A Hackers Guide To Royal Ascot - Hole 17 (Furlong)

The second in the trilogy of tough closing holes is the last of the par 3's and it's another brute measuring 218 yards off the white tees. It's another with a dangerous out of bounds lurking along the left hand edge and with penal rough waiting for anything sliced or pushed too far to the right.

The club website describes the hole as follows
"Another tough par 3 of some 220 yards. Bunkers guard both sides of the green and the putting surface is generously contoured. Play a low chasing shot at the right side of green as the slope will assist to feed it on to the green."

The ideal line is on the right hand greenside bunker as the ball does move right to left on landing. Anything hit too straight or towards the left side will run away and find the left hand greenside bunker. Although it is stroke index 13 and over two hundred yards in length it tends to play predominantly down wind and this does make it more accessible to club golfers. If you are going to miss the green, then short is by far the better option and gives a pitch down the length of the long but narrow putting surface. If you miss it too far right, you are faced with a devilish chip over the bunker and onto a down slope which makes getting the ball adjacent to any flag position a tricky proposition, especially coming from the thick rough on that side. Miss it too far left and it will find the out of bounds. If it is still in play the second will need to flirt with the edge of the left hand bunker.

A view from halfway down the hole - you can see how the ball will gather from the right

The green itself slopes from right to left and there is a perceptible but deceiving slope from back to front. It is a good shot to find the putting surface with the tee shot but no guarantee that a par is in the bag. This green is one that has a lot of subtle borrows that fool many players and sometimes the best policy on those tricky short ones is to keep it inside the hole, hit it firmly and pray it drops.

Coming up straight and short is by far the best option - it leaves a relatively easy chip

This is a hole that tends to drain well and so the ball will run, even in the winter. It does mean though that stopping it in the summer can be tricky and the golfer is faced with a choice of carrying it all the way with a fairway wood, hybrid or long iron and looking for some check on the first bounce or playing it short and trying to gauge the roll and the line. For the talented player, a fade off the left hand trap, landing softly and gathering in would be the perfect shot.

This has the potential to be a real card wrecker coming as close to the end as it does. I've managed to rack up some impressively big numbers, either hooking it left out of bounds or coming to grief in the sand particularly the deep right hand trap. A par is always a good result here and a four for many won't be the end of the world with a par 5 following. A birdie is a rare beast here and usually worth much silver. As with all the par 3's at Royal Ascot, it is a hole that asks a lot of questions and is a real test. Make sure you don't ruin the card so late in the day and take the par if you can and move off with undue haste.