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Here’s an ace from the back of the front tee box.
From the back box, Walt D. chose to play extra cut to find a right pin.
The most common shot is a curved shot around the left side with backspin to hold the green — check out this great 3-wood that found the hole! And here’s a 5-wood that bounced down to a left pin. Finally, here’s a nice ace with the driver.
If you get around left of the first hill, you can also head straight over the second hill with a 5-wood to find the green.
Another option is to take the path around the right side, especially with a wind blowing left. This 3-wood cut hard around the right side finds the hole! This 3-wood played more cut to find a back-center pin. And here’s another ace with the 4-wood.
If not for the mound of rough guarding the green, this hole may be drivable in great conditions. It could be beneficial if you have a great short game to blast it over the water down closer to the green, but most of us will be laying up short.
Here’s an example hole-out.
Many options off the tee, so let’s check them out:
The islands are enticing and seemingly necessary to give you a shot at the green in two, but that’s not true. If you lay up at the left end of the first fairway, you can bring in a driver and still get there. This is a great spot to lay up with a tailwind and a front pin.
First, you can try to land on any of the islands in the group of three straight ahead. The best one to shoot for depends, naturally, on wind and pin placement (but especially the pin). Let’s start with the island closest to you; this one works well with the pin on the right side of the green, so you need little or no curve around the mound on your approach. Here’s an example hole-out. And here’s a 5-wood curved into a front-right pin.
The island in the back-right group of three works well with a center or right pin.
The island on the left in the group works well with a pin on the left.
There’s another longer, narrow island out to the right that offers a straighter approach into the green with any pin placement. Here’s a 3-wood hole-out to a back right pin. Here’s another one curled around the ivy to a left pin.
Finally, you may be able to play it out left of the water in the rough (if it’s not OB) to give yourself an open approach at the green.
There’s only trouble on this one if you’re WAY off. Here’s an ace from the back box.
And here’s a dunk to a right pin from the front box.
The best play here is usually to shoot for the small landing spot on the right side straight ahead, short of the fairway neck. Landing here gives you an approach with just a small amount of cut required into the green. Here’s a 3-wood dunk from there.
The alternative is to play the left side. It’s easy to blast a drive out to the left fairway, but you’ll have to shoot straight through some trees into the green, or execute a tough curved shot around the hill into the green.
It’s likely that some day someone will high-tee a driver and carry up onto this green, but it will take perfect conditions. Most times, you’ll lay back in the fairway where you are most comfortable for the lofted approach into this green. Here’s an 8-iron to a left pin, and here’s a 5-iron to a right pin.
This par 4 is always drivable, but the difficulty depends on the tee box. Playing from the right back box requires the right angle and distance to find the gap between the trees on the way to the green. This low-teed 4-wood curved around and spun back into a right pin. And this 5-wood also stayed left of the trees to spin back in the cup. Now this high-teed 6-wood went right at it but caught the mountain…
From the middle box, this 7-wood required only a small cut to find a left pin. This low-teed 6-wood also found the hole. And this 3-iron bounced off the grassy hill, off the rocky hill, and found the cup! Here’s another just unbelievable shot you have to see to believe!
Finally, this high-teed 7-wood cut the corner straight over the mountain and under the tree leaves to dunk emphatically in the cup!
Three different tee boxes offer different lengths and elevations into this par 3 as you begin to close out your round.
It’s uphill from the back-left box — here’s an example ace.
It’s long and downhill from the back-right box — here’s a driver backspun into a front pin. And here’s a 5-wood floated into a back pin.
One play on this long par 5 is to blast a drive as far off the tee as you can to the lower fairway in order to minimize the cut required on your approach down into the green. It’s often a big C3 drive to carry down into the second fairway. Here’s a driver approach that spun back into a right pin.
Another fine option with several setups is to lay up top at the end of the first fairway, where you’ll find an opening to float your approach down into the green. Here’s another hole-out with the driver.
