Golf course
The Four Par Fives
Holes 2, 6, 12 and 18 add up to 1,995 yards from the blue tees, almost a third of the course, and every one of them runs close to a straight line.
Brierwood has four par 5s, two on each nine: the second, sixth, twelfth and eighteenth. From the blue tees they measure 518, 456, 518 and 503 yards, a total of 1,995 yards. That is about 30 percent of the course's 6,643 yards, in just four of its eighteen holes.
The second and twelfth tie as the longest holes on the course at 518 yards. The sixth is the shortest par 5 at 456 yards. From the white tees the four play 505, 435, 501 and 493 yards. From the gold tees they are 461, 392, 462 and 465, and from the red tees 375, 337, 444 and 425.
The red-tee yardages give an idea of how different the course plays from each set of tees. A par 5 of 337 yards from the red tees is shorter than the 395-yard first hole is from the blue tees.
By the GPS positions, none of the four bends much. The mapped path on the second turns only 2 degrees, the sixth 1 degree, the twelfth 8 degrees and the eighteenth 3 degrees. They play northeast, west, west and east. The eighteenth comes back toward the starting area and ends about 168 yards from the first tee.
On the scorecard's men's handicap, the second is ranked 3, the sixth 11, the twelfth 6 and the eighteenth 18. The pattern of those numbers, odd numbers on the front nine and even numbers on the back in order, suggests the ranking was assigned by hole number rather than by difficulty.