Average Joe's Hole of the Week: Alling Memorial Golf Course No. 6

Thursday, 24 April 2008

PAR 4, 361 YARDS
Hole description: One of the more scenic holes at Alling Memorial GC, the sixth hole comes out of a chute to a dogleg left. The elevated tee allows the golfer to see everything that awaits him.

There is a small waste area you have to clear that can be a little intimidating to the average golfer. Even the best of players will have to contend with a bunker that sits on the right corner of the dogleg about 240 yards from the tee.

“If you are long enough, yo can try to carry that bunker,” Alling Memorial GC head pro Larry Thornhill said. “The fairway slopes to the left and long and there is high grass on the left.” Avoiding the trouble off the tee leaves you an uphill shot to a green which is pretty narrow from front to back. A bunker guards the left-hand side of the green, so you want to place your drive to the right side of the fairway, avoiding that bunker, to get the best angle into the green.

“You have to be pretty good with your yardage to keep it on the green,” Thornhill said. “You will need one extra club. Everything slopes off to the left and if you pull it left, it goes way down the hill. You hit it long and you could be on the seventh tee. Then you would have to chip back onto the green and it’s very hard to keep it on there.”
No wonder a 361-yard hole has the fifth-highest stroke average on the course.

Played like a pro: Thornhill hit a perfect drive to the right side of the fairway, leaving him 140 yards to the uphill green. He selected an 8-iron and left the approach on the front edge. He used a 56-degree wedge for his pitch, leaving it 10 feet short. He missed his par attempt to end up with bogey-5.

Played like your average Joe: I hit a low line drive, which I got away with from the elevated tee. The shot left me some 200 yards away so, realizing hitting the small green would be near impossible for me to do, I used my favorite club, the 5-iron, to take Thornhill’s advice and play up the right side. Except I hit a low hook to the left.

That left me a pitching wedge from about 75 yards to the back left pin placement, leaving me very little room for error. I flew my third shot over the green. Then I flubbed my chip shot to the fringe and proceeded to three-putt from there for triple-bogey 7.

Register golf writer Joe Morelli will be playing the signature hole from several public courses from around the state this season. If you have a hole to suggest, or would like to participate, contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it