Coyote Preserve Golf Club in Fenton has a half-dozen contenders for “my favorite hole.”
The topography is beautiful, a constant mix of elevation changes, bold hazards and fun routing.
Its Arnold Palmer signature course is one of five in Michigan.
Yet one hole stands above the rest as the most challenging and rewarding to play. It enters your mind before the round even starts.
Execute and it’s one of the most satisfying shots you’ll face all year.
If you’ve played the course, this reveal won’t be a surprise.
Welcome to the 17th hole at The Preserve.
I’ll let my esteemed colleague Carlos Monarrez describe the magnificent monster as only he can:
“The 220-yard 17th hole is one of the best par-3s in Michigan — bar none,” he wrote in 2019. “It’s almost all carry over water to a green fronted by boulders. Sure, you can bail out to the left . But did you really come to Coyote Preserve to bail out?”
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The daunting task is the climax on a challenging course full of pitfalls, building to this hole that is as much beauty as it is beastly.
The hole is framed by a thicket of trees surrounding the green, which immediately catches your attention, and brings a theatrical sense to the shot. It plays around 200 yards from the forward tees.
The green stretches about 30 yards wide and is tilted back to front. It is not very deep, especially on the left side, where a bunker gobbles pulls from righties and slices from lefties. If you end up there, you face a shot we all dread, with a green running away from you and water long if you catch your bunker shot too clean. Yikes!
Choose your club poorly, or don’t get all of your tee shot, and you will be lucky to cross the pond and land in the front left bunker that jets out into the pond.
MICHIGAN GOLF: This hole makes you think strategy on each shot. Hazards lurk. That’s why it’s my favorite.
The stone wall guarding the front of the green is angled a bit right, so the further right you aim from the tee, the longer you must carry the water. A bunker looms on the right edge. Miss long and right, and the mature trees encroach.
Wind can crop up and become vexing, which makes club selection even more paramount and difficult to determine.
But all of those factors make the ensuing shot all the more satisfying if you pull it off.
I fortunately did just that in June 2021, judging the wind in our face and back-right pin was playing around 220 yards. I mashed a 5-wood pin-high to 10 feet and made the slippery putt for a career-best third birdie on my round.
The joy I felt walking off the green rivaled anything I have felt on a golf course.
It lasted mere minutes, of course, as my approach on the par-5 18th found the water. That was the sport’s gods reminding me I’m a bogey golfer for a reason. It put into perspective how special the deuce at the previous hole was for me.
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Looking back at the end of the year, the tee shot at The Preserve’s 17th was my most memorable strike of the season. And that’s because of the setting, strategy and precision the hole requires.
Pull it off, and there are few better feelings on a golf course around these parts.
General rates at The Preserve for tee times starting June 1 are $55 during weekdays (seniors are $39 Monday-Thursday) and $79 on weekends; the price drops to $59 after 1 pm
Find the course’s hole-by-hole video tour at https://www.coyotepreserve.com/aboutus/video-course-tour.
Check back next week for the third entry of “My favorite hole.”
If you missed the start of our series, tap in on another Livingston County course with a diabolical green.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Coyote Preserve par-3 gives you a chance to hit a special shot