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Welcome
to our 'Virtual Tour' in digital pictures of the 15th thru 18th holes at
the Waialae Country Club and the 2008 Sony Hawaiian Open golf tournament
on the PGA Tour! In 1998 John Huston broke the 72 hole PGA Tour record held by Mike
Souchak for almost 50 years prior. The next year with Sony taking
over as the sponsor, they decided to put some 'teeth' back into the old
girl as today's players, equipment, and golf ball had 'outmoded' this
once classic test of golf.
So this 'old beauty' is back with a new
facelift and now once plays again many years younger than her age.
Actually, the final scores can be the same but how many under par is now
changed (last years -12 would have been an old version -20 at a par of
72 for example since they've made two par fives into par fours, the first and
thirteenth holes and turning a par 72 into a par 70 golf course. They've also moved a lot of tees back bringing the originally
designed bunkers and hazards
more into play again. Get the latest Sony
Hawaiian Open golf tournament news stories here; go here for 2008
Sony Hawaiian Open Live Scoring:
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 Here's a
view (left) of the relatively short 398 yard par four fifteenth hole at Waialae
Country Club#15 at Waialae is pretty much unchanged though and the short
dogleg left is played with a 3 wood off the tee and a short iron with
the most difficults pins being right and back right of the green.
(Pix left is from the green looking back down the fairway).
The players must be careful when attempting to draw the ball off the tee
shot to not 'over-cook' it and get it into the tough bermuda rough left
off the tee shot. The green as you can see in the picture left is
run-up friendly though as most of the green on this old style golf
course were originally designed that way.
The green is 38 yards deep with some good pin positions mid and back
right and front and back left. You must be careful when playing
the tee shot when there is a back right pin position as the big tree in
the pix left that is in the top left may obscure your second shot
because of the way it overhangs there.
It's a neat old
tract and we don't get to play golf courses like this much any more on
tour.
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 The
sixteenth hole is pictured (right) and has been lengthened out and is a 417
yard dogleg left par four hole.
The players aim it out to the bunkers pictured in the left center distance of
this photo (right), and must be careful to not try to 'bend' the ball too much
to the left around the corner as a large banyan tree protects the hole
there.
For the long hitters it's a minimum carry of 271 yards to the fairway to 'cut
the corner' off the dogleg, and 300 yards to the first bunker in the distance
(right). If they drive it successfully though it results in a more
scorable short iron into the green.
The
hole often plays into the wind on the second shot to a small protected (with
five bunkers around) thirty five yard deep green.
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|  The
seventeenth hole is a 194 yard par three with a green that elongates
to the players left with the back left protected by a bunker
(located in this picture to your left in the right center of a shot
taken from behind the green looking back at the tee in the distance
there)
Wind
is always a big factor here at Waialae with openings in almost all
of the greens to accept a low running type of golf shot. #17
green sits up a bit though and since it is a par three was designed
to take an 'air shot' You
must guard against hitting it past the right hand pins (left in
picture) and over into the tough bermuda rough there. An up
and down is no guarantee as it's difficult often to predict how the
golf ball will come out. Again,
depending on the wind, this can be a scorable and birdiable par
three hole, or a bear of a hole with a hard wind in your face and
blowing left to right. The thick bermuda grain (more relevant
this year with all the rain they've had on Oahu and in Honolulu runs
predominantly from the front of the green to the back (towards the
southwest) and the ocean. |
 The
'Featured Hole of The Week' at the 2004 Sony Hawaiian Open golf
tournament on the PGA Tour, from Honolulu, Hawaii, is the par 5 551 yard
par five 18th
hole of the famous tournament course at Waialae Country Club.
Here is a view of the tee
shot off this very reachable in two par 5 finishing hole at the Hawaiian Open.
As you can see, the hole really doglegs around to the left giving a 'Draw',
(right to left ball movement) as the optimal 'shot shape' off the tee.
Should you hit it straight out at the wide banyan tree in the distance, there
is a small bunker to the right and short of that tree at 270 yards thru the
fairway, and the second bunker to the left of that tree at 295 yards. If
you 'baby draw' it over the palm trees out on the left corner of this pix,
you'll end up in the middle of the fairway with a reachable second shot to the
green.
This
first bunker to the left in this pix is a 262 yard carry from the back cut
of the 18th tee. As the hole usually plays downwind, an average pro
tee shot can carry it. The second and further bunker left and more in
the middle of this pix, is 287 on the right corner and 303 for a full carry
of the tee shot to clear it. (Only the long hitters can do that,
unless you're down a gale) And if you are down a gale, it's only a 3
wood off the tee, as your object is to be in the fairway with a good lie to
try to control your ball into this down grain golf hole. |
 One of the beauties of this
golf course is that it is an old style course which was built to be walking and
'caddy' friendly. It's almost always a short distance from the greens to the next
tees and relatively flat. The tour caddies used to work this one barefoot
but that is not as common today.
However this 'flat tract' does require you to drive your golf ball
straight with a lot of good 'shot values' into many of the par fours and off
the tees as well. Hit it into the snarly and tough Hawaiian bermuda rough and watch out
for those flyers and being able to control your golf ball! When
the ball sits down in it, it's hard to predict how it will come out.
In this last
picture (left) of the 18th green at Waialae
you get the view looking back down the fairway from behind the 18th
green there. Here are some of the players
and caddies plying their trade during a practice round on Tuesday.
#18 can be a pivotal hole here over the years and most dramatically with Isao Aoki's holed
wedge to win it in 1984 to dramatically defeat Jack
Renner.
Get
the latest Sony
Hawaiian Open golf tournament news stories here; go here for 2008
Sony Hawaiian Open Live Scoring:
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Sony Open in Hawaii tournament's page!
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