Overview

The course has everything--sand, water, trees, length, thick tough, and fiercely contoured greens. The property is gently rolling, and Dye added a few bumps and hollows of his own along the fairways. The holes meander through oak forests, across streams, and around lakes. Water comes into play on thirteen holes, including each of the par threes, where it is a huge factor in a wind.

Although the championship tees measure just over 7400 yards, accuracy is just as important as distance. This is a modern course where target golf is the key. The fairways look wide enough off the tee, but on most holes there is only one good area to land the teeshot. Why? Because this is Pete Dye unchained. The Oak Tree greens are small, full of severe slopes, and surrounded by trouble. They are hard to hit, hard to hold, hard to hole-out on, the way the greens at the TPC at Sawgrass were before the pros complained. So unless they are approached from the best direction, par becomes a challenge, birdie an accident. At Oak Tree it's often no advantage for a big hitter to boom a teeshot forty yards longer than his opponent's, if it means he'll be left with a sloping lie and a narrow opening to the target.

Since these greens are missed more often than they are hit, nowhere on earth is a well-oiled short game of greater service. The key weapon is a gentle flop shot that will get the ball out of the wiry rough and stop it softly on the green before it boards a roller coaster to jail.

Traditional course architecture calls for a relatively straightforward, even easy, 1st hole, sort of a warm welcome. Not Oak Tree. Here, the welcome mat is a 451-yard par four that most mortals have to attack as a par five. The drive plays downhill to a fairway that kicks everything to the left. If the ball kicks too far left, the second will have to be played from rough, over a lake, over sand, over trees, then more sand, to a green that is only a few steps wide. Imagine that into a wind---or even downwind and you'll understand why even some of the pros lay up short of the green, then hope for a pitch-and-putt par.

The fairway at number 2 is generous, but the player had best find it. A lake runs down the entire left side, and there is out of bounds the right. The water curls around the left and back of the two level green.

Dye's favorite hole is the 592-yard 3rd, an unreachable par five here even the second shot must be played carefully around the right-to-left dogleg, with water again down the left side. The Third shot here is a wedge, but must be a good one since the green is one of the smallest on the course and is guarded in front by a cavernous pot bunker.

The 4th hole, a par three of 200-yards, is one of the most photographed holes in golf, 190 of those 200 yards playing over water to a green bulkheaded with several dozen native red rocks. It was here in 1988 that Paul Azinger knocked a 6-iron into the hole to take a four-stroke lead in the third round of the PGA.

One of the longest holes on the course is the 592-yard 5th, calls for a teeshot straight over the top of "The Oak Tree." Despite its length, long hitters may try for this one in two, since the last half of the hole plays slightly downhill, and roll, on approaches are possible. But so are roll, off approaches, and this small target sits on a peninsula ringed first by sand, then water. It was here that Jeff Sluman struck the shot that spurred him to victory in the PGA, a 115-yard wedge that went into the cup for an eagle.

The best birdie opportunity may be at the 6th, which is 411-yards, but is necessary to avoid the deep bunkering on the right. Trouble returns at the 462-yard 7th, where the only way to shorten the dogleg is to hug the trees, rough, and water on the left.

The 192-yard 8th hole is a slightly shortened version of the 4th, playing over water to a bulkheaded green. Wind-and therefore careful club selection is a big factor here. In round three of the PGA, Ray Floyd made an ace here only a half hour before Azinger did the deed at the 4th.

The 9th hole is the longest par 4 on the golf course. At 480-yards, it plays into a prevailing south wind. The teeshot must finish high on a plateau in order to leave a reasonable approach to the green, which is flanked by a huge "graveyard" bunker on the right and a grass bunker to the left.

The 10th hole, nicknamed the "Teeth of the Dog", usually plays into the prominent south wind. Well-placed bunkering lies on both sides of the fairway. The target for the drive is an oak tree sitting in the center of the fairway. A two-tiered green creates a good variety of pin locations. this par 4 offers a good birdie opportunity.

The next two par fours do not. Number 11 was named by the PGA of America as the toughest 11th hole in the country. Stretching 466-yards, it plays to an elevated green with a nearly ten-foot-deep bunker to the left. The 12th plays 471-yards through an undulating valley to a green framed by bunkers and trees. Number 13 was unlucky for Seve Ballesteros in 1988. In the second round of the PGA, when his teeshot overflew the green of this little par three, the Spaniard found his ball lying in a creek bed just few feet from the four-foot high stone wall that supports this green. Attempting a quick-rising cut shot, he skulled the ball into the wall. It nearly hit him on the rebound, settling in some thick brush. From there he needed three more strokes to reach the green, where he sank a ten-footer for a triple-bogey 6. He shot 75 and missed the cut.

The 14th is named Augusta, and this 457-yard tree-lined dogleg right does have the minimal bunkering and undulating green characteristic of the Masters course. The green conjures visions of Augusta's famed 13th hole, the difference being that hole is just a few yards longer and a par 5 - with Oak Tree's number 14 being a par 4.

The 15th hole, a 472-yard par 4, is one of the most underrated holes on the golf course. The drive must be placed in the fairway to allow the second shot to find its way through a chute of large oak trees.

Birdies are frequent on the 16th hole, a comparatively short par five. The green, however, is protected on the left by two huge bunkers and a creek, and the fast split-level green presents all sort of chipping challenges. In the second round of the PGA there were nine eagles here and one score of 9 by the most unlikely of competitors. Jack Nicklaus blocked his teeshot into the hazard, then lost his 3-wood approach in the trees to the right of the green en route to a quadruple bogey. It was the first time in competition--professional or amateur--that Nicklaus had lost two balls on the same hole, and it led to his missing the PGA cut for only the third time in twenty-seven years.

Like the three other short holes, number 17 plays entirely over water, this time to a very shallow and wide green where club selection can vary three clubs or more, depending on pin placement. A beach bunker, stretching into the water, is on the right side, but the huge grassy mounds on the left are the places to be avoided at all costs.

The 18th, par 4 at 436-yards also plays into a prevailing south wind, and you are greeted by a three-tiered green fronted by a deep "Valley of Sin," placing a high premium on accuracy, both on the teeshot and the approach.

Over the years, Oak Tree Golf Club has hosted a number of prestigious events, including 1978 Round of Champions, 1979 Round of Champions, 1980 PGA Cup Matches, 1984 US Amateur Championship, 1988 PGA Championship, 2000 PGA Club Pro Championship, and the 2006 Sr. PGA Championship.