No. 7 Par 4 385 371 325
Once again, the sunbeam lights what the mind sees when you stand on the 7th. California Road and OB are a notorious sentinel, just 15 yards
from the left edge of the fairway, the side from which this green is best approached.The Seventh is what the author what call a "perfect Siwanoy" hole. Just 370 or so yards and fairly frank in appearance, the hole almost diagrams how you should play it. With experience and repeat playings, one realizes that this play is all but exclusively governed by the relationship between the viciously contoured green and the defense of its best approach angle
That defense is the danger inherent in an out-of bounds fence that parallels the entirety of the hole, just a dozen yards inside the left rough. However, the approach angle is most square from that side and to achieve it, the player intuits that a slight draw must be weaved from the tee. But with the competing knowledge that a fuller hook or double cross is gone onto California Road, a conservative hedging play to the right is often the result.
With the green squarely positioned to the tee, the farther right you go, the more oblique the approach angle becomes. Kay's restoration judgment settled on the placement of a small fairway bunker 250 out on that right side which further limits the ambitious. Indeed the largest hitters can rip off a drive that gets within 70-90 yards of the green - if they do, "bravo" - but if they miss in the right rough or worse – hurtle out-of-bounds - they are at a disadvantage to an opponent twice as far away, but safely in play.
No matter where in the fairway you come to rest, the concentration is then turned to the green which is something of an arcane marvel; the kind you don’t see any more except perhaps on the Raynor-Macdonald courses. Gently elevated above play so as to confound distance judgment the putting surface is an oval shaped deck possessing a four foot elevation change from back to front. A thumbprint depression creates a shallow bowl in the very center with putting shelf on three sides. An approach miss into the deep bunkers that frame either side usually results in a bogey as the touch necessary to cross these contours and still judge distance is no less than expert. Except in the very front, putts blaze along these tapered swells which can compel as much as a 90 degree borrow to allow for their diving breaks.
From short left
From well in the right roughNo. 8 Par 4 358 335 253Another perfect Siwanoy hole, one that defies bashing and rewards thoughtful placement. Like #1 and #7 before it, the player has to really think about what he wants to do with his tee shot despite the short length and the general latitude the drive seems to imply. Here on #8, the dilemma is a semi-blind tee shot, as the vista is from a shady grove to an indefinite horizon of fairway. The fairway climbs to a broad ridge top 200 yards out from the white tees.
The overall best play from the Blue Tee, is a 220-230 shot aimed at the dominant spreading tree (which is actually well in the right rough)
This spot, about 190 from the tee is where the fairway flattens and the green begins to come in view over the valley.After 40 yards of this flat however, it begins a ski slope descent to a valley bottom where a thin creek bisects the fairway. Though that creek is actually 280 from the white tee, and only 45 yards from the benched hillside green, the slope running down to it is so sharp that a hot 240+ hit can ramble all the way down and in. For most players, driver is thus a ludicrous choice and experience will teach the Siwanoy player that the absolute best location to attack this green is back up at the flat of the fairway between 125-140 yards away. Not only does this take the creek out of fortune's hands but ensures that you will not be playing a 70-100 yard wedge shot off of an extreme downhill lie.
A well-gauged, semi-blind 220 yard drive results in this “sweet-spot” from which to approach the 8th green. Go too far and a bad, partial-shot lie awaits, with the creek at the bottom waiting to catch anything longer than that. 
Here's the older view of nearly the same perspective, from Oct 1995. While the author is, on balance, a fan of the Kay renovations, there is a pang of regret as the old presentation of the "Great Wall" hazard was somehow more noteworthy in its fearsomeness. Of course, once in position and with another short club in your hand, one of Siwanoy's most heroic shots awaits you - a firm, sure aerial short iron played over the "Great Wall" of the green complex. The green is shaped as a "tear drop" and is contoured like a concave potato chip, pitched from the broad back left to the tapered front, which is probably seven paces wide. At tournament speed it is blazing to the narrow front half and putts have many times gone right off the green, down 25 yards of hill, stopping just before the dry creek bed.
No. 9 Par 4 300 286 225
Delight and frustration, opportunity and beguilement, the 9th hole is as damn near a perfect and fun short hole as can be imagined and a perfect note to end Siwanoy's front side. Experience tells you that the Back Nine is going to be a much sterner medal challenge - more hazards, more penalty, longer holes - so the 9th feels like one of the last, best opportunities to gather ye rosebuds while ye may. There are thorns, however.
The central obstacle between the tee and the green is a restored fairway bunker ranging from 215 to 230 yards away from the back tee. This hazard – which adds great visual interest to the golfer’s view – was part of the 1996-98 restoration project by Steven Kay, which also saw the removal of a line of smaller bunkers planted in the right rough at some point in the course’s evolution.
These images, from an older document of the author's, give a sense of the re-established choice Kay's restoration of the original cross bunker now offers. It is fair to note that this central bunker was both closer to the tee and the hole was listed at 264 in many of its first card listings - including the 1916 PGA. Kay's update on its placement seems judicious and relevant to today's action, if not dogmatically faithful to the original Ross design.As is, today’s player is confronted with a choice of bashing up to the green as far as possible, eschewing the threat of the cross bunker but risking a poor angle from the rough into the green OR laying back short of that fairway bunker and leaving a significantly longer shot which is played from a semi-blind position below the biggest sweep of the approach slope.
Whichever path is chosen, players are reminded that coming to rest on this small target is a premium from any distance. The complex itself is “tight,” with deep bunkers guarding the fronting right and left with out-of-bounds lurking mere steps off the back of the putting surface. These perils often induce some of the most stilted and unconventional wedge/short iron play to be witnessed at Siwanoy, and reminds us that a player with great command and variety in his “under-100” shots often prospers on this course.
It is the fiendishly contoured circle of a green that can make this cub into a grizzly. The green is barely 20x20 paces in size and is nearly a complete crown with its highest elevation in the center falling away dramatically to the front, left and right. The rear 3rd of the green offers the most level putting positions. Long putts on this green usually traverse significant falling contours and it might be the single hardest two-putt green from distances of 20 feet or more.
It may not look like much in two-dimensions, but don't get behind or to the sides of this day's pin...if you don't make it, there's an 8-12 footer on the return trip. It's almost a better par chance to play from the front bunkers than to try and putt from behind such a hole location