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This year’s breakdowns now include video of each hole being played, although your feedback is most appreciated on these designs. How do you play? Share your strategy or Golden Tee Great Shots in the comments below.
All holes will then be available for reference on the Course Caddies page—a bookmark must for the entire encyclopedia! Enjoy, and stay tuned for plenty more.
Celtic Shores No. 17
Welcome to the baldest, toughest, meanest, roughest, most curse-inducing design in all of Golden Tee 2015. Pull up a chair, grab a beer or three and let’s embrace one of the game’s greatest challenges together.
Hole 17 is your classic Golden Tee late par-3. It’s the hole you circle, knowing full well it’s coming. It’s not always evil and diabolical, but you know it can be. And in many instances, it can be as difficult of a shot as any as you will find in the game.
It has become customary for me to preach “get your birdie” or “you should get eagle here quite a bit” and other under-par patches of encouragement. That’s not the case here. I have far too much respect for the design.
Par really isn’t all that bad. Birdie is great and very attainable in certain situations, but par works. It’s the other scores—the 5s, 6s and worse—that you have to avoid.
How you play this hole will ultimate depend on pin placement, and more likely, wind.
Oh, the wind.
You will battle it in every direction. The cross winds can be especially evil, while managing distance with strong winds working toward or against you can be an issue as well.
Here you’ll have to do a bit of both, and the name of the game—first and foremost—is staying dry. If you can do that, you have a chance. The next goal should be to get a putt, preferably one within reason. If you can do that, you have an even better change.
In the instance of the shot below, I combated a strong cross wind by turning into the wind and also hitting in its direction. Because I had a 9-wood, the extra loft made the movement on the ball even more extreme.
With a different club and pin placement, you’ll likely need a different shot. The other side of the green—particularly near the top—will almost always demand back spin. There are certain cases where bite can work, although you should view this situation as a different shot entirely.
Playing just short so your ball bounces onto the green from the rough works, too.
No matter how you play this hole—play smart.
Situational awareness will be key, and, because it cannot be stated enough, par isn’t the worst thing here.
How do you play?