You’ve probably read a little about the arrival at the property. What’s the on-property etiquette and how expensive is the wine I hear you ask? Fear not, read on… So, the invite has come and you are all set for Pine Valley. I know that’s advice you will get on most courses but believe me, it is essential here. You will soon learn not to be greedy, not to try and be a hero, but just to put it back on the short stuff. If you miss a fairway you are likely to go straight into the sand or scrub and find yourself often with a very wonky stance or gnarly lie. The trees which frame many holes don’t come into play too much either. Pine Valley shares some characteristics with the Australian Sandbelt and there is very little rough on the course. While the fairways are wide, it is unlikely you are going to hit them all (although the 75 year old member I played with only missed one in two rounds!). Again, listen to your caddie and make sure you ask for reads on all putts. These greens are often vast and there is a lot of movement, so getting down in 2 is often a challenge beyond anyone but the very best putter. So you’ve made the green in regulation having hit the wide fairway and nailed your approach. The greens are often massive, and always wicked I can only imagine how it must be to play in a medal, with a card in your hand. You can take many, many shots trying to get out and the ruling allowing you to take a drop out of a bunker for a 2 shot penalty could be a valuable one to remember. You will find all manner of challenges - sometimes in a hard baked trench, sometimes against a cliff face with no possibility of a shot. This takes a lot of getting used and I suspect for some you never do. The lies are often very tight, indeed sometimes - like at the ‘Devil’s Asshole’ bunker on the 10th - there is just no sand in it at all. I say sand rather than bunker as it is more like a waste area and certainly doesn’t play like a traditional bunker, When you do come up short you will, more often than not, find your ball in the sand. Sand, sand, everywhere - and always a bugger to get out of This meant that the second time we played (lucky I know!) it was far less intimidating from the tee box as we knew what was coming. A few times we hit what felt like pretty significant hooks or slices only to find the ball safely on the short stuff, no problem. When you get over the carry (which normally includes a lot of sand) you will normally find a generous fairway which you just couldn’t see from the tee. That’s really quite intimidating! However, I hit a pretty average length - usually driving about 230 yards - and from the men’s tees I was able to carry them all without any real issues. The fairways are much wider than they look.Įvery single drive has a forced carry and you can rarely see the landing area. So, instead of trying to do a course guide, I have some observations on what it is like to play the course as a pretty average golfer (I’m a 12 handicapper) and then a few tips about what to expect more generally if you find yourself with a tee time. While it’s a great piece of work, I’m still not sure it quite does justice to the real thing. Drone photography can often flatter a golf course - but not in this case. To learn more about the Pine Valley Mountains, select a topic of interest from the left-hand column.There’s not much point trying to do a hole-by-hole guide to Pine Valley since others have done a much better job than I could do, for example, the majestic flyover from Golf Digest a couple of years ago. The recreation area has several campgrounds, a reservoir and a pleasant picnic area. The main access to the range is from the west through the Pine Valley Recreation Area, which charges a small entrance fee per car. The Pine Valley Mountains cover a 120 square mile area near the southwestern corner of Utah, 10 miles west of I-15. The isolation of this desert range has made it a haven to threatened species like the zebra-tailed lizard and even unique subspecies, such as the Uinta chipmunk. The Pine Valley Mountains are also home to the massive Pine Valley Laccolith, a strange dome-like rock outcropping formed by a heavy pressure of magma under sedimentary rock. The range has a good network of trails for hiking and horseback riding, several campgrounds and fishing opportunities. Its pleasant summer temperatures and heavy forestation provide a welcome respite from the more hot and arid desert. The Pine Valley Mountains are an attractive small range that rises 10,365 feet out of the surrounding desert to thick forests of pine and aspen.
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