NC Golfer: Lonnie Poole Golf Course: A view from 7400 yards

View of the Raleigh skyline from the 11th tee
at Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State University

My guess, my educated guess, is that golf courses are designed from the teeing area to the greens complex and never the other way around.. There may be an exception or two. Come to think of it, tee to green is probably why we are told you can only appreciate the course and the layout when you look at the entire course, from the back of the back tees and through the green.

Most golf course photos are of the greens complexes. And for good reason. It's the most memorable part of a round. It's where championships are won. Greens complexes are where you score, where you are offered various approach shots to various pin locations. This is where golfers make their money. On the greens is where you lower your handicap. The teeing area and what confronts you is where holes are lost but usually never won.

This post is one of a series about Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State University. There's a lot more to the course than what you may encounter as you make your way around the layout. In this post, you'll find the view from the Competition tees, the "way-back" tees of a course which measures 7358 yards, no easy feat. At LPGC, the distances on the score card are from yardage stones placed on the various (as many as six) teeing areas.

For the Competition tees, the stones are at or near the back of the teeing areas. It is likely the full yardage of the Competition course has never been played, not in college tournaments, not in USGA events. The stones marking the yardage are placed to give the course it's publicized length. Individual hole yardages and the Competition tees total are measured to the center of the greens. The Competition tees have a course rating of 74.7 and a slope of 142. The photos were taken from the Competition tees stones with an iPhone 7 using about +50 percent zoom, much of what we see from there. Enjoy!

Hole number, par, length, and handicap are underneath each hole photo.