Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Kali’s Hole of the Week - #10 from OKKO Golf

These past few weeks Branden has been focusing his attention on Okko Golf, located in Velky Slavkov, Slovakia, about 4 hours from the capitol, Bratislava. The design team has been developing the initial designs of each hole and is slowly tweaking each hole. There are several holes I would like to highlight, but #10 is one of my favorites so I will start with that one.

THE HOLE: #10
Par 4

Distances
Direct from Back tees 321 meters - 351 yards
Front 244 meters - 267 yards
Middle 284 meters - 311 yards
Back 314 meters - 343 yards
Championship 334 meters - 365 yards

(Image coming soon)

This is a short Par 4 slightly up and then downhill sloping from left to right with large gathering bunkers surrounding the fairway. A golfer on this hole has the potential of driving the green, but would require a carry of the right side bunkers at over 255 meters to make it to the landing area nearest the green. This landing area is lower and sloped to the green, however the green would be slightly raised to add contouring to the green edges. There is a pot bunker to the right side of the green approximately 5 meters with green edge slopes running to it. The left and rear green edges are sloped to long rough / wild areas. These features all add up to a required precision shot off the tee for an eagle attempt, but it is doable.

The easier route to the green would be to play to the left of the green, directly down the fairway. This landing area would have a slight left to right slope but is very large so this would only come into play if the ball landed on the far right edge of the fairway, which more than likely would roll to the bunkers. A great tee shot would play 250 meters with a slight fade and catch the slope to the middle of the fairway between the two bunker groupings. The golfer must be careful not to give it there all and hit a direct line drive off the tee of more than 270 meters or they may roll into the bunkers to the left of the green. The approach into the green from this area would look scary with the bunkers to the left of the green, however, it would only be a 70 meter pitch to the center of the green.

(Image coming soon)


A very large green with over 900 sq meter of putting surface would allow for ample contouring. Daily pin positions would be front, middle, and back of the green, championship pin positions would be back left edge and right front edge, both positions would bring bunkers into play. This is a fun short hole and allows for multiple angles of play. It also allows for aggressive attacking into the green for those needing a low score going into the back nine. At the same time, the hole can be set-up for easy play with challenging features at the green where all golfers should be challenged.


(Image coming soon)

(Image coming soon)



Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Upcoming!

I have fallen a bit behind these past two weeks so I hope to have several new items posted today and tomorrow on the main site, www.BrandenWilburn.com . Check it out and feel free to make comments.

Weekly Update

Things have slowed down a bit this past week, mostly due to shutting the office for the Memorial Day Weekend. It has been awhile since we have had a vacation so D and I went to Indiana to see family and the INDY 500. Even though it rained and caused a 3 hour delay, the race was exciting. After the finish, we toured the garage area, and even got to meet John Andretti.

That is the official update for the week! I will be posting several articles and Kali’s Hole of the Week later on today.