The thing about this hole is the green. While hard to see, there are ridges and tiers that cause your ball to take sharp turns. It’s likely these ridges affect you more mentally, because it’s easy to blame a miss on them. For instance, this putt might not have gone in anyway, but the ridge made the miss look a lot more drastic — check out this example. And don’t be surprised if you see a slope like this during a particular setup:
Now, watch this putt cover all 3 tiers and drop in the hole.
The tough finishing par 4 forces you to cut a shot around the hill and stick a narrow green surrounded by trouble. Normally you play around the right side and curve it in left. A driver has plenty of loft to get over the last hill if need be — here’s a hole-out to a back-right pin. This 3-wood played a small curve around to a back center pin.
This high-teed 5-wood tried to get over the top but got knocked down…into the cup!
Another option, with the wind blowing right, is to curve it around the left side. Here’s a great 5-wood that found the hole for the -30!
Finally, you can go sort of curved up the middle, following the path of this incredible 3-hybrid shot — check it out! But if you get stuck up there, you may have to deal with some deer!
Here is a description of this new course for Golden Tee 2015:
“Deep in the wooded wilderness, settled between tall, thick pines, glass-surfaced ponds, streams and the occasional wayward black bear is Sparkling Waters, the place where treasured camping trip meets Golden Tee. Ely, Minnesota isn’t just the home of iron ore mines; it also houses a golf course that embraces the joy nature brings. As soothing and quiet as the scene might seem, the layout will test every aspect of your game. Park the RV, pitch a tent and light a fire; stay a while.”
Here is the official preview of the new 2015 Ely, Minnesota course, and this article breaks down the course even further.
Here is a playlist with YouTube demo videos of all 18 holes from the beta version!
This post contains tips, tricks, and information related to the 2015 Golden Tee course Sparkling Waters! 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!
The most popular club/ball combo on this course, as with all 2015 courses, is Vultures/Grabbers.
Sparkling Waters will also be home to Bear Valley, the 2015 Design-a-Hole winner.
Hole 1 is a long par 4 that will give you a chance at some extra GSPs if you can stick it close. Here’s an example hole-out.
Here’s a driver ace around the left side from the back right box.
From the left box, this 3-wood curved over the trees on the left to carry the green and find the hole. And this high-teed 5-wood went right over the top into a headwind for the dunk!
And if you venture off the green a ways here, you’ll find Hoffa!
Slightly downhill, but otherwise very straightforward par 3 early in the round — here’s an example ace.
First, look to see if you can get the ball to the grassy rough island straight ahead; you’ll have plenty of distance to get there in two from here. A high-teed 3-wood straight at that island is good if you have the distance (the trees on the left are a little lower to help you clear); otherwise turn left and play a high-teed driver A1-type shot to the island instead (this can also be a medium tee if you need to curb distance…it will curl in around the trees to the rough patch). The closer to the pin, the better, but you can get there from anywhere on here — this holeout was from the back-left of the rough. Here’s a 3-wood that bounced up and in from the muck behind the rough. This one was also in that stuff and had enough to get up and in.
Not all of us will be able to get there in all setups, and you’ll actually have a better look from the next option with a left pin, which is the fairway island short and right of the first option. It’s easier to land here with the front box; you’ll need a 3/4W curved into there from the back box. Here’s a driver holeout from there.
You cannot get there in two from either of the back boxes by playing the main fairway.
From the back tee, here’s a driver with backspin around the right side. Here’s another incredible driver ace from that box. And this high-teed driver went around the left side to a left pin. So did this one, barely missing danger!
From the middle tee, you can go around either side depending on the pin placement. Here’s a high-teed 5-wood around the left side that settled into a front pin. Here’s a high-teed 3-wood around the right side that found a back-right pin.
From the front box, this 3-wood cut around the left to a left pin.
The best approach shot comes from the upper left fairway, which may require as much as a high-teed C3 drive out to the left side. If you can get up there, go for it — here’s a 5-wood holeout.
If you can’t make it to the upper left fairway, you can still drive long and right to give yourself a chance — here’s a driver holeout from there. You may also find an opening in the trees — this one went through and found the hole.
