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Players are hitting it longer as the golf ball and club equipment is improving dramatically each and every year and as a result, most course’s lone defense system is length. Seeing a Par 5 over 600 yards isn’t extremely rare these days, but the Penati Golf Resort in Slovakia takes length to its own level.
The European Challenge Tour heads to Penati this week for the D+D Real Challenge and the 15th hole will be tipped out to 783 yards. The tournament committee was generous enough however to make the hole a Par 6, so the players have that going for them while taking on the longest hole in professional golf.
While the tipped-out yardage is just flat-out ridiculous, the hole features 11 tee boxes? Uh, can you say gimmicky? It can play anywhere from around 450 yards as a shorter Par 5 (or even a Par 4 for these guys) to the 783 yard Par 6 length.
The longest hole in Europe…in 28 seconds!#SlovakiaChallenge🇸🇰 pic.twitter.com/eChLxbEtvD
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) July 6, 2016
This isn’t the Challenge Tour’s first visit to Penati. The Tour was here three years ago and the players absolutely abused the Par 6 posting a scoring average of 5.38 making it one of the easiest holes of the week.
On a personal note, I’ve had the opportunity to play Fighting Joe in Alabama a handful of times. The course stretches over 8,000 total yards from the back tees, which that’s not fun for a single person, but the famous hole is the Par 5 12th that can play at 716 yards. You of course have to play it from the tips on that hole just to say you did, and let me tell you, nothing is fun about it.
These pros will make it look easy, but let me tell you nothing is easy about a relatively flat hole that stretches over 700 yards long. Please, don’t sit there and think ‘hmm, yeah, that would be fun, easy birdie.’
Think again.
As for the longest hole in the world, that belongs to South Korea’s Gunsan C.C.’s 1,100 yard Par 7.