golf4life
Grip n rip
I recently got back from our annual guy's golf trip to Myrtle Beach. This year we played 4 fantastic courses north of Myrtle Beach including Rivers Edge, a tough but amazing Arnold Palmer course. We played the Black tees at 6440 yards with a rating of 134. Their signature hole is the Par 5 ninth, number one handicap, and probably the riskiest risk reward hole I've ever played.
As you can see from the image below, the tee shot is fairly demanding as there is marsh hazard the entire length of the hole left, and trees right. While the fairway is reasonably wide, if you miss it, you're in jail. The tee shot is also into the prevailing winds, which were about 10 mph the day we played. But the tee shot is just the warm up. After your tee shot, depending on how far you hit it, you will have anywhere between a pretty tough to very difficult layup with little room for error. As you can see, that marsh now comes in and creates a narrow penninsula to which you must now layup. Going for the green will seem tantalizingly doable if you mash a drive, but the green is just 12 yards across and there is ZERO bailout short or long. You better hit the perfect shot. Oh, don't forget about the headwind to get through too. They did provide a generous drop zone though (I'm sure to speed up play) that is in the fairway about 100 yards from the green.
Even if you layup conservatively near the 150 stick, you are now coming in sideways to the green with almost no room to miss left or right with a leftward breeze across the green. Do you play a draw? Do you dare start it over the hazard right? The day we played (twice, 36 holes), the pin was front corner where the green is literally 9 paces across.
How would you play this hole? At what yardage would you consider going for it in two? I'll post later about what I did on this crazy but memorable hole.
As you can see from the image below, the tee shot is fairly demanding as there is marsh hazard the entire length of the hole left, and trees right. While the fairway is reasonably wide, if you miss it, you're in jail. The tee shot is also into the prevailing winds, which were about 10 mph the day we played. But the tee shot is just the warm up. After your tee shot, depending on how far you hit it, you will have anywhere between a pretty tough to very difficult layup with little room for error. As you can see, that marsh now comes in and creates a narrow penninsula to which you must now layup. Going for the green will seem tantalizingly doable if you mash a drive, but the green is just 12 yards across and there is ZERO bailout short or long. You better hit the perfect shot. Oh, don't forget about the headwind to get through too. They did provide a generous drop zone though (I'm sure to speed up play) that is in the fairway about 100 yards from the green.
Even if you layup conservatively near the 150 stick, you are now coming in sideways to the green with almost no room to miss left or right with a leftward breeze across the green. Do you play a draw? Do you dare start it over the hazard right? The day we played (twice, 36 holes), the pin was front corner where the green is literally 9 paces across.
How would you play this hole? At what yardage would you consider going for it in two? I'll post later about what I did on this crazy but memorable hole.