The lion’s mouth bunker on No. 6 at Winter Park Golf Course in Florida. Photo courtesy of Winter Park Golf Course
262 yards, par 4
Frequently known as the Winter Park 9, this short and flat and entirely suburban layout is as close to a home course as I have in Orlando, and I never get tired of playing it. Architects Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns took what had been a set of entirely boring pancake greens and, during a renovation a few years back, built some of the most interesting green complexes found anywhere in the Sunshine State.
My favorite hole on the 9 is the sixth, and like all the course’s par 4s, it is short enough to suggest a lack of interest. Thing is, a tee shot aimed at the green must climb steeply over a grove of trees and fly all the way to the putting surface. Even a solid shot that doesn’t jet upward will crash into the wall of trees. You can play safely to the left, but what fun is that?
This might be an unconventional pick, but you really do need to see this little hole on this little course that provides such a big time.
The hole features a lion’s mouth bunker around which the green resembles nothing else so much as the banked fourth turn at Daytona International Speedway, and it’s entirely possible to have no direct putt at the hole around the bunker if the pin is on the extreme right side while your ball is on the front left. You have to play the banks or try to clip a wedge off the putting surface.
This is a hole where it’s vaguely possible to make a 1 and even more possible to make a 6. Its 262 yards contain a maze of options and possible results. High, soft driver? Maybe a 3-wood? A safe 4-iron up the left? Maybe blast it way right almost into an adjoining fairway to set up an angle? It’s all possible. It’s easy, and it also can be difficult. What more could you want in such a short par 4?
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