Bluebonnet

Welcome to Texas Hill Country. Depending on the tee box of this Nicklaus Design, Bluebonnet either plays as a risk-reward drivable par-4 or a challenging long par-4. Playing the long par-4, teams will need to decide how much of the canyon to try and bite off. Those who challenge the canyon edge will be rewarded with a shorter approach on a more receptive angle to this elevated green. Any slight miscalculation here will be very penal.

Standing on the tee of the short par-4, teams will again have to make a decision. A successful bold carry over the canyon will find a slope that feeds shots towards the green. More conservative play out to the left will still require precision to find the shallow fairway and a delicate pitch up the hill to the green over the front bunker.

Hole Strategy

Hole Designer: Nicklaus Design

Nicklaus Design senior design associate Chad Goetz talks us through the thought process on Bluebonnet and discusses how our teams may approach it:

Chad says: "We originally started thinking of Bluebonnet as a drivable par-4 with a bold tee shot required over a canyon to a shelf that feeds the ball down toward the hole. If the player doesn’t want to take on the risk, they can hit a shorter shot out to the left from the tee box.

"But the hole also doubles as a longer par-4, with the tee box set back on a diagonal. The player decides how much they want to bite off from the tee and the more they bite off, the shorter the approach into the green.

The green has been rotated in such a way that for those who play as close as possible to the canyon’s edge, they have a more open shot into the green away from the front bunker. But those who bail out with a safer tee shot to the left of the fairway will have to contend with that front bunker on their approach."