Archives for the ‘2013 — Golden Tee LIVE 2014’ Category
Shady Acres — Hole #9: Par 4
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You usually loft a shot around the trees and hope to hold the green here. This 3-wood had enough to catch the rough and a nice hop to a back pin. This 4-wood was another nice play to a back-right pin.
A driver is another good option, where you land left and depend on backspin to bring it onto the green. This driver landed in the sand and backspun out to find the cup! A low-teed driver can also be an option to stick the green.
Shady Acres — Hole #10: Par 4
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Most of the time, the left fairway is fine — just be careful with a right wind because it slopes towards the water. From the end of that fairway, here’s an example hole-out.
The end of the right fairway gives you another option at an open approach — here’s a 5-wood hole-out from there.
Shady Acres — Hole #11: Par 4
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Off the tee, play a small curve to the left in front of the water to give yourself a more open approach shot at the green. Here’s a hole-out from there.
If you do play straight ahead, you’ll have to play a small curve into the green — here’s an example hole-out.
Shady Acres — Hole #12: Par 5
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It’s tough to get a drive out far enough to have a decent approach here, making it a tough par 5 to eagle. Here’s a 5-wood needing just a small curve for a hole-out. This 2-hybrid played a bigger cut and backspun into the cup. And this 3-wood holed out to a really tough pin location!
This drive got too close to the trees, but a driver rammed through them and luckily found the cup!
This drive was able to carry far down the fairway and left this open approach hole-out.
Shady Acres — Hole #13: Par 3
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It’s nice when you can use a 5-wood to loft a shot onto this green — here’s an example ace to a left pin.
Here’s a 7-wood ace to a back-right pin.
With lower-lofted clubs, this hole can be difficult. It’s often between a 2-hybrid and 3-hybrid if you play Hawks, and there’s quite a gap difference there while needing to carry and stick this green. This 3-hybrid with bite worked well with a tailwind. This 2-hybrid with backspin also found the cup.
Don’t try this at home, but this appears to be a 1-iron swerved with a front-hill assist — amazing! Here’s another one curved the other way hopped up to a back pin!
Check out this amazing deflection off the back bunker!
Shady Acres — Hole #14: Par 4
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Play a cut shot around to the right with your driver here to open up the approach shot. Here’s a hole-out from the right fairway. Even if you end up in the middle of the sand, you’ll have an open approach shot — this one found the cup.
Shady Acres — Hole #15: Par 4
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Here’s a 3-wood with bite to a right pin. And here’s a driver ace.
This driver was sure to get wet, but it hung on and got a crazy hop into the hole!
Shady Acres — Hole #16: Par 5
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A good option many times off the tee here is to rotate right and look for a little grassy outlet jutting from the right out into the water. You can play a small cut into this area to give yourself an open approach shot with a wood.
Curving an A1 shot off the tee often still leaves you with a very difficult approach where you’ll have to curve a C3 iron into the green. This one got it done to a right pin.
If you try to drive straight ahead, you may have this happen (left tree). You can actually hit out of here sometimes as a playable lie for the time being and still potentially save your eagle! Other times, though, it’s unplayable, so I don’t think this is something you want to plan for.
If you drop down somewhere in the area and have an opening, that gives you an approach at the green. With the wind blowing left to help out, this approach found the cup. This one from the rough also got it done.
Shady Acres — Hole #17: Par 3
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Here’s a great ace to a back-left pin. Here’s an 8-iron ace to a front-right pin.
This 9-iron got a crazy bounce into the hole off the front-right hill!
Shady Acres — Hole #18: Par 4
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From the front box, this 9-wood was perfectly-played into a back-left pin.
From the back box, this 5-wood also found the hole. And here’s a great 3-wood. With a lot more angle, check out this impressive 5-wood dunk! And this one is fun because it aced for a -41 in the all-drivable par-4 daily contest!
Turtle Island — Hole #2: Par 4
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There are a couple ways to get close to this green sometimes. The natural instinct is to high tee a driver and blast away, but there’s also a ramp that you can catch to propel a straight low-teed driver 400+ yards towards the green. Give it a try sometime!
Otherwise, lay up short of the sand with your drive — use backspin to be sure to stop at the top of the hill. Here’s an example hole-out.
Turtle Island — Hole #4: Par 4
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Here is a 3-wood floated over the top into a back pin.
With a tough left-pin placement, here’s a great 3-wood curved into the hole.
A driver still gets over the top too — this one backspun into the hole.
Turtle Island — Hole #6: Par 5
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No reason not to just lay up at the end of the first fairway and bring it in from there — here’s an example driver hole-out.
However, here’s a 9-wood hole-out from the second fairway. If you lose one off the left edge, though, you may get to check out a sweet sand castle!
Turtle Island — Hole #8: Par 4
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Here’s a 3-wood over the top, spun back to a front pin.
This 5-wood caught a soft hop off the rocky ground in front to the hole.
Turtle Island — Hole #9: Par 5
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Put your drive down in the fairway close to the lava to give yourself a driver straight in over the trees on your approach — here’s an example hole-out.
