Going to the Chapel

Driving to Chapel Hill Golf Course in Mount Vernon from downtown Columbus is a 47.5-mile trek, but Oldgolfdawg always looks forward to such visits. The course, a par-72 layout that weaves its way up and down numerous hills, plays 6,856 yards from its back tees. It is a beautiful course, especially in the fall because of its many wooded areas. During a round there, golfers are confronted with numerous shots guaranteed to produce drama. The second shots on Nos. 9, 11 and 18 come to mind quickly, but Oldgolfdawg breaks into a cold sweat when he starts thinking about the seventh hole.

As the second member in the "Elegant Eighteen" clubhouse, the seventh hole takes a backseat to no hole. The par 4, dogleg right plays 411 yards from the middle tee and 440 yards from the tip. The tee box rests near the top of a hill and the golfer sees two sand traps beyond the left side of the fairway as the hole bends to the right in the valley below. The fairway itself is sloped from left to right, prompting any shot that is fading to the right to roll through it and into a runoff valley and possibly into an adjacent wooded area.

If you hit into either of the sand traps, you're staring at a bogey, and more likely a double bogey or worse. That is because the second shot, sometimes a mid-iron or more if the wind is blowing, requires a golfer to thread the ball between two small ponds protecting a sloped green, which lies at the bottom of a steep drop-off from the fairway. A prudent golfer will lay up and try to get a bogey. A swashbuckler who goes for the green from the sand traps will be tempting the golf gods to unleash their wrath.

If you stray to right of the fairway off the tee box and into the runoff valley beside it, your second shot to the green will be partially blocked by trees and you will have to hit some kind of miracle slice to get the ball near the green.

If you hit a nice drive that stays in the fairway on the plateau above the green, you have to hit a second shot that will land softly. If it comes in flat or too hot, the ball will run through the green and possibly into a pond on the left. There's a bailout area to the right of the green, which slopes from right to left. But if you end up there the chip to the green is very dangerous and can easily run off, possibly into the pond on the left.

Once you get the ball on the green safely, a par is no sure thing. The slope of the green is severe. It is easy to three-putt when the cup is on the left side of the green. Thoughts of putting it off the green creep into the mind and with good reason.

Don't let this description of the hole scare you away. It's a lot of fun to play. And if you come away unscathed, you carry with you a deep sense of satisfaction as you make your way to the eighth tee.

A flyover view of this hole is available to golflink.com members.

Google maps (click view larger map) can help you get to the course from downtown Columbus:


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