Double Dogleg Par 5's

[peter_mcknight]

Well, I guess I am a bit too late to make mention of Saucon Valley as part of this discussion.

There are double dog legs on both the Grace and Weyhill courses:

Grace:  1, 10, 15
Weyhill: 8, 16 (original routing)

Now, Grace 10 and Weyhill 16 are mirror images of each other.  The only real differences between them are length--the Weyhill version is nearly 65 yards longer and not downhill the entire length of the hole and the more narrow tee shot on the Grace's version of crossing the stream.

The only one of the par 5s listed above I liked (as I wrote in My Home Course section) is the 8th at Weyhill.  I never liked the position of the 15th because it will be three wedges in four holes and four in the first six holes of the back nine.  It would have been better as a par 4 there.  It does appear as if there is a bit of imagination while creating Weyhill 8, where there wasn't any at all for Grace 1, 15, Weyhill 16.  One would have been fine, but not five at one venue.

As to Mr Fine's comments about the Gordons' greens on both the Grace and Weyhill, I would prefer having the ones on the Weyhill course over the Grace--with few exceptions, the Grace's greens are pretty mundane.  There are some more interesting ones on Weyhill--3, 4, 8 to a certain extent, 12 come to mind (hole numbers are from the original routing).

[Mark_Fine]

Peter,
I was referring to Gordon greens in general and not necessarily those at Saucon.

[Mike Benham]

#4 at Poppy Hills is one, and it works.  I tend to agree with redanman on this - if the ability to cut one or both of the corners is there, they can be great fun - and one can do so at #4 Poppy Hills.

TH

[Mike Benham]

How about a DD where the legs go in the same direction?

Olympic Lake #16 qualifies by that definition.  The challenge with this hole is that you can be fooled into trying to cut the corner, primarily on second shot, as it is a considerable distance to the second dogleg.