In an effort to find a new way to analyze a golf course, I'd like to present to the board a thread, in hopefully a series, that looks into 3 things that one can learn from a certain golf course. While most of the focus here will be around the Philadelphia area, I hope others will pick up the concept.
I'll start with Paxon Hollow Golf Club, located in Marple Township, PA. The course is owned by the township and was designed by Franklin Meehan and Francis Warner, opening in 1927.
The course is interesting because it offers a golf course of 5700 yards playing to a par of 71, with 5 par 3s and 4 par 5s. The hilly terrain makes the course play significantly longer and the golfer is faced with a variety of shots where distance is a secondary consideration to such things as trajectory and shot shape.
1: Short Par 4s which force selection of a tee shot distances between 200-250 yards can be effective in making the other longer holes play much more difficult.Let's consider 5 of the holes at Paxon Hollow which play in the 270-350 range, all of which traverse some of the more severe portions of the property.
We start out of the gate with such a hole: #1 The line indicates 200 yards from the middle of the teeing ground. The area left of the cart path is a deep depression and the fairway is cut along the top rim of this. The green is a peninsula where long or left drops toward the bottom of the hill. Suffice it to say, left is death, while bailing out right or through the dogleg leaves an unfortunate angle. Immediately, the golfer is asked a question he will be presented many times at Paxon; "Are you able to determine which club, trajectory, and line of approach best place your tee ball in position to attack this green?" Since the hole is devoid of any framing features, it is initially very difficult for the golfer to determine if the aggressive line toward the green is even conceivable. We know the fairway is reachable, and the chasm able to be traversed - but along which line? How much right-to-left ball flight is acceptable?
The question is varied several times throughout the round - with the first being the sole example with little elevation change from tee-to-fairway-to-green.
The 5th presents a slightly longer, but more downhill example:
The dogleg reversed and the green is a much more tempting target at the 10th:
An uphill proposition follows at the 13th, with similar catastrophe awaiting the careless shot out to the left:
And finally, the tighter uphill 16th, where the tee shot is slightly blind:
2: The 5th par 3 can offer more flexibility in routing, club selection and interest.Paxon's par 3s are excellent, and 4 of the 5 would be stand outs in most any routing. From the uphill, skyline 8th, the treacherous drop shot 17th, the wedge shot to the well contoured 2nd and the downright frightening 15th, it is rare that any golf course offers a set of one-shotters where 5 different clubs are pulled from the bag let alone ones which place such demands on precision and decision making.
Even more appealing is the use of the par 3 to traverse awkward spots in the routing. Even the as-of-yet unmentioned 4th, which is by no means a pushover, fulfills the purpose of moving the golfer from the perched 3rd green to the necessary angle to again attack the chasm on the 5th hole. Paralleling this in the opposite direction is the 8th, which moves the golfer from the corner 7th green to the 9th tee shot, presenting perhaps the sternest two hole set on the golf course.
However, no discussion of the routing of the par 3s is complete without the mention of the 17th, where no more than lob wedge can be used to attain a birdie putt, but inaccuracy will lead to prayers for the bogey putt. While the original routing had the 18th tee originally near the 15th green, the change of 18 to a par presented the problem of getting from the new 16th green, high above the creek valley, to the 18th tee along the creek. By creating a green within an angry mule's kick from the 15th tee, the renovation added a dramatic, and note-worthy penultimate challenge, where many a match may have been extended to the par 5 home hole.
3: When the short holes are done very well, even "breather" long holes with little noteworthiness to them present challenges.While the two par 5s on the second nine are highlights of the round, the three-shotters on the front are quite awkward to the first timer, and when taken out of context of the golf course offer very little architecturally. However, with a stable of short, tricky holes like Paxon Hollow, even the simplest of the longer holes will present comparative challenges that can wreck a round.
For example, the non-descript 7th, which would be a lightning rod for criticism at most other courses. A sweeping right-angle dogleg left, a tee ball of more than 220 yards is likely to find the outside rough, and there is little apparent value in challenging the OB right. However, with golfers coming off the severe and tight 6th hole, and with the difficult 8th and 9th tee shots lying ahead, such an open hole presents an urgency to score well on such a non-descript hole. It is with this mind game that the 7th can bare it's simple, but razor sharp, teeth. Complacency in the tee shot can lead to an awkward angle from which to hit the second, and an overly aggressive line in attempting to reach the green in two can find any number of hazards, including tree limbs, bunkers, and OB.
It is in this manner that Paxon Hollow presents its breather holes, not as the typical driver-wedge par 4 with few hazards, but with choices on seemingly easy shots which call on the golfer to absolve himself of all preconceived golfing notions and commit to the shot at hand. A task not easily induced in even the most experienced of players.