The portal
Sink your ball into the satellite green and you come out beside the pin. It is the only hazard in the game that is trying to help you, which is what makes it dangerous.
How it works
The satellite green is a small target set somewhere out on the hole. Land on it and hole out into the teal portal, and your ball reappears at the purple exit next to the pin. On a short enough hole that is most of the distance covered in one shot.
On the longest holes the portal will not take you the whole way. It carries you a set distance up the fairway instead, which is still a considerable gain but leaves you with a hole to finish rather than a putt to make.
Why it is a trap as often as a gift
The satellite green is small, and the portal surface kills a rolling ball almost dead — it has less rollout than anything except a bunker. So a shot that would have run out nicely on fairway stops where it lands, and the target you were aiming at is smaller than it looks.
The real cost is what surrounds it. Players aim at the portal from a lie that cannot reach it, come up short in whatever is in front of it, and turn a routine hole into a scramble. The portal is worth taking when you can reach it comfortably, and worth ignoring completely when you cannot.
How to play it
- Only go for it if the satellite green is inside your comfortable carry. Stretching for it is how a par becomes a double.
- Remember the portal surface does not roll. Judge it as a carry to the middle, not a carry to the front.
- On a long hole, check what the portal actually gains you before you commit — it may only be moving you up the fairway.
- Ignoring the portal is a legitimate strategy. The hole is playable without it.
Where you will meet it
Portals appear on a minority of holes and never on a crossing.