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Pebble Beach #14

• MainzMan 9,586 Posts

  Thu, Jan 12 2017 8:08 AM

  Thanks for the replies, I guess I need to take some of these tips and atually play the damn hole more than I currently do  :)

  I know I'd have got there on my own eventually, it was just driving me nuts that a relatively short par 5 hole was giving up so few birdies.

• PhilEStein 1,269 Posts

  Thu, Jan 12 2017 9:17 AM

  If you want to come out with teacher D, I'll show you how it's done! pffft.

  Who just said "Two lambs to the slaughter"

• Kalliste 1,405 Posts

  Thu, Jan 12 2017 3:50 PM

  play it sort of like this:

   

  http://www.wgt.com/replay.aspx?ID=5682cd17-6f88-4744-9697-a6f901841a73

   

  Hit my drive to fairway.....now 2nd shot...as others have said, try and leave a full wedge 3rd shot to the green. I over-hit mine a tad and left it about 63 yards short of the green.

  Green is elevated as you know and I think the wind was East to West about 14 mph. 

  I aimed to my right to compensate the wind and obviously added power for the `high` green.

  I used my 80 yard cleveland wedge....full backspin to about 73 / 75 yards power on meter. Nike Red ball. Replay is showing it as Standard green speed  when in fact it was Championship speed. Don`t know how that happened...lol

  Good result for a decent birdie.

  Hope this helps for your future planning.

   

  Listee

  x

• mkg335 5,491 Posts

  Thu, Jan 12 2017 5:53 PM

  Listee, that was textbook, great illustration of how to play the hole and a great shot.  I'm a little surprised that full backspin with the Cleve didn't back up more, but it's a crazy green for sure.

  Mark

• MainzMan 9,586 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 10:50 AM

  Kalliste:

  Good result for a decent birdie.

  Very nice shot, thanks for posting it.  And for not posting a holed shot for eagle as so often happens when someone asks how to play a hole  : )

  Mark that green sure is weird.  I had a 3rd shot of about 30 yards last night and played a full shot with my 64° ATV wedge with full back spin.  I know when you back off the power a bit you lose some spin but that damn ball didn't back up an inch.

  The usual laws of physics appear to be suspended around that green.

• mkg335 5,491 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 10:58 AM

  Damian, that's exactly why I try to leave a full wedge for the 3rd shot...unlike most of the other par 5's, closer isn't necessarily better on PB #14...too many strange bounces and too much trouble lurking.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 2:00 PM

  MainzMan:

  played a full shot with my 64° ATV wedge with full back spin.  I know when you back off the power a bit you lose some spin but that damn ball didn't back up an inch.

  IDK about the ATVs but the CG64 stops dead with full back spin. It' the partial spin that gets it going backwards.

• fatdan 3,379 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 2:17 PM

  mkg335:

  I'm a little surprised that full backspin with the Cleve didn't back up more, but it's a crazy green for sure.

  Mark

  It's uphill coming back to pin, however I did land one just beyond pin high with 3/4 B/S with a Cleve 64 degree, it spun back into the rough and was dead....

   

• Kalliste 1,405 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 2:39 PM

  Thanks for the kind remarks on the shot.

  Luckily I have had a `few` birdies on that green and it is weird to say the least. When the back nine was first released to us I hated that hole. Y`know....whack the 2nd shot as hard as poss and get close to the green ...and I struggled. It reminded me a little of the 18th at Oakmont trying to get close to the pin with my 2nd  shot etc....bogey bogey bogey and worse...lol

  Eventually I played that 18th in a go for par way...like hit the 2nd short of the bunker and then an easy wedge to below the pin (on for 3) and a one putt par.....it works.

  But back to Pebbles 14...... one round I accidentally scrolled down a club for my second shot and left a full wedge to the pin.....then I hit the wedge early as sometimes happens and of course it went left of the pin and rolled back some......still made the birdie. Anywhere left of that pin and either below it or pin-high does leave a good line for the putt to the pin. Slight break but not too severe. So now obviously I always try and leave a full shot for my 3rd to the pin....not a punch but a full -ish  shot.

  Listee

  x

   

• derekortt 656 Posts

  Fri, Jan 13 2017 7:55 PM

  MainzMan:

  OK, time to swallow my pride and ask how the hell one plays this hole and has a chance of making birdie regularly rather than scrambling for par.

  We're talking 3rd shot issues here, getting on in 2 may just about be possible but I haven't managed it yet.   My trusty punched wedge to the green just doesn't work the same way it does on every other green in the game.  Mostly I land short on the downslope between the bunker and the green and end up off the left side of the green.

  Play the shot longer is the obvious answer but most greens have a sweet spot you can aim for.  I'm curious as to where it is on this green and how the hell you land there.

  Thanks in advance.

  Lay up as far down the left as you can OR hit your second shot over the green

   

  If you lay up down the left, you then are hitting your third shot into an upslope. That ball will stop, even short of the hole. If I cannot hit it over the green, I like to lay up to about 60 yards so I can punch a lob wedge (I dont mind being about 50 so I can hit a nearly full 64 degree wedge)

   

  The far left trick is something I learned from the 1992 US Open. Kite made birdie in the final round be being as far left as possible. Those that were right couldn't hold the green, but those left, even in the high rough, easily held the green