Hazardous Driving While Playing Highland’S Par-5 Seventh, Expect The Traps To Play With Your Mind

Sat., Aug. 19, 2000

Strategy off the tee on this imaginatively designed dogleg-left par 5 can vary greatly, depending on the wind and which tee boxes are being used. The fairway bunker, which is the main visual element on the hole, sits almost 275 yards out from the blue tees, making it unreachable for all but the longest of hitters.

But from the whites, it takes a misguided drive of only 225 yards to find the beach. And the steep face of the angled bunker makes for a challenging escape.

“The white tees give you the option where, if you’re a long hitter, you can probably knock it over the bunker,” said The Highlands head professional Sean Stiller. “But then you’ve got to decide if you want to risk going for (the green) it two, which isn’t always the best play.”

Beyond the bunker, the fairway narrows considerably and bends left to a two-tiered green that is protected by sand traps on the right and left. The trap on the left is well short of the green, but the one on the right the deepest and most dangerous of the two is tucked in close to the putting surface.

Stiller warns against missing the fairway to the right, even though that side offers the best angle into the green.

“There are two bad things that can happen if you try to drive it over the fairway bunker,” he said. “One is you don’t make it and end up in the sand, and the other is you leave it to the right and end up in a little canyon area over there.”

The smartest way to play the hole, according to Stiller, is as a three-shot hole. A well-placed drive and fairway metal will normally leave you with a short- to mid-iron into the green, he explained.

And even if you avoid the green-side bunkers with your third shot and reach the putting surface, there is still plenty of work remaining. The large green, which is 37 yards deep, slopes moderately from back to front and offers plenty of pin-placement possibilities, the toughest of which is back left on the top tier.

“That top tier is quite a bit smaller than the bottom,” Stiller said. “So when we put the pin up there, it really makes it a good hole.”

Accuracy and proper club selection on the approach shot become crucial in such a situation. But, according to Stiller, “There’s not a whole lot to worry about if you’re above the pin.”

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