#16 · PAR FOUR
(Stroke 14) The view from the tee box shouts Driver, but the stats say otherwise.
#16 · PAR 4 · STOKE 14
Finally, a dogleg right! Many say that Hole 16 epitomises PV: short and beautiful but with a bite. The view from the tee box shouts Driver, but the stats say otherwise. Many a professional has succumbed to a little too much fade taking them out of bounds, or a little too much draw taking them into the trees and the sluit beyond. Too straight and there is one of our signature Willows waiting to test your 4-iron punch over a bunker!
Tee Box
Opting for a mid iron off the tee is by far the smartest option, giving you the best chance of finding the sloping fairway and staying out of the rough on the left. It may seem like the left side is a good miss, but there are two strategically positioned Willows (with unprintable nicknames) whose branches continue to defy gravity despite their years and ruin the chance of a simple wedge to the flag.
Approach
A deep bunker waits on the left and a swale guards the right. With the green sloping down from back to front, anything off the green is hard to get near the hole. Forget distance, hitting the fairway and green in regulation are your allies on this hole.
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.