Twin Warriors' Most Challenging Holes

Success on Nos. 7, 15 and 18 will be critical for CPC contenders

By Roger Graves, PGA Magazine

Competitors in The 36th PGA Club Professional Championship searching for a scouting report on Twin Warriors Golf Club will have a difficult time trying to gauge its difficulty. Why? Because the Gary Panks-designed Twin Warriors is so new, opening on May 25, 2001, that no real history of major-championship competition exists to provide a measuring stick. But Twin Warriors Head Professional Gary Davis and General Manager-Director of Golf Roger Martinez of the Santa Ana Golf Corporation can certainly shed some light on what it will take to succeed June 19--22 on the longest golf course in CPC history at 7,624 yards.

"First, players in The CPC should not be blown away by that yardage," says Davis, "because you need to remember we're at 5,400 feet elevation. The ball will travel about 10 percent farther than it will at sea level, so the length of the course won't be a big issue. The competitor who can drive it long and straight will have an advantage, but it will be just as important to hit fairways and greens as it will be to hit it long. We will narrow a couple of fairways and the rough will be thicker than usual, so players will have to be accurate off the tees. They won't be able to bomb it."

Ironically, no member of the Sun Country PGA Section qualified for the national CPC, so no player will enjoy a definitive home-course advantage. Plus, the University of New Mexico player who established the course record of 64 in a U.S. Open Local Qualifying event in May of 2002 remains an amateur and will not be in the CPC field. A bevy of PGA Professionals who competed in the 2002 New Mexico Open thought they were going to gain a sneak preview of the course during an 18-hole pro-am at Twin Warriors. But the event was rained out on the fourth hole.

"It will be interesting to see how the best PGA Professionals in the United States fare on this golf course, because there isn't much history yet to form any solid expectations," says Martinez, who has hosted more than 30 USGA qualifying events, The Western Regional CPC, the 1996 and 2001 New Mexico Opens, and three Nike-Buy.com Tour events down the street from Twin Warriors at the Santa Ana Golf Club. "The greens will be fast, about 12 or quicker, and you have to keep it below the hole on these greens. The greens are pretty large, but most of them are two- or three-tiered greens so it is very critical to put your approach in the proper position on the greens. I can also tell you that virtually everything breaks toward the Rio Grande River.

"There are some good risk-reward holes at Twin Warriors, and The PGA of America has some great possibilities for hole locations in setting up the course. I think you'll see some scores lower than at Valhalla last year, but you'll also see some guys go for some big numbers on a few holes here. If you start missing fairways, it can be a long day." Picking the three most difficult holes at Twin Warriors is tantamount to picking the three shiniest diamonds in a collection of gemstones. But Davis believes holes No. 7, 15 and 18 will prove decisive in The 2003 CPC.

The par-4 seventh hole stretches 489 yards and plays back into the prevailing wind. An arroyo, or dry wash, juts into the left side of the fairway about 290 yards off the downhill tee and protects the entire left side on second shots. "Some players may want to hit a 2-iron or fairway wood off the tee to make sure they don't hit it into the hazard area down the left side," says Davis. "They may not play it as an actual hazard, but you don't want to be in there. It drops off 10 or 12 feet below the fairway and is full of native plants. The fairway slopes toward the dry wash on the left, and the green is two-tiered with a front shelf and a back shelf.

"No. 7 is a hole where you take your par and go quietly. If you hit it left off the tee or on your approach, you can go for a big number. And if you fail to put your approach on the proper tier, it's almost an automatic three-putt or worse." The par-3 15th hole measures 244 yards and into the prevailing wind from the back tee, but it is expected to play about 221 yards for The CPC. The tee on this tricky par-3 sits to the right of an 800-year-old Native American cultural site, a sacred mountain, on the left. There is no bailout on this hole -- a butte left and a natural waste area with junipers to the right of the green. The two-tiered green features five feet of elevation change from front to back.

"A player in the Sun Country PGA Section Championship made a 12 on that hole," warns Davis, "so you can get into trouble if you miss the green with your tee ball. I've seen people bounce their tee shot off the mountain on the left to within three feet of the pin, but don't count on that. I've seen more balls stay up on the side of the mountain when they are hit over there. And if you miss the green right, you're left with a severe uphill shot. The green is fairly large, designed to accept a long iron or fairway wood, but club selection is important to reach the proper tier where the pin is placed. Three is a good score on this hole."

The par-4 18th is a mammoth finishing hole (488 yards), since it plays uphill into the prevailing wind. The tee-shot landing area is protected left and right by fairway bunkers, which feature high lips that preclude a second shot to the green if you deposit your drive in the sand. The three-tiered L-shaped green is three clubs deep and also well-protected by bunkers, ready to catch pulled or pushed approaches.

"The first key on 18 is to find the fairway," says Davis. "If you miss the fairway or find a bunker off the tee, you have no chance to go for the green on your second shot. The green is tricky. The third tier in the upper right-hand corner is protected by a bunker in front of it. I imagine you will see a back-right hole location on Sunday. That's a tough pin to find up there. I don't think you'll see a lot of 3s on the 18th hole."

Davis reminds that, although Twin Warriors is spread over 400 acres of land, only 96 acres are irrigated and feature grass. Because the course is so young, it doesn't have too many horror stories or a history of success. History, of course, will be written after 156 of The PGA's finest club professionals tour Twin Warriors June 19--22.