Drone video by Sky Lakes Media

“Played in the Shade”

These days it’s easy to look at many 9-hole courses around and shrug them off as beginner level, but we assure you…this is no ordinary course.

Laurel Hill has been compared to a regulation course with the drives removed. The four par-4s are in the 275-300 yard range, but because of the tree-lined doglegs they require two good iron shots to reach the green (as far as we know, no one has ever driven any of them from the tee).

The ninth hole has a pond in the dogleg, and an extremely accurate layup is needed to set up a good second shot. Of the par-threes, the second and third holes are guarded on the left by a creek in a steep ravine banked with blackberries, and the fifth and sixth holes have relatively small greens, the latter having a tricky slope.