Toughest holes

Editor's Note: This is the third of a six-part series about the toughest holes on the golf courses of Bella Vista.

On a hot day in mid July golfers at the Highlands Golf Course agreed that the course is in excellent shape and Hole No. 2 is difficult.

"It's the prettiest hole in the Village," Jerry Slatton said. He's a golfer who also works as a starter at the course.

The hole has a long, narrow fairway, Larry Hayford from the Highland's pro shop said. For men, it is rated as the No. 1 handicap hole on the 18-hole course.

"It has hazard stakes on both sides and it's narrow," he said. "If you go past the hazards stakes, you're in the woods."

A lot of balls get lost in those woods.

The entire course is long and narrow, he explained. Like other courses in the village, each hole has four tee boxes.

Highlands opened in 1990 and it has its own driving range, putting green and chipping green. In 2012, it was the site of a national tournament, the Stacy Lewis Open for the American Junior Golf Association.

Although Hole No. 2 is the worst, Dwane Wilmes doesn't like Hole No. 13 very much, either.

"You pull it at all and you're in the ditch on the left or out of bounds on the right," he said. Also, there's a tree on the right and if you hit it, your ball will definitely be out of bounds, he said.

"It depends which tee box you play from," Larry Carlson added. Each tee box is a different distance from the hole. That might give some a slightly different angle to the green.

Marvin Berggren plays the course once every couple of weeks. He doesn't like Hole No. 8, which is a little longer than No. 2.

"It's a par five with two valleys and the green's way up high," he said.

The longest hole for the black tees on Highlands is No. 17 at 571 feet, compared to 446 feet for No. 2.

The women playing with the golf group Putt-Savers didn't agree with the men. Putt-Savers is a group of about 75 women who play "their own game," Dorothy Nigro said. They donate money based on the number of putts they need to complete a hole.

Nigro mentioned No. 8.

"You have to go way down and then go back up," she said.

Kaye Pedziwater mentioned No. 16, but SuLynn Hanson doesn't like No. 8.

For women the hole with the lowest handicap is 17, which is 424 yards long from the red tee, longer than No. 2, which is 330 yards from the red tee. The red tees represent the shortest distance to the green.

The handicap of a specific hole can change, Golf Operations Manager Andy Mar said, but it doesn't happen often.

Several years ago, he collected scores and arranged them on a spread sheet to compare to the existing hole handicaps and adjusted some of them. But to be fair, a lot of scores from a variety of golfers have to be collected and averaged. It's not an easy process.

Occasionally, something changes about a hole. A tree may die or, rarely, a bunker might be changed. When that happens, he will look at the hole's handicap, especially if the members complain to his office.

The Highlands Course is located at 1 Pamona Drive, which is off of Glasgow Road on the far west side of Bella Vista. Hours vary according to the season. Call 479-855-8170 for more details.