To eagle this tough par 4, you’ll have to curve around the trees to the right and try to tuck into a green with trouble on all sides. You can either take straight aim and play a B3-type shot (check out this nice 5-wood ace, and also this great driver ace), or turn right and play more of a C2-type shot. From the back-right of the box, here’s a 3-wood with bite around the right side. And with more of an angle, here’s another nice ace to a front-left pin.
Another option is to play some loft around the left side — this high-teed 6-wood played a small curve around the left to find the hole. This high-teed 5-wood took a similar route and found the cup. And while those shots cut over the top of the trees on the left, this shot went around them almost completely to a left pin.
There are a few options off the tee here. The easiest setup from the right side of the box lets you drive straight ahead or with just a small curve, to set you up with an approach around the right side. Here’s an example 6-wood hole-out.
To get to the left side of the fairway, you can take a high-teed 3/4/5-wood through/over the trees where there’s an opening. You can also use a C2-type driver with backspin around the trees to settle left. From here, you can approach through the trees around the left side into the green. This may set up better depending on the pin placement and/or wind — here is a 3-wood hole-out taking that path. Here’s another example from that spot with the 5-wood. And this approach with the driver was a smart play to a left pin.
Another option is to lay up before the neck of the fairway, on the right side, which will expose a fairly open path to the green with a driver. Here’s a long hole-out from there.
Different looks here provide some variety — from the left box, here’s an ace to a back left pin.
From the back center box, here’s a 5-wood to a back-right pin.
Nothing special here; from either tee box location, just put it in the fairway for an open shot at the green. Here’s an example hole-out.
No tricks here; just punch it out in the second fairway to leave an open approach — here’s a driver hole-out.
This par 3 can be tough — you’ll have to shoot through a narrow row of trees that extend all the way up to the green, and then you’ll hope to have a clear putt at the pin with the irregular shape of the green and often tough pin placements. Bunkers will catch any errant shots that the trees don’t deflect.
From the back box, check out this 5W dunk to a back-center pin!
Most often you will be curving it right-to-left into the green, but you have to be careful to control the backspin, as it may be coming hard towards the water. Here’s a nice 3-wood through the gap from the back left box that backspun into the hole. Here’s another example with a 4-wood, coming in hot!
From the left side of the back box, especially with the wind blowing right, you can also come around the left side of those trees into the green.
Some setups allow you to play something like a high-teed 3-wood to curve around to the upper fairway, giving yourself a short approach shot for eagle. Here’s a holeout from there. A high-teed driver has enough loft to get over the corner as well.
Especially with a wind blowing away from the green, you can also lay up at the end of the lower fairway and curve a wood up and around into the green — check out this great 4-wood hole-out. Here’s another one with the 3-wood.
Finally, you can lay up even shorter in the main fairway to the left edge, in line with the center of the pine needle patch, to give yourself a driver straight into the green.
From the center box, here’s a nice 5-wood ace.
From the right box, here’s a 4-wood ace to a back-right pin.
You can reach the green in two from the main fairway or from either of the layup spots left and right. Try to play the spot that offers you the best approach based on the wind and pin placement.
Here’s a 3-wood hole-out from the layup fairway island to the right, which offers a nice angle into the green.
Here’s another 3-wood hole-out from the left island, which also had a nice look to the green.
Just requires a bit of loft and backspin to hold the green. Don’t clip the rock or you’ll ricochet into the water as well. The green is as bad as it gets in terms of slope, so don’t be too frustrated if you two-putt. You can also try to prevent a downhill rollover by sticking the far side of the green for an uphill putt. By playing safe, you should come away with a birdie at worst here!
From the back box, this 3-wood carried the hill, stopped with spin, and settled into a right pin. And this 5-wood one-hopped off the rock into a right pin! This 3-wood with bite settled nicely into a back-left pin, for a pretty decent score. And check out the great cut on this 4-wood to settle into a right pin.
Check out this 5-wood that came up short, barely held up on the rock because of the tailwind, and crept back down into the hole!
