A Hackers Guide To Royal Ascot - Hole 3 (Thistle Carry)

Our round moves onto the first par four on the course, a 366 yard (off the whites) hole, stroke index 8. The defining feature is an environmental area some fifty yards in front of the tee box and which requires a drive of about 180 yards to reach the sanctuary of the fairway on the other side. This environmental area is a no go and any ball landing there must be left as it is home to Great Crested Newts, a protected species. Their discovery during the course construction caused a lot of worry with regular communication with DEFRA and concerns at one point that the layout of the course may have to be changed drastically.

According the the Royal Ascot website it's " A shortish par 4 that appears easy on the card, not so. Requires a cleanly hit drive over a wide hazard, the short route being down the right. A string of bunkers guard the fairway, but a large green does await"

The biggest challenge is clearing the hazard. There is a large bunker right that is a favoured spot especially as the ground around it has been designed to gather a ball running out of steam and funnel it into a sandy resting place. There are also three bunkers down the left but as that route requires the longest carry off the tee (although affording a much shorter approach to the green) it is only in the remit of the bigger hitters.

Having got the ball safely into play (or played under penalty from the drop zone if not) then there isn't too much to worry you. There is a big bunker on the right edge of the green, and another hidden from your view as you survey the shot to the left side. The green itself is quite large but has a distinct slope from left to right throughout as you approach it and it is never an easy green to guarantee two putts on



As you can imagine, most of my disasters have come courtesy of a misbehaving driver and failing to make the carry. I've just endured a string of four successive rounds where I've hit horror drives and my shiny Pro V has ended up if not "swimming with sharks" then "paddling with newts" One of the funniest things I've seen on the hole came courtesy of my old sparring partner Hywel Lloyd. Bearing in mind there is a maximum of fifty yards between the tee and the hazard, he managed to hit such a savage hook that it veered left before reaching the confines of the environmental area, ran across the front edge and came to rest neatly in the centre of the adjacent 7th fairway. He hit an iron over the hazard, chipped on and almost made a career par but had to settle for two points and nett par instead.

There have been cases of players hitting their drive and the bridge over the area coming to the rescue with the ball hitting it and bouncing straight over. Sadly I just don't seem that lucky. Even when I have made the carry I have fallen foul of the bunker front right and either re-enacted the old Hamlet cigar advert from the 1970's (if you're old enough..........) and kept chopping away at it or I've fallen victim to the severe slope especially in the front third of the green and seen potential pars disappear with three putts.

It is a beautifully crafted hole that really does offer most golfers the chance of par but can also put the skids on any good score very quickly. Fail to make the drive and a double bogey is a good outcome and scores of seven, eight or nine aren't uncommon. Give it the respect it deserves.