Blog | Pro Tip, Leopard Creek

The bunkers in view of the tee shot are extremely well placed. It's no secret that by average there are more right handed golfers and that the 'weak shot' in general is a fading shape to the right. This typical ball-flight also lacks distance. So the curved bunker on the right is very much in play from the tee shot. For the long hitters, this bunker on the right is easy to carry, but if you don't get the draw you want, the trap on the left of the fairway is very much in play if you hook or miss it it slightly. If you are an extremely long driver of the ball, both these bunkers are indeed flyable. But there is a narrowing of the fairway behind all of this trouble and to add to that, the fairway slopes from the left to the right - meaning that you'll get close to the creek that flows along the 18th on the right after the roll-out of the ball.

The solution is quite simple. You have no need to hit a bomb from the tee and bring everything into play. A simple 185 yard tee shot will do the trick and you can aim sort of to the middle of the bunker on the left. It's a high pressure shot indeed, but the risk is slightly lower. It's hard to reach the bunker on the left when you hit this lay-up type tee shot, and if you happen to reach the bunker on the right it's okay because the lip is quite low making the fairway bunker shot a relatively easy one. It's also downhill all the way so you'll get some nice roll as well.

The lay-up area after the tee shot is very wide. Another solid long iron, hybrid or fairway wood is a good option as the water in front of the green is out of reach for most of us.

If you are a low handicap golfer and you want to carry the tee shot over all the traps and take the risk of converting the par five into a par four you need to consider the green's protection of water. It's not easy to hold the green with a relatively long long iron, but the one advantage is that the green does slope a little bit upwards.