|
|
|
The 6th hole, 400/360 yards; As at Pine Valley Golf Club, the golfer at some point takes for granted the number of world class holes that he is playing. Thus, a hole like the 6th rarely gets the attention that it deserves. Elsewhere, it would be a standout short/medium length hole. Though the blind drive provides no comfort, the test is the approach shot to a domed green that falls away on all sides. Already the smallest putting surface on the course, its sloping sides give the golfer an effective hitting area of little more than 2,000 square feet - and even less when it's windy.
After the big hitting that is required on the 2nd through the 5th holes, the golfer needs 7th hole, 145/125 yards; A maddeningly hole to play, the golfer at this point in his round is thinking surely he is better than his score indicates. The short 7th is the perfect place to right the ship and yet, like the 6th, it features one of the most severe greens on the course with its left quarter sloping off and toward the deepest greenside bunker on the course. A right to left wind can, tragically, make this one of the day's most difficult holes.
A nice crisp pitch and a birdie awaits? Perhaps, but the reality is that some balls 8th hole, 430/415 yards; Though Colt deserves credit for keeping this hole on top of the dune, his green site was actually just past the two bunkers that are 75 yards short of today's green. Wilson Smyth, the Captain of the Club, who largely took over for Combe in 1915 moved the green to its present location, thus creating one of the toughest two shotters in the world. The Centenary Book offers this superb quote: Smyth ‘ruled the Club with a rod of iron for the last twenty-five years of his life and for ten years after his death.’ (!!) The point cannot be stated clearly enough: the credit for
The view from the tee of the long and demanding two shot 8th hole. Colt's original green
Wilson Smyth moved Colt's green (which would have been in the foreground
This view from left of Smyth's green location shows it to be both more exciting and 9th hole, 485/430 yards; The dramatic sixty foot drop 200 yards from the back 9th tee markers is - in theory - actually too sharp for good golf. And that makes Colt's routing over this dramatic landscape all the more impressive as the hole works wonderfully well. Once again, the golfer is given something to accomplish that no other course does on quite the same scale - launch a tee ball over the top of a dune to a blind fairway well below. The thrill of a well struck tee ball is immense but infrequent. Indeed, the key to one's round at County Down is often how well the player recovers from a missed tee ball. Far too often, a missed shot results in a double bogey or worse as the golfer gets greedy with his recovery shot. Interestingly enough, golfers frequently display worse judgment on harder courses than on the easier ones.
Standing on the 9th tee, the golfer is left with the disconcerting feeling
From the summit, the 9th plunges sixty feet to a forty yard wide level fairway.
10th hole, 195/180 yards; Like the 1st, this hole was a natural with a green situated in a natural amphitheatre of dunes. As such, it has remained in play for at least one hundred years. In fact, this green may well have been in use over one hundred and fifteen years as it may be the 2nd green from Old Tom Morris’s original layout.
Tucked at the base of the dunes, evidence suggests that this may have been one of Old Tom
The tussock faced bunker left of the 10th putting surface presents the need for a talented recovery shot.
11th hole, 440/430 yards; Modern golf course architecture has evolved into a much more strategic form than it was at the turn of the 20th century. Yet, there is too much of a good thing and today's architects are less willing to utilize fronting hazards with which the golfer must contend. At the 11th, the golfer simply must get away one of his best drives of the day, up and over the forty foot dune directly in front of him. More so than any other course with which the author is familiar, good driving at
Welcome to County Down - the view from the 11th tee. |
© Copyright
GCA 1999 - 2000. All rights reserved. |
