#14 · PAR FIVE
(Stroke 18) You’re now on the home straight. What better welcome to heading home than a Stroke 18 Par 5!
#14 · PAR 5 · STOKE 18
You’re now on the home straight. What better welcome to heading home than a Stroke 18 Par 5! The view from the tee-box is not particularly intimidating, a gentle draw or a slight fade will have you on the short-stuff. The real challenge of this hole only appears when you’re considering your 2nd shot.
Tee Box
On a favorable downwind day, longer hitters may find themselves with the opportunity for a mid to low iron approach for their second. But the thought of a potential Eagle Putt is often brought crashing down by the realities of a fairway bunker short of the green if you get your distance wrong, and 3 more bunkers surrounding the green.
Approach
Choose laying up as a strategy and the combination of the downhill slope and a little wind can have you ending up in the bunkers on the left, despite your caution. Favourable flag positions are typically found on the right side of the green, tempting players to aim for that side. But be warned, a shallow bunker at the back of the green on this side is a short-sided sand save onto a downhill slope. The chance of going bunker to bunker is real. Beware.
Greens
They are legendary, or perhaps infamous. Some love them. Others despise them. To play Parkview is to experience what a green should be: equally parts welcoming and unkind, technical and mysterious. Whether running at 13+ for a club championship, or at a gentle 9.5, the trick to avoiding three-putts at Parkview is more about feel and wisdom, rather than ability. Considering that some of our greens were literally shaped by hand, playing what you feel rather than what you see is often the trick to finding the bottom of the cup.
Water Hazard
Perhaps the most formidable and striking feature of Parkview is the waterway that runs the length of the entire course. It is both a blessing and curse; giving us the water that keeps Parkview lush during the harsh highveld winter, a constant supply of reasonably priced slightly used balls, and adding a constant danger that you must navigate on almost every hole. Beware that not every green slopes to the sluit as you would expect.