7Th Esmeralda: A Long Shot (Or Two)

The strategy for any average player hoping to reach the green in regulation is simple: Hit the two best golf shots of your life.

Anything less and you’re probably looking at bogey, or worse. And it’s all because the hole plays so torturously long.

Bill Warner, the longtime head professional at Esmeralda, suggests that even the longest of hitters keep their drives to the right side of the fairway in order to get a look at the green.

“You have to position your drive right or you’ll get blocked out by the trees,” he said. “If you stay left, you’ve got to hit it almost 250 yards to get the brow of the hill (where the fairway starts bending hard to the left).

“When the course first opened, the ground was very hard and rocky, and back then a drive would roll about 50 yards further than they do today. With the turf not as hard as it used to be, it’s harder to hit it 250.”

In addition, the prevailing wind on No. 7 is into the face of anyone teeing off.

A long hitter, Warner said, can shorten the hole slightly by playing his drive to the left center of the fairway.

“From there, you’re hitting anywhere from a 5- to 6-iron into the green,” he explained. “But if you get left of the fairway (into the thick, busy trees), you’ve got to really be lucky just to have any kind of shot to even get back to the fairway.”

The average player who hits his or her drive between 230 and 250 yards is probably better off playing the tee shot well to the right and trying to hit a long iron or fairway wood to the green, Warner said.

But most high handicappers simply won’t be able to negotiate the vast fairway in two shots and would be well-advised to adjust their expectations accordingly.

“Once in awhile the high handicapper can hit the green with two woods - if they position it just right,” Warner said. “But if they don’t get their drive far enough right, they’re going to have to hook their second shot, because you can’t get it up over the trees.”

Fortunately, the green is one of the largest on the course and is receptive to even fairway wood approach shots. Unfortunately, if the pin is placed near the back of the deep, moderately sloped green, it can add as many as two clubs to the approach shot and make it nearly impossible for the average player to get close to the hole.

“It’s not unusual to have a 60- or 80-foot putt when the pin is way back,” Warner said. The massive green, which is slightly crowned and tilted from left to right and back to front, is protected on the left by a small, tree-covered rise. In the old days, an approach shot pulled left had a chance to hit the side of the rise and bounce right onto the green.

“But they keep the grass cut a little longer up there about 8 or 10 feet off the green,” Warner said. “So, if you hit it too far left, it’ll hang up there.

“To the back and right of the green, the ground drops off and, if you miss the green in those areas, your ball can bounce 20 yards away.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Holes for thought

All that’s needed to play these three holes, says staff writer Steve Bergum, are great shots, a sharp eye and a grasp of what options the player has.