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The ridiculously long hole European pros are playing this week is surprisingly easy

July 3, 2019

The pros on the European Tour’s developmental circuit have some interesting calculations to make this week.

Will driver, 3-wood, 3-wood do the trick? How about driver, iron, iron, wedge? Do they dare hit driver off the deck?

There are endless ways to play the par 6 (!), 783-yard (!!) hole at this week’s Challenge Tour event, the D+D Real Slovakia Challenge, at the Penati Golf Resort — aka, the longest measured hole in Europe.

The hole — monstrous length aside — plays fairly straight with a wide enough fairway to grip and rip. Avoid a few fairway bunkers and the top players can make easy work of it.

When the event was last played at Penati, in 2016, the par-6 15th ranked as the second-easiest hole on the course, averaging 5.38 strokes over the four rounds. There were 31 birdies and seven eagles recorded there throughout the week. There was one double-bogey — a grotesque “8” on the scorecard.

While the game’s best can make Swiss cheese of this brute, regular hackers might find it more challenging. If you’d like to test your chops on a par-6 stateside, the 12th hole at Meadow Farms Golf Course in Virginia actually tops Penati’s 15th, measuring out at 841 yards. (You can also play that one from the white tees, a meager 761 yards.)

The longest hole in the world? A 964-yard, par-7 at Satsuma golf course in Sano, Japan.

The 18th hole at Longaberger Golf Club.
The 18th hole at Longaberger Golf Club.
Brian Oar