Par Fours

It’s my opinion that golf courses are judged in the wrong way by most of us…We too often talk about the arms and legs of a golf course instead of it’s shoulders. The arms (par 3s) and legs (Par 5s) are the holes that are easiest to score on. There are exceptions of course but for the most part think about any course you admire.

On the Par 3s you are playing from a perfect lie directly in front of your target…unless it’s a dogleg that is…which do exist.

Similarly a Par 5 requires one or two quality shots to make either par or birdie. How many times have you hit the L and L (OK the Low and Left is my favorite shot, maybe not yours) and recovered with a 100 yards or less to the green? Of course it happens all the time.

The true test of a golf course comes in it’s Par 4s…first of all there’s more of them…10 on average…and they require more than one good shot to be scored on…So with that I give you the 5th at Pinehurst #2…my nomination and winner of Best Par 4 in Golf. Wow that’s big talk.

OK how about Best Par 4 Most Likely to Ruin a Good Round, Just When You Thought You Were a Player? This gives me latitude for future posts…so it’s my BLOG that nobody reads…deal with it!

Storytime boys and girls: In the summer of 2001 I was sitting at my desk in Atlanta minding my own business when the phone rang. It was my friend and client Greg Anderson from Pinehurst Resort. Leading up to the US Open, Pinehurst smartly reinforced the support of it’s hospitality clients by making them part of a group they dubbed “The President’s Council”.

These were businessmen from North Carolina as well as around the country who supported the Open through sponsorships and/or by purchasing hospitality during the tournament.

Back to the phone call. “Rick, the President’s Council is this week and one of my guests backed out…can you come up here and play #2 (twice), eat some procuitto wrapped quail legs, let us give you a bag (leather of course) of swag, and generally goof off for two days? And, tell your boss with pride that you’re doing it?”

HMMMM…what to do…what to do?

Stay in Atlanta, nervously wringing my hands over why the August issue is looking a bit weak…or this?

“OK, I’m leaving in a half hour!” “No”, said Greg…it’s Monday and the event starts Thursday”…I knew that.

So I’m driving up Thursday, Greg calls me on my cell phone. “Don’t be late”, he admonishes, “we are playing a practice round this afternoon with Dean Smith”. What’s that sound Jackie Gleason used to make when the wife caught him in a lie? Something like hamana hamana hamana? That’s what I did all the way there.

So we’re on the first tee, I’m playing with the most important guy in the state (apolpgies to Tom Pashley) and I hit it OK down the right side.

Don’t worry you don’t need a cart…we aren’t going all 18.

Real quickly, here was the next hour of my life. 7-iron, 10 feet, downhill, make it.

On the second, drive, 6 iron, 20 feet, two putt.

Number 3…3-wood, sand wedge, leaner…birdie and 2 under.

When I hit it to the front on the Par 5 fourth and got it up and down, even the guy who decided when to pull Michael Jordon out was impressed…heady stuff!

On to the 5th…the star of the post.

Feeling like I could play all of a sudden I hit the longest drive of the decade…personally of course.

I remember what the 7-iron looked like in the air as it started left, looked like it might hook, hooked, then dove left…a seemingly impossible feat.

Johnny Miller would have said it was the worst shot he’d ever seen. OK it
wasn’t good but I would take 5 and do the Kenny Venturi run to the next tee.

Tight lie but I’m a player. Oops, meant to hit it 20 yards, not 5 inches. Not to worry, double bogey drops me to one under with some easy holes (for the Deuce at least) coming up.

Double bogey would have been a miraculous score from the back patio of a lovely two-story, center entry Colonial on the other side of the hole and OB…which is where I hit it.

It was fine…the Coach looked away, my caddie made a noise with the gap between his two front teeth and I returned to where I belong…a few over par after five, longing for the Heineken at the halfway house.

So “The Best Par 4 Most Likely to Ruin a Good Round Just When You Thought You Were a Player” has been nominated and elected…Congratulations.