Holes For Thought
ACCEPTING THE LOCAL CHALLENGE
Golf holes don’t have to be tortuously long to qualify as great holes - as evidenced by these three local favorites. As staff writer Steve Bergum explains, these layouts place an emphasis on mental discipline, strategic shot-planning and general course management rather than sheer distance off the tee.
INDIAN CANYON’S MONSTER GOBBLES THE BEST OF GOLFERS THE 12TH AT INDIAN CANYON
There have been a fortunate few - like Vancouver professional Scott Blake, in the Roasters Open several years back - who have made a double-eagle 2 on Indian Canyon’s treacherous par-5 12th hole, which plays anywhere from 494 to 536 yards.
“I could lie and say I have, too,” said Gary Lindeblad, the head pro at the city’s most renowned public course. “But I haven’t.”
This hole requires length, accuracy and intelligence off the tee, courage by anyone hoping to get home in two shots, and the nerves of a teenager from those trying to chip close after missing the green left or right with their approach shot.
A gully that dissects the right-to-left slope of the deceivingly narrow fairway forces mid- to low-handicappers to choose between a driver or 3-wood off the tee. It takes a tee shot of about 220 yards to reach the gully on the left side of the fairway and a 250-yard shot to reach it on the right.
“It’s shorter on the left side, but it’s also a riskier play,” said Lindeblad, “because the ball tends to work to the left off the fairway. The play off the tee is actually to hit the ball left-center and let it funnel down to the left.”
Lindeblad suggests that anyone who hits driver in the 250-yard range should opt for a 3-wood off the tee.
“If you hit your driver 270-plus, then go ahead and hit driver,” he explains. “But if you hit it between 240 and 260 when you really nail it, then you should probably hit 3-wood, because what’s going to happen if you don’t hit it all the way down to the bottom of the gully is that you’re going to end up with a really bad downhill lie and a tough second shot.”
Lindeblad also suggests that all tee shots, regardless of handicap, be aimed to the right side of the fairway.
“If you hit it left, then you’re screened off from the green and you have to pitch it out,” he said.
Big hitters who can roll their drive through the gully and onto the upslope on the other side are faced with a long-iron second shot into a saucer-shaped green that is reluctant to hold chip shots from its right or left.
“If you get the ball left of center on your approach, it feeds hard left - even severe left - into the rough, where it’s impossible to get it up and down,” Lindeblad says.
Middle-handicappers should use 3-wood off the tee, then whatever club will leave them with a 90- to 100-yard third shot.
“The green tends to be hard,” Lindeblad said, “so you should leave enough (yardage) that you can hit a full wedge and spin the ball on your approach.”
For the high-handicapper, the strategy is simple: Keep it on the fairway.
THE FAIRWAYS’ PAR-3 13TH TAKES FRUSTRATION FOR A JOY RIDE THE 13TH AT THE FAIRWAYS
Several years ago, on a gray and blustery spring afternoon, John Durgan and Chris Becker were sitting in the clubhouse at The Fairways at West Terrace staring out at a deserted golf course under siege from Mother Nature.
“The wind was blowing so hard that day that nobody was playing,” recalls Durgan, a PGA pro who is part-owner and general manager of the course. “So Chris and I decided to drive out to (hole No.) 13 and see what it would take to reach the green into that wind.”
As Durgan recalls, he and Becker, the course superintendent, each hit a half-dozen balls from the back tee, which requires a carry of more than 172 yards to a peninsula green with water front, right and back.
Durgan, who can hit a 9-iron safely on the green from those same tees with the wind to his back, hit driver on this day - straight into the teeth of a near-gale.
“I barely cleared the water,” he recalled. “And I think all six of Chris’ shots ended up short and wet.”
Such is the schizophrenic nature of the tough par 3 that can play anywhere from 172 to 124 yards, depending on the placement of the tee markers, and require any club from a 9-iron to a driver, depending on the direction and velocity of the wind. “I’ve hit everything from there,” Durgan said. “Club selection is the key to the hole. If you’re short - and lucky - off the tee, you might be in the sand trap. But you’re more likely to be in the water, and if you misclub and hit it long, you’re in the same water hazard.”
The water hazard is a small lake that also provides some anxious moments off the tee on on No. 12, a par 5 that curves around it. At No. 13, the lake guards a shallow green that slopes severely downward from back to front on three sides. There is a bail-out area on the left for high handicappers, but even such a conservative layup can still require a short water carry on the second shot.
The smart play on any shot to the green, according to Durgan, is to leave the ball short of the flagstick - particularly if the hole is cut in the front half of the green. “The slope in front down to the water is so severe that we’ve quit putting the pin in the front third of the green,” he said.
Durgan recommends that high handicappers trying to carry the water aim to the left side of the green.
“It’s a little shorter carry over there,” he explained. “Plus, they tend to leave the ball to the right anyway. And if you leave it to the right of the green on 13, you’re wet.”
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Mark Rypien aced the hole in last year’s Lilac Invitational.
But for Durgan, the 13th was a tough hole to conquer.
“It took me until about September of the year we opened to make a birdie there,” Durgan said. “It might not be the most difficult par 3 in the area, but it’s one of the most fun to play.”
MISLEADING PAR-4 CAN LEAVE YOUR SPIRITS IN THE DRINK THE 15TH AT MEADOWWOOD
Playing to a mere 377 yards from the back tees, this frustrating par-4 hole can lure naive golfers into a false sense of security. The fairway is not as generous as it seems and will push any drive with a slightest bit of right on it into the water.
“Probably the smartest shot for most people is to take a 3-wood, 5-wood or even a 3-iron off the tee - something you can hit about 200 to 230 yards,” advised MeadowWood’s head pro Bob Scott. “That puts you about at the 150-yard mark, which is where the fairway is about it’s widest - and you don’t have to gamble with the water as much.
“Get the club (fairway wood or long iron) in your hands that you can control the best off the tee. Otherwise, it’s easy to make a six or seven on a hole that’s a decent par-4, or 5, at worst.”
Scott said he has heard of long hitters who have driven the ball right over the water hazard and onto the finger of dry land between the green and the 16th tee box.
“But, boy, it’s not a smart play,” he added. “You have to carry it more than 300 yards.
“With the wind, it’s a possibility for the strong guys, but downwind, there’s no way.”
For the mid-handicapper hoping to play safe by playing his or her tee shot to the left, there also is peril.
“The person who plays it safe and goes left into the rough also is in trouble,” Scott said. “Our rough is usually 2 to 3 inches long, which makes it a tough shot to carry the water.”
For anyone capable of hitting a tee shot 200 yards down the middle, the hole presents few problems - provided the approach shot carries the water and sand traps that protect the front of the green.
But any shot that lands within 15 yards of the right edge of the fairway will probably roll into the water hazard and generate a embarrassingly high number.
According to Scott, any high handicapper who cannot hit the ball more than 170 yards off the tee should plan on playing three shots to the green.
“But anyone who can hit it 200 yards or more can easily reach the green in two,” Scott added.
“It’s not like the water comes right up to the green. You still have 15 or 20 yards in front of the green to land the ball.”
Although most of those 15 or 20 yards are covered with sand.
The hole is memorable to Scott because of the fitting ending it supplied to a remarkable run he made during a Pro-Ladies event last year.
After making an eagle on the par-5 12th, a birdie on the par-4 13th and a par on the par-4 14th, he knocked his 9-iron approach on No. 15 into the cup for an eagle 2.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Graphics: 1. The 12th at Indian Canyon 2. The 13th at The Fairways 3. The 15th at MeadowWood