A Broken Cape Hole

The Cape Hole, one of the most common holes in all of golf, was made famous by the trio of Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor, and Charles Banks. Deemed as one of the ideal holes, Macdonald brought it back from the UK and added it to his collection of template holes. Throughout the career of the 3, no matter which of their names was attached to the course, you can almost always find a version of the cape.

Basic Cape Hole: Either a 2 or 3 shot hole. Dogleg either left or right. Fairly harsh hazard along the inside corner of the dogleg. To gain advantage from the tee, player must carry the hazard. The more they chose to cut off, the better the angle into the green, and shorter distance to play from... A fairly simple design concept, the cape also offers opportunity for exciting play.

So, now we have a broken cape hole, with a simple fix: tree removal. This cape hole no longer allows the player to drive the ball over the pair of deep bunkers on the left because of tree growth and tee placement. If you cut back 5 or 6 of the trees before the cart path, the hole would not only play as it was intended to, but decrease lost balls, as players line of play has shifted about 7% to the left, thus speeding up play as well.



A picturesque cape par-5. Kingsbarns 12