It’s a little off the beaten path, but it really doesn’t matter what they call the holes on any particular day – UNLESS – the green is built for a par 5 or a par 4. Traditionally, par 5 greens are larger than par 4 greens because they, potentially, have to receive balls from much further out than a par 4. This is the problem I have with the PGA Tour and the USGA playing a par 5 as a long par 4.

Little known fact – that is how Tina Turner originally wanted to do “What’s Love Got to Do With It” on the album

Tom Kite and Bob Cupp designed Eagle Ridge’s 5-pars to play as three shot affairs for the mortal golfer and extremely difficult for low hadicappers to get on in the right place in two.

The four of them are all contoured heavily, not much larger than most of the par four greens and also have extreme penalties for poor approach shots.

The #17 hole, which I call “home” (because I live aside the green) is the perfect example. It’s only 517 from the white tees, but goes up a hill leaving a 175-200 yard approach shot (you get good roll if you clear the crest of a hill in the fairway.) That’s where your trouble begins: if you go for it, you have a green that slopes left to right with the right side being a false edge and leading to a sharp drop into a creek. To make matters worse, the green is guarded by bunkers left (and leaving you a downhill to downhill bunker shot) and has a steep rise in the middle that creates anywhere from 4-8 feet of break.

That may seem unfair, but unless you have accuracy and control of your ball flight for a long shot, you need to layup. If you can control the ball, you need to get it on the putting surface and keep it there, and not only that put it in the right spot to have a reasonable eagle putt.

Were the pros to play it as a 4-par, it would almost certainly average 4.3 or more strokes. At least.

The 517 number jumps out at me because I see it (plus or minus five) from the dial of the Sky Caddie all the time. 487 seems really short, and I wonder if that number would be the one that would be right when the white tees are on the third tier where the senior teebox usually is.

Eagle Ridge is indeed a nice course, and one that’s in great shape for the number of rounds it sees every year as a semi-private. It’s also the kind of course that’s always challenging, even for guys like me that play it so often I rarely even need to look for yardage markers any more. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is coming through Raleigh and wants a nice game. Heck, that’s why we moved across the city to live there.