If your drive comes up short and/or you need more distance because you’re around 350 out, then play a big C3 driver shot as your approach into this green. A full cut wasn’t needed here for this one to find the cup.
You may also be able to lay up out to the left in the rough to avoid the issue with the fairway neck, as seen in this example hole-out.
Even if you go long here, the rough in the back of the green is quite friendly and accommodates putts in many instances, as seen here.
Turtle Island — Hole #10: Par 4
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Many times you can just lay back in the first fairway and loft your approach over the tree to the green. Consider laying back to the left for a 5-wood approach if you don’t have a 7-wood or higher in the bag. Or, you can carry towards the end of the first fairway and curve an iron around to the green. This shot was way too far left, but it just kept bouncing back down and into the hole!
Or, you can drive out to the second fairway to get past the blocking trees and have a shorter approach shot instead — here’s an example hole-out from there.
And there’s an alien if you miss the green pretty badly — check out what he says if you hit him with a golf ball!
Turtle Island — Hole #11: Par 5
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Unless the wind will be strong in your face on the approach (and maybe even then), you can lay up straight ahead in the fairway in line with the lava pit on the left. This should leave an open driver approach into the green — here’s an example hole-out.
Or, you can take the traditional approach if you are able to put a huge drive out past the lava guarding the fairway. Here’s a 3-wood hole-out from the rough in front of there. And here’s a 5-wood from the fairway.
This drive found the sand by the water, but plenty of distance was had to hole-out from there!
Finally, you can curve anywhere from a 5-wood or a high-teed 3-wood around the trees and to the landing area straight ahead. In front of the lave lakes, there’s a ditch where the ball can settle, giving you an open approach shot to the green most times. There are a couple trees down there, and if you end up too far left in that ditch, your approach could be impeded.
Turtle Island — Hole #13: Par 4
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This green can rarely be drivable given a great setup — this big A1 shot would have gotten there if not for a bush at the end! This A1 did graze by the hole, leaving a short chip. This A1 settled nicely on the green.
And this big C3 drive did carry to the green! Here’s another C3 that got there.
Here you can just carry down to the bottom of the last fairway, obviously being careful not to flirt too much with the water since the fairway slopes down. Here’s a hole-out from there.
Turtle Island — Hole #14: Par 4
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The shot here depends on the wind. With a head-wind, you’ll often high-tee a 3-wood over the top of the trees.
This high-teed 5-wood carried into the back rock but caught a great deflection into the cup!
With a right-blowing wind, you can aim left and pretty much take the trees out of the picture completely — here’s a nice 4-wood ace.
Turtle Island — Hole #15: Par 5
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Most of the time you can high tee a driver straight ahead to the far-left fairway. Another option is to rotate right and play a C3 shot with roll out there instead. Check out this nice hole-out to a front pin. And here’s a 4-wood hole-out using the back-right of the hill as a backstop.
If the wind favors playing out to the right fairway instead, that’s certainly an option too. You may or may not have to work the approach around some guarding trees. Here’s a driver hole-out from that side. This one carried into the rough but still had an opening to the green for a hole-out.
Turtle Island — Hole #16: Par 3
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From the back box, check out the bounces this 5-wood gets off the rock before it finds the cup. Here’s another terrible shot that kicks all the way over and somehow into the hole! And this 9-wood rattled around off the rock too and settled back in the cup! There can be quite a bit of wind in play with lofted clubs, but this one floated in nicely!
This shot was way long, but after spending time bouncing along the rock, it made its way back in!
Turtle Island — Hole #17: Par 4
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Clearing the hill is not that difficult from anywhere in this fairway, but if you can get closer by aiming for the back left fairway, go for it. This approach shot caught a nice hop off the front rock and settled into a back pin.
This shot was way too far left, but the rock shot it all the way across the green to the cup! Here’s another one that missed left but hopped and spun back in the hole.
Turtle Island — Hole #18: Par 4
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This 3-wood caught tree and hill but still settled down and backspun into a left pin! This 5-wood also used a nice bounce off the hill to find a front-left pin. This 5-wood with no roll settled nicely into a back pin.
And this driver curved around quite accurately, catching a back pin before tumbling over. Here’s another driver with just a small cut, using bite to settle into the cup.
Highland Links — Golden Tee 2014
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Here is the official preview of the new 2014 Scotland course, and this article breaks down the course even further.
This post contains tips, tricks, and information related to the 2014 Golden Tee course Highland Links! Check out the hole-by-hole breakdowns and example hole-outs as I partner up with the Golden Tee community to give you the edge you need to beat your friends!
At first this course looks like Bonnie Moor, suggesting low-score potential, but the rough is absolutely brutal here. Do all you can to stay away from it, as it severely limits your distance on approach shots and ruins your touch on short chip shots. If you can do that, you can certainly score low here.
Most pros use the Hawks on this course to allow control with the lower-lofted hybrids on longer approach shots. There isn’t much need for any high-lofted woods, but they can help you out on a couple shots, so some pros play the Flares here insteaed. I’d still recommend the Hawks. Many pros like the Streak balls for their distance, but I like the Razors this year to give you backspin and roll as well as distance and a soft landing on the green.