Moment of truth arrives

Any course worth its salt will at times force a golfer to ask himself, "Do I have that shot in my bag or should I play it safe." The fifth hole at Bent Tree Golf Club in Sunbury poses that question for most and then provides a thorough examination for those answering yes.

As a Gray membership holder last year, Oldgolfdawg played the sister course of Royal American Links more than 20 times and always viewed a bogey or better on the hole to be a bonus. As the rounds mounted and various types of train wrecks occurred, Oldgolfdawg began calling the hole "Dirty Harry" because as you stood over the second shot you began asking yourself if you were feeling lucky. That's why No. 5 at Bent Tree, a 412-yard par 4 from the gold tees, is the ninth member of Oldgolfdawg's Elegant Eighteen.

From a slightly elevated tee box, one usually lays up with their drive, hoping to place a shot about 235 yards out on a flat plateau. The fairway runs out of room and drops off into a creek if the ball goes much beyond 240 yards. Depending on how much roll one is getting in the fairway, the trick is to lay up so that you don't go into the drop-off area while also not being so far back that the second shot becomes a difficult distance. Any tee shot pulled to the left will funnel off the flat plateau down into a nasty side-hill rough area or down in a valley with a difficult angle to the green. Shots off to the right make the second shot longer and more risky if anyone decides they're feeling lucky.

If you hit a nice layup from the tee, let's say a smooth 3-wood, you should have about a 165- to 175-yard downhill shot to a green protected by a bending creek to the left and three good-sized bunkers along the right front and right side. A confident golfer will take a deep breath and go flag hunting. If you can't hit the green, the smart shot is to go a little long left.

If you're farther back and unsure you can easily carry the bending creek and don't think you can thread a shot through a gap between the creek and the bunker guarding the right front of the green, you have two logical choices. The first is you lay up short of the bunkers protecting the right side of the green and hope to scramble for a par with a good chip and putt. The second choice is to go for the green but block out any chance of going left to avoid the creek. This strategy often ends up with your second shot going on a beach vacation.

After all of that drama, the well-protected green is big and generally slopes from back to front. There's enough undulations in it to make three-putting a distinct possibility.

Bent Tree, designed by Denis Griffiths, opened in 1988 and is 6,805 yards from its longest tees. From the back tees, it has a course rating of 72.1 and a slope of 122. The gold tees, where Oldgolfdawg normally hangs out, play 6,239 yards with a 71.8 rating and a slope of 119. The second shots on the ninth and 18th holes are also very demanding.

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