Backbreaker gives Classic different look
- Updated: July 9, 2015
[corner-ad id=2]Silver Lakes nine, last used in Sunny King rotation in 1999, challenges the field with elevated greens
Two fairway bunkers and an intimidating elevated green await players off the tee at Backbreaker No. 3. On the cover, a yawning bunker gives players something to think about on No. 4.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
SILVER LAKES – When the Sunny King Charity Classic tees off Friday morning at Silver Lakes, even some of the most veteran players in the field will be seeing something they haven’t seen in a long time.
Some might even be seeing it for the first time.
That’s because when the field gets its turn on the Robert Trent Jones Trail course, they will be playing a new nine in the course rotation.
For years, the traditional SKCC scramble setup at Silver Lakes has followed the Mindbreaker and Heartbreaker nines. But this year – for the first time this century – the Backbreaker nine will be part of the mix, replacing the Mindbreaker.
That means when the players come to the course, they’ll cross the bridge and play all the holes on the left side of the clubhouse.
“I don’t think there was any one thing (that prompted the change) other than something different,” Silver Lakes director of golf Jason Callan said. “It kind of goes along with what (tournament chairman) Braxton (Harris) is trying to do with adding different things to make the event different and a little bit more exciting. We’ll see how it’s accepted from the standpoint of the players. It will be fun.”
The last time Backbreaker was in the rotation was 1999, the last of four years it was paired with the Short Course and all four nines at the facility were used. Even when Silver Lakes returned to the tournament rota in 2010 and again after the devastating 2011 tornado, the Mindbreaker and Heartbreaker nines remained the loop.
“Actually, (assistant pro) Brennan (Clay) and I were just talking. ‘What do you think about playing the Backbreaker?” Callan recalled. “This was after the Sunny King last year. Maybe we’ll play the Backbreaker next year and then we just dropped it.
“We got to talking again. ‘You still thinking about playing the Backbreaker?’ I said I don’t know, why not. Something different.”
Actually the Mindbreaker-Backbreaker combination is the toughest at the course –- depending, of course, which tees are played. As it is, players on the Backbreaker will have to contend with elevated greens that’ll add a club or two to the approach and potentially bring scores back from the brink of a record.
And you don’t ease into these elevation changes as you might at Cider Ridge. It starts right out of the gate on the par-4 first – another departure from the other nines that open with par-5s — and continues throughout the side.
Nos. 3 and 4 are particularly challenging. The green on 3 not only is elevated, it has a false front that sends shots that come up short rolling back into the fairway. No. 4 has a yawning bunker that divides the fairway just past the 150 pole and its elevated green angles away from the player.
“I always thought the Backbreaker was the harder of the three nines anyway,” defending champion Ryan Howard said.
“I think it’s more challenging with Backbreaker-Heartbreaker,” agreed Cale Wright, a 16-handicap.
And as such, five-time winner Gary Wigington doesn’t believe scores will be as eye-popping among the championship flight teams on Friday’s first day as they have been in the past. Wigington and Freeman Fite shot 18-under on Mind-Heart last year, tying the scramble record set by Adrian Geeting and Kenny Wright on the same rotation the year before.
“I don’t think you’ll see an 18-unders on those two nines at all,” Wigington said. “There are several things about that Backbreaker that’ll make it more difficult to shoot a great number on it.”
Still, the part of the field that plays Back-to-Heart in the two-tee start will have the chance to gain some big-time momentum in the middle of their round. In that routing, they’ll get three par-5s in a four-hole stretch coming around the turn and it’s generally agreed the par-5s on the Backbreaker are a little easier than the Mindbreaker – especially from where the field will play them.
While that may bog down pace of play as players wait to go for the reachable greens in 2, if they take advantage of that stretch their round could take off like a drive that finds the speed slot in a sloping fairway.
“You can go from 2- or 3-under to 7-8-9-10-under in four holes,” Clay said.
By the same token, playing the Heart-to-Back rotation, you get to put the challenging and potentially wind-blown stretch of 6-7-8-9 in your rear-view mirror while playing to the reachable par-5s at the end of your round.
Those who played in the RTJ Silver Lakes Championship two weeks ago got a taste of it and said it was helpful; 10 of the 12 players from the Championship A flight are in the Sunny King. It’s one of the reasons the course schedules the tournament when it does.
“It definitely helps we just played it,” said four-time champion Jeremy McGatha, a distant runner-up to Eric Hamilton and Patrick Cushman’s final Sunny King title the last time Backbreaker was in the mix. “I enjoy the Backbreaker. You wouldn’t think that by the score I just shot (7-under-par on Heart, 7-over on Back), but I like Backbreaker.”
Depending on how well the nine is received this year, this might not be the last time Backbreaker is used in the tournament.
“It’s something maybe we can look at in the future,” Callan said. “Maybe every other year we flip-flop it. We do have 27 holes. We can make three separate rotations.”
Depending on the order of nines played at Silver Lakes, Backbreaker No. 7 could begin a stretch of three par-5s in four holes that could bring a boost to somebody’s round.
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