www.pelhamhills.ca

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Course Profile Long a Niagara favourite, the Pelham Hills G&CC takes full advantage of the rolling terrain and creeks that wander throughout this challenging course. In recent years, the course has undergone some significant changes, including a spectacular new clubhouse and numerous course improvements.
	The Pelham Hills G&CC presents a generous fairways, greenside mounding, numerous bunkers, thick rough, expansive ponds, the ever-present creek, undulating greens, elevated tees, OB and wooded areas. A challenging but fair test from the tips (6545 yards), Pelham Hills G&CC's multiple tee boxes set up well for golfers of all abilities. Practice facilities include a driving range and putting green.
With a strong membership (which includes playing privileges & discounts at nearby Riverview G&CC), the new clubhouse and better tournament capabilities, affordable greens fees and an ever-improving championship layout, the Pelham Hills G&CC makes for a most enjoyable round of golf - no matter one's handicap.

 

Course Review The Pelham Hills G&CC is an established parkland-style course and enjoyed by golfers from all over Niagara. The rolling, wooded layout makes it unlike other Niagara courses both in terms of its look and the way it reveals itself through the course of a round. Carries across ravines and ponds, elevated tees, mounding to define and separate holes, numerous bunkers and receptive greens characterize the course. The Pelham Hills G&CC is a fair test for both recreational and accomplished players alike and definitely worth a look when teeing it up in Niagara.

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The course features generous rolling fairways and well drained, soft and very playable shallow bunkers. The greens at the Pelham Hills G&CC are average in size, well bunkered and mounded, hold approach shots well and putt true. Accuracy off the tee is a must all the way around the course. Keeping the ball in the fairway is critical since playing from the thick rough, fairway bunkers or from awkward lies almost guarantees bogey - or worse. Missing the green will produce similar consequences as most are surrounded (or at least well guarded) by bunkers, snarly rough and mounds.

The front nine at the Pelham Hills G&CC offers about as much diversity, challenge and fun as any Niagara nine. Welland's par-3s are exceptional and challenging without being long, but in good balance, the par-5s are relatively short and straightforward - most offering good birdie opportunities.
The par-5s on the front - the 1st and 4th holes - do, indeed, offer birdie chances, but the very demanding par-4 2nd, the beautiful par-3 3rd and the strategic par-4, dogleg-right 5th will quickly take back any gains. The short 6th hole may offer up a wedge shot in and a birdie chance - provided the tee shot is in the fairway. While not long, the front side par-3s - the 7th and 3rd holes - require solid mid-irons over gaping ravines. Better make birdie at hole # 8 because the 9th is a beast ! The outward closer requires a long tee shot, slightly off-center, clear of the tree in mid-fairway. From there a mid-iron to a large green - water left and a bunker right - invariably becomes a test of one's confidence and shot making. Hit one more club going in - or one more ball !
The Pelham Hills G&CC back nine is more a test of driving than shot making. Long and straight will almost certainly contribute most to the scorecard. Anything less than a long, straight tee shot on # 10 leaves a harrowing mid-iron to a tiny green fronted by a pond full of golf balls.

Good driving / ball placement will go a long way to making pars, but the newly re-built 12th and # 15 - both par-5s - do present birdie chances. Again, the par-3s steal the show on the back - # 14 and 17 - and again, good mid-iron play is a must. The par-4 17th calls for a monster drive or laying up to avoid the creek cutting across the fairway about 225 yards out. The closing hole plays a bit long and allows little room for wayward driving. Even with a good tee shot, the well guarded and tricky green still makes par a good score.

From the tee box, the Pelham Hills G&CC is a traditional "what you see is what you play" style layout, but certainly not a vulnerable one. Challenging when played from the appropriate tees, the Pelham Hills G&CC has become a popular Niagara layout, and with the new clubhouse, is the ideal site for tournaments and special events.