Longbow GC

[Mohigolf1207]

Hey guys I know this is a bit different from the typical post here, but I feel like this is the right spot to post. I am playing in the AJGA Ping Heather Farr qualifier in march, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on ways to play that course. I went out to Arizona in December and played it and am a bit befuddled on what to do. It's a sneaky hard course, and I have the tournament yardage book but I just wanted to throw it out there if anyone is a low handicap regular that could give some advice. Thanks!

[ferrispgm]

Longbow isn't really that hard of a course but if you aren't careful it can definitely come up and bite you with a few holes. One such example is 4. I'm not sure what tees you will be playing from but any mishit shot left typically finds water and going right leaves a long approach to a green that tightly hugs the water so anything left of center has a great chance to get wet. This may sound crazy but unless you are super confident going in...It may be better to lay up off the tee with a long iron or fw wood and hit something towards the bunkers on the right and lay up again and rely on pitching/chipping for a par. I always go for 8 just because trouble is not an issue unless it's a crazy bad miss. Typically I have played my best there hitting to the wide part of the fairway even if that means leaving 180-200 yards in and going for the middle of the green. There are plenty of shorter holes that offer chances to be aggressive but if you are on a long hole and hit driver into the desert its hard to be aggressive even if you only have 140 yards . I would say work a lot of short game as there are some awkward little chips around the greens.

[vallygolf]

I play Longbow a fair amount. Typically for events they get things fairly fast and firm. For first time players lines off the tee can be very challenging, many of the holes can be difficult to judge where the play is, it just seems to be some wonky depth perceptions. As posted above find the widest part of the fairway and play to it, and rely on your iron game. If it is playing very firm it is almost always easier to play to the front of the green and stay below the hole. Once you settle on where your tee ball needs to be, and just accept what that means in terms of second shots you will actually find it isn’t too tough, and there are some great chances to score.