Pelican Lakes Course Detail
This writeup was done from the blue tees (6566 yards). This is plenty of course for the Bogey Golfer, and perhaps I should have played the whites (6039 yards). The black tees stretch it out even further (7264 yards). There are some holes with forced carries, and that is where the additional yardage will affect you the most.
The first hole is a straightaway par 4. At 381 yards, it's only of modest length, so keep it in the fairway off the tee, and avoid the traps on your approach, and it's easy, right? (I guess you could pretty much say the same thing for most holes...)
#2 is a long par 5 which doglegs to the right up against the river. There is a set of bunkers in sight from the tee. Stay the hell away from them, and go left. There's a tendency to crowd the right, both because of natural greed with the dogleg, and because it feels like you're hitting toward the water straightaway. Ignore the water. You're not John Daly, and you can't possibly reach it from the tee. Hit it down the middle, or miss to the left. On the second shot, you'll see three bunkers on the left side of the fairway. They make a good target (assuming that you lay up just short of them). this will leave a short iron or wedge into the green.
#3 is a straightaway par 4, but it's a little narrower. My immediate response was to hit a banana ball slice into the river. This is unnecessary. Hit whatever club you have confidence will go mostly straight. A three wood or even a long iron is an okay choice, since the hole is about 380 yards. There are some gnarly bunkers up near the green, so pay attention to your yardages.
#4 is medium length par 3 (185 yards). This is very challenging if they tuck the pin in the back left corner behind the bunker, so take plenty of club.
#5 is an interesting par 5. The bunker on the right makes you want to hit it left, but the water is definitely in play if you shy too far to the left. Your second shot is fairly straightforward, but the third one is fiendish. There's a finger of the lake that sneaks in front of the green, so do NOT hit it short and left!
#6 is a very narrow par 4 that squeezes between two bunkers. Unless you're manly enough to hit it over the bunkers, use an iron or a fairway wood off the tee.
#7 has a forced carry over a swamp. It looks worse than it really is, so the important thing is to trust yourself, and just hit a normal (good) shot to the fairway. The green is one of those angled elongated affairs stretching from short left to long right, so pay attention to yardages and pin placement on your approach shot.
#8 is all about angles. Sure, there's a bit of a forced carry off the tee, but the important thing is to get to the left side of the fairway. If you crowd the right too much to cut some distance off on your approach shot, you bring the right hand fairway bunker into play, and even if you don't hit the bunker, your approach angle forces you to flirt with the greenside bunker on the right as well.
#9 is a par 3 across the river. It's not horribly long, but there's plenty of visual distraction that you need to put out of your mind in order to hit a nice straight shot.
And we're off to the back nine, where we'll encounter some familiar themes having to do with ponds, forced carries, bunkers and rivers. #10 is a par 4 that wraps around a lake with a dog leg right. The important thing here is to hit a good tee shot, which is anything that stays well left of the fairway bunker on the edge of the lake. The second shot is deceptively uphill, so take an extra club.
#11 is a long par 5. The fairway curves around to the right following the shoreline of the lake. From the tee it looks like you have to fly the bunker on the right to avoid hitting it into the river on the left. This is mostly an optical illusion. There's plenty of room left of that bunker. On your second shot, hit the longest club you can in order to set up your approach shot. A long approach shot is difficult because of all the bunkers around the green, and it's way easier to miss them all if you're trying to hit a wedge instead of a five iron.
#12 is a long par 3 over the river. Sometimes you can get lucky and the blue tees will be on the other side of the river, but usually it plays about 200 yards. Short is an okay miss. Right is not (big tree).
#13 looks like an easy little hole with a slight dogleg to the right. What you may not realize is that the little fairway bunker you can see on the right is almost 50 yards long! Any shot to the right is practically guaranteed to land in that bunker. A three wood up the middle is a good play here (actually a great play).
#14 looks a little confusing off the tee because a little hill hides the green. However, first impressions are correct. You need to hit it straight up the middle here. There are fairway bunkers both left and right. Once you're over the slight hill, the green opens up nicely, but there's a huge bunker short and left that is also hidden. Take plenty of club on your approach shot!
#15 is a wide open par 5. Hit anything you want off the tee, the fairway is hard to miss. Actually the second shot is hard to miss too -- hit a long iron as far as you can to the left side of the fairway to set up a wedge into the green.
#16 is a short (351 yard) par 4. It runs out of room lengthwise pretty quickly, and those bunkers in the distance that look like good aiming targets are actually reachable with a driver. Hit a long iron or a fairway wood and you'll be fine.
#17 is an interesting par 3. There's an island teebox that you'll often have to hit from, and the green is kind of shallow, but elongated from short left to long right. So the actual yardage can vary quite a bit from left to right pin placements. Pay attention and take the right club. Obviously, landing in that back trap forces you to blast out toward the water, which is never a comfortable feeling...
Finally, #18 is a real piece of work. It's a long hole (409 yards), and it absolutely requires the right yardages on both your tee shot and approach because of the river which runs through it. The GPS told me the day I played it that you would run out of fairway at 243 yards. And you pretty much need the whole 240 yards because this leaves a long iron into the green for the approach shot. Yikes!
For long hitters, this is a challenging course, with lots of forced carries, and lots of water hazards. For shorter hitters, the forward tees keep the challenge within your abilities. Greens are well defended with bunker complexes. The greens run fast (but not excessively so) and true. Great course!
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