try to take too much off the corner and you’ll be completely blocked out.
#17 - Reverse! Basically #16 all over again but going left this time. This is one of those optical illusion holes where the tee box appears to be aligned properly but it feels like dead straight shots end up wayyyy right of the preferred line. To me, this has always been a green light to try the aggressive line as missing into the left trees requires a ball that starts left and goes lefter. Good time for the Wyndham ( 
) shot - hammer a cut off the left and watch it drift back into the fairway. If you reach 180 ball speed, even better.
#18 - How about another doggy left Par 4? Except this time, it’s very very possible to get stuck going too far left. Favoring the right is going to leave you a longer approach, but you’ll have a significantly better angle into a pitched green. Tip your cap to L&M for making you think without a single bunker on the back 9!
All in all, I prefer the front to the back, but that’s no scathing indictment of the second 9. The entire course is thought-provoking without being extravagant - rewarding good shots and punishing bad ones, always providing the agressive line and a conservative one, and making the most of your classic midwest woodland topography. I’d love to play it when it gets firey over the summer, but it’s an exceptionally fitting home to the Mudness.
Going to have to disagree here. It’s got the cool grass mound in the corner of the fairway and the green is top notch. An amazing par 4 with a nothing piece of land in my opinion.
I laughed pretty hard when I read this
Green is cool, I’ll give you that. I just don’t love going 7 iron 5 iron into a par 4.
Lol typical low cap complaint, “X hole is bad because I can’t swing away with driver!”
If they don’t want me to Bomb & Gouge, they don’t have to make holes at 90 degree angles…couldn’t they just, grow the rough up??
ducks
For me 11 screws up the rest of my back 9 as I try to Bubba slice it around the corner and any consistent driver swing I had on the front is thrown out of the window for the rest of the round
It reads like some folks really need to learn how to top their drivers. Full send top-a-rooskie, PW.
Complaining about dog legs, I just can’t help to think #playbetter
Having never played Elks before - now stoked to end Mudness on the 11th hole and understand this controversy
Super pumped to end the round on 15.
Better than starting on 15. Might have to hit 3 wood
Did you club up? Good…club up again.
That’s 40 more yards of fairway at the top of that plateau
Or don’t hit in the fucking trees like a dumbass.
signed,
A dumbass
I forgot to mention this from an advanced scouting round, but they took quite a few trees out on 11 in the circled area, just bomb it over into 18’s fairway now.
So excited to finish my round on this hole. I’m sure nothing will go wrong after walking 17 holes plus the hike out to start on 6.
