Chad Hackman, general manager at Mountain Meadows Golf Course, has played in the Pasadena City Amateur Championships on several occasions and has his share of insights to playing Brookside Golf Club's No. 1 Course, the eighth hole in particular.
"It seems like the eighth hole there is one that always got me,' he said.
He isn't alone. The eighth hole, No. 8 on our "Mean 18' list of best daily-fee holes in the area, is a par three that plays 199 yards from the championship tees to only 118 from the forward markers. But there is trouble everywhere.
"I've hit everything from 3 iron to 6 iron there,' Mountain Meadows assistant general manager Danny Hayes said. "It's a great hole.'
The common misperception is a back-right tee and back-right pin placement are the toughest, but Brookside head professional Tim Terwilliger said a front-left pin is, by far, the toughest location because the target line narrows considerably.
Not only does water come more into play, but so does a flood channel that runs down the left side. The hole, by the way, was moved across the channel for the 1968 Los Angeles Open, which was played at Brookside that year and won by Billy Casper.
The hole features a wide but shallow green and usually is played into the wind. The bottom line is, No. 8 at Brookside ranks among the toughest holes in the area, period.
"I know it's eaten my lunch over the years,' South Pasadena's Jeff Sanday said. "I usually play it safe, to the back or middle of the green, take my two putts and get out of there.'
La Mirada Golf Course head professional John Mahoney said his course's eighth hole is its best. It's a 427-yard par four from all the way back and is rated as the toughest on the par-70, 6,083-yard layout, one of the area's most heavily played.
The tee shot isn't that difficult the fairway is wide and there is almost no trouble but the second shot is blind. You can't see the green unless you're about 270 yards off the tee.
"Then you might be able to see the top of the flag,' he said.
Montebello Country Club's double- dogleg eighth hole is another stern test. It's 404 yards from the back, and was one hole that did not undergo much of a makeover in the course's multi-million-dollar renovation several years ago. But there are some fairway bunkers lining the right side of the fairway that can get fairly busy.
Director of Golf Tom Camacho said the hole was a par five in the 1960s and the green was set back a little more to the left.
"I don't think the people who live in the houses back there liked the shots coming into that green,' Camacho said with a grin. "Now it's a tough driving hole. It's tough to bend it around there.'
Diamond Bar's eighth hole is a dogleg left of 420 yards from the blue tees to a wide fairway that requires a long approach shot over a wash. Only the truly biggest of hitters can carry trees that protect the left side of the hole, and a successful tee shot in that direction can leave nothing more than a short iron to a large, flat green.
Source: San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune
