The OTB Open starts on May 12th and it looks like they have changed the layout slightly this year compared to the previous years’ layout. Let’s jump right in and see what changes have been made this year.
Major Course Changes
- Hole #1
One of the more iconic holes on the course is your starting hole from the previous year. You were up on an elevated teepad throwing around 400 or so feet and then approaching the well guarded green to make an attempt at a birdie.
This year the hole is a Par 3, 496 feet for the MPO cards and 348 feet for the FPO cards. It looks like they are going to keep the iconic elevated teepad from previous years but it looks as if they pushed the teepad back and to the right slightly maybe 50 or so feet.
The shot for the MPO will be slightly turned over shot with something with a little bit of turn and hyzer back into the pin. Big arm throwers may throw a hyzer out right if there is enough clearance off the teepad and crash something within 20 feet of the pin but I don’t really think there will be much of that for the rest of players. This shouldn’t be a hole you see a lot of different scoring on.
The FPO players on the other hand have straight to very slightly anhyzer shot through the gaps on the left side of the green. One thing that they will have to worry about will be the low ceiling when approaching the green. Players that have more distance may try the hyzer line with something that doesn’t have a large fade at the end skip onto the green from the right side of the green.
- Hole #2
From the redesign of Hole #1, they took the other half of the original Hole #1 and added a few teepads and a mando to create Hole #2.
For the MPO Hole #2 is Par 4, 744 feet with a mando around 225 to 250 feet off of the tee to prevent anyone from hitting any players that are playing Hole #1 and another mando at around 450 feet to keep you to the left side of the fairway. I don’t see very many players being able to throw a backhand or forehand to the any distance farther than 400 feet so there will probably be a placement shot at about that distance then a slightly touchy approach to green with hopefully an easy birdie to clean-up. The biggest issue I see is getting a tree kick from an early release and kicking OB on the left side of the fairway or a tree kick that you will miss the late mando.
The FPO have a Par 4, 573 feet have a mando at 290 feet off the teepad. I would imagine that most players are going to try to get about 300-325 feet off the tee and at the center of the gap that opens up to the green to have about 80-90 foot upshot to take your birdie. This should be a hole most of the field should be able to get.
Minor Course Changes
Before getting into the details about all the small changes that happened on the course, the separation of Hole #1 into two separate holes have caused an adjustment to all the numbers for the course as well. Also, 2022 course layout had Hole #16 as a Par 3, 399 feet for the MPO and 299 feet for the FPO was removed based on the changes to Hole #1 and Hole #2 for the 2023 course layout.
- Hole #5
Previously from last years layout was Hole #4, they have combined the FPO and MPO teepads and made them both a Par 4. For MPO this is more of a typical Par 4 that we used to seeing on tour but for the FPO this may be a bit of a tougher Par 4 to get.
- Hole #7
Previously from last years layout was Hole #6, they have separated the FPO and MPO teepads and have moved the MPO back about 80 feet to make it more of a risky Par 3. If you have the power and trust with your discs I can see MPO players pushing something fairly straight slightly over the OB water to try to get the easy birdie but if there is no risk or reason to need it players may throw a midrange up to about edge Circle 1 or Circle 2 and run a long putt to make a birdie.
- Hole #13
Previously from last years layout was Hole #12, they have combined the teepads and added two separate pin locations for FPO and MPO. They also have added a new mando to keep players on the left side of the fairway. Most players are going to throw their straightest and most neutral disc that they have MPO player may try to flip the discs slightly to get the distance that they need to get to the pin in one throw by I think the ceiling will be in the way and if that’s the case then there may be a few rollers in play to get the distance to the pin.
