The challenge of playing hilly courses

This week, the venue for the PGA Monday Tour was Spiegelven Golf Club in Limburg. Despite having to set my alarm for 5:30am and face a long drive, I was really looking forward to the challenge of playing this course.

Spiegelven is set on beautifully undulating terrain, with plenty of elevation changes and some wonderfully tricky greens. It's a course that's well worth a visit. As I play most of my golf in West Flanders ("mijn vlakke land", as my favourite singer Jacques Brel would say), I'm not often challenged by hills on a golf course, so it made for a refreshing change.

One of the biggest challenges when playing this type of course is the concentration required when calculating distances. Take the 12th hole, for example: a 195-metre par 3 with a 10-metre drop from tee to green. There were several factors to consider. Although the flag was 195 metres away, it was tucked right at the back of the green, only two metres from the edge.

My normal carry distance with a 5-iron is around 175 metres, but it also has a relatively low trajectory, so it tends to release more than I'd like once it lands. The elevation change meant my 5-iron would fly closer to 185 metres, but there was another factor working in my favour. Because of the downhill shot, the ball's landing angle would be steeper, reducing the amount of roll after landing.

Taking all of this into account, I was confident that a 5-iron was the right club. I knew the ball wouldn't travel much beyond 190 metres, which allowed me to rule out going long and leaving myself with an almost impossible chip from behind the green.

With modern technology such as rangefinders and GPS watches, it's easy to rely on devices that calculate these distances for us. However, those functions are not permitted during competition, so understanding how elevation changes affect distance is an essential skill when playing hilly golf courses.

If you have any questions about this topic, be sure to ask at your next session in Bruges!

Oh, and one final thing... I birdied the 12th at Spiegelven. 🙂