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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.
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