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Monday, May 28, 2007

Golfers Ready For The Raven

DESTIN - The Raven Golf Club at Sandestin is a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. masterpiece, ready to challenge the best of the PGA Champions Tour.

“It’s probably one of the best venues we play all year in test and ability,” pro golfer Bruce Fleisher said.

“It has some really tough finishing holes when you talk about 16, 17, 18,” Loren Roberts said.  “There’s tough par-three’s and tough par-fives, obviously 18 is just really a great par-four finishing.”

The Raven is a seven-thousand yard course with four par-fives and narrow fairways that aren’t the least bit forgiving.

“Last year, I’d like to forget last year,” Fleisher said.  “The 18th hole was very unkind to me.  I made a disaster of it.”

The eighteenth hole is toughest of the Champions Tour.  The pros will tell you, if it’s not one thing to look out for, it’s another.

“You gotta avoid the water,” Roberts said.  “There’s a couple pretty tough tee shots once you get on the back nine.”

“What should you avoid?” Fleisher said.  “Your wife going to the outlet mall, that’s what you should avoid!”

It won’t be a laughing matter according tournament rules official Butch Brooks.  He said they made a change this year.  Instead of rye grass with a three-inch rough, this year the entire course is Bermuda-based with a two-inch rough.

“Bermuda grass the ball will sit down there in it,” Brooks said.  “Last year, at 3-4 inches, golfers were trying to just get the ball back in play.  It will play completely different.”

The Boeing Championship begins on Friday and ends on Sunday.  But the Raven Golf Club will host a Pro-Am on Wednesday and Thursday.  Amateurs such as Steve Spurrier and Tommy Tuberville will be playing.

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