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5th, Hole O' Cross, 514 yards Par 5

Open Championship 2005: Difficulty ranking 17, stroke average 4.62.

Open Championship 2000: Difficulty ranking 18, stroke average 4.58.

The tee shot has to be played to the left aiming at the small left bunker visible in the distance, even left of this will be OK. Anything struck down the right side, directly at the green, will be dicing with the 'seven sisters' a group of bunkers that invariably catch a fade or slice and 260 yards is asking a lot of carry to escape them.

There is an old marker stone in the middle of the fairway that sits at 219 yards from the front of the green. the second shot is dependant on whether you are in front, level or short of it.

Anything 20-30 yards short of the historic marker stone will leave you a 250 yard carry to a raised green surrounded by a gully. A tough play so I would recommend a judicious second stroke of 160-170 yards laying up short of the two visible bunkers in front of the green. This would leave a regulation wedge to the front edge of the green of around 90 yards.

If you get close to or past the old marker stone it is a must to take the green on though be aware that the two bunkers on the up slope left & right of the fairway are 60 yards short of the green. Trust your yardage and not the eye.

The green is enormous being 95 yards from the front edge to the back. It is raised with a deep gully surrounding it, similar to a moat that surrounds a castle. Many balls hit this up slope to the green and subsequently run down nestling at the bottom. There are three bunkers to the left of the green that collect golf balls that have been slightly pulled but the green is big and I would prefer my golfer to be on with a 60 yard eagle putt than short in the gully with a difficult, blind, chip off a tight fairway.

A simple par 5 in this big hitting 21st Century. The wind has to be a North Easterly or a strong westerly for the hole to show it's teeth. Looking back at old measurements from the 1950's the hole was 530 & 576 yards in Medal and Championship play respectively compared with 514 & 568 yards today.

5th Hole Fact: please remember that the guys back in the 20th Century were hitting wooden headed drivers and crap balls compared with todays technology. A certain Mr. R.T. Jones (Bobby Jones) in the Open Championship of 1927, which he won, sank a 30 yard putt for an eagle three on this hole! In the 1933 Open the long hitting Craig Wood, from America, drove into the right hand bunker that is 56-60 yards short of the green!

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