Harbour Town Golf Links:

Featured Holes:

On CaddyBytes.com you'll find out what it's like to be a professional golf caddy. We have PGA Tour caddy news, winning caddie interviews, veteran caddie interviews, stories and much more.  You'll get a weekly

Visit -The Caddybytes Pro Shop -it is a place that will 'fit' all your golfing needs!

Caddybytes Home Page

Our Caddybytes.com 'Featured Holes of the Week' are from this week's Verizon Heritage Golf Classic on the PGA Tour.  They are from the final three finishing holes of Pete Dye's classic Harbor Town Golf Links!  The Heritage Classic had it's inception in 1969 and was originally played in the fall of that year.  It is now and has been for the past 20 plus years, an annual Spring Classic played the week after the Masters golf tournament.  It is considered to be a 'breather' tournament away from the major tournament pressures exerted annually the week before at Augusta.  

The Verizon Heritage Classic played on the Harbor Town golf links is a considerable test of golf at only 6700 yards.  Pete Dye designed the Harbour Town Golf Links along with expert advice on shot values from none other than Jack Nicklaus.  Harbour Town's narrow fairways send both nine's looping clockwise and bending both right and left requiring a full variety of golf shots into it's smallish and flat greens.  It was one of Dye's best attempts at a Scottish design, and when the wind comes into play as it often can here, #'s 8, 10, 11, 12, and 18 can play as long as any golf holes anywhere!  The Harbour Town Golf links and the Heritage Classic have had some great champions and in recent history Davis Love nearly owns the place!  Here's our review of those last three holes at the famous Harbour Town Golf Links! 

 

Our first picture (left) is of the green looking back to the second shot (tee shot landing area) from behind the 16th green.   


The 16th is a short-ish 375 yard par four dogleg left.  The playing professionals will usually play a three wood off this tee to 'position' themselves with a short iron (7 to 9) into this small and flat green.  


Should they pull the tee shot left here at # 16 at Harbour Town, then they will be confronted with the long fairway bunker that is down the left side in play all along the tee shot landing area.


The wind is often in play or across here late in the day coming into this very birdie-able par four hole.


Here is a view (picture right) from the tee box of the 175 yard par three seventeenth hole.

This is how the shot looks from the player's eye view looking into the green with Calibogi Sound in the background water, marsh, and sand protecting the hour glass shaped green.


The wind can often be in the players face or 'obscured' left to right and in or helping and difficult to judge with the tall trees behind and to the left of the tee box there.

The tee shot is into a narrow and fairly long par three green with bunkering front and left, with a pot bunker to the right.  A really badly pulled tee shot will result in a shot into the water hazard here.


This view is of the 17th green at Harbour Town (left) gives you an idea of just how skinny and narrow this green is.


The green is 36 yards front to back and 18 to 20 yards into the green to carry the left front over the bunker here.  The steepness of the banking assures any miss hit shot to repel well into the bunkering there.


You can see how the tee shot might shelter the wind in the last photo and how 'exposed' the ball is when it arrives into this flat green surrounded by hazard and marsh and Calibogi Sound in the background.

Here's a view from behind and looking back to the tee box in the distance.  (picture right)  You can see how narrow the green is as well as how dramatically an errant shot will fall off of it's surface.  




There's also a slight rise in the middle corners of the green which will kick the ball towards the back there.  This is no easy golf hole in the wind and will require that only the well struck shot be well received here.



Bogies are common here in tough conditions with misses magnifying their mistakes in this great par three hole design by Pete Dye.

This is a look of the left side landing area of the difficult 455 yard par four 18th hole -where it's possible to drive the ball  'through' the left side fairway and long off the tee here at 285 yards.


The picture
(left) being the 'player's eye view' of the second shot into the green from there.


Again you have marsh to contend with here and a penalty of a lost ball in the hazard.  The second shot into this green can be a mid to long iron depending on the wind direction and a short (6 or 7 iron) should it be down wind when you play it.


The greens at
Harbour Town can be very firm, and this one sits up a bit and dries out very quickly.  Only the most correctly struck high second shot will find this green receptive and to their liking.

Here's the look (picture right) from inside the hazard area left of the eighteenth green at the Harbour Town Golf links and the Heritage Classic.  


This visual is what you will be confronted with should you miss the green left here.


Sunday's pin is usually back middle left and brings this left side into play going at that pin.  If a birdie is essential a good shot with high 'shot value' will need to be played in here for that kind of result.

Add some wind this week and or firm greens and this hole is a great test!


This last view (left) depicts the subtle elevation of this small 'table top' and exposed green here.  The bunkering is rather steep off to the sides and front not guaranteeing a 'gimme' up and down recovery for the playing professional.


There have been some great champions including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Hale Irwin, Bernard Langer, Nick Faldo, Bill Rogers, the late Payne Stewart, as well as the aforementioned Davis Love and others who've managed to win the Heritage Golf Classic at Harbor Town.

Stay tuned to CBS Sports this week and let our 'Review' here provide you a little bit more insight that hopefully adds to your enjoyment as you watch a great finish here on Sunday!


Click Here to see our
Exclusive 2007 Slide Show of the Harbour Town golf course:

Click Here Back to our Verizon Heritage tournament's page:


Tournaments page - with more Winning Caddy Interviews

More CaddyBytes Caddy 'Haul' of Fame Interviews

The Virtual Golf Tours are great visual golf tours of some famous courses...

Our Resource of Caddy Books provides you with a bibliographical resource of all the books ever written on, about, or by golf caddies! (*Now with Book Reviews added!)

Visit our Affiliate Golf Links!

CaddyBytes.com is not affiliated with the PGA Tour, PGA of America, or any other Professional Golf Organizations, their officers or agents -Just the Caddies! All Caddy Stories that appear on this web site are exclusively owned by CaddyBytes.com. Any duplication, or copying of the material presented on this site is prohibited without the expressed written consent of CaddyBytes.com and it's owner(s)!









Click Here to see our Exclusive 200
7 Slide Show of the Harbour Town golf course:


























 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here to see our Exclusive 2007 Slide Show of the Harbour Town golf course:



















 

Click Here Back to our Verizon Heritage tournament's page:

Click Here to see our Exclusive 2007 Slide Show of the Harbour Town golf course: