Links style courses are having a bit of a moment right now in professional golf.
The PGA Tour hosted three of its four major championships in 2015 on courses that were considered to have a links style and the LPGA teed it up earlier this season in Canada at Whistle Bear Golf Club, another course with a links feel.
This week the Tour heads to Prattville, Alabama to one of one of 26 courses that make up the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The Senator Course hosts this week’s Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic on what their website describes as a Scottish-Links style course. Bo Ream, a Manager of Rules and Competition for the LPGA says the course is in excellent condition and will play to 6,955 yards for the week at a par 72. The biggest challenge for players won’t be the rough, but rather the greens said Ream.
“Greens are in excellent condition, but they are quite large and lag putting will be critical,” Ream said via email. “Good putters should be rewarded this week.”
The greens are made up of a Champion Bermudagrass and are expected to be running around 12.3 on the stimpmeter during tournament week. The Bermuda rough won’t be as difficult to navigate at 2 ¼ inches in height. But players will have to be cautious of the more than 160 pot bunkers as well as the 20 to 40 foot mounds that add to the links style feel.
Here’s a video breakdown of three holes players will need to successfully navigate on the Senator Course, featuring the par 4, 9th hole, par 4, 14th hole and par 5, 17th hole and what Ream says will be the key to playing each hole.
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