While less challenging than it’s back-nine counterpart, hole #5 still returns the player to Gleneagles’ reputation for extremely challenging golf. The blue tee is significant in front of the yellow, which allows for much more placement of the tee shot. It should be fairly straight-forward, there are tradeoffs. A stronger first shot, to the left side, can take the sand out of play on the approach shot, but putting it in the fairway bunker will mean disaster.

The main challenge will be holding the green. The green is extremely shallow, with multiple bunkers in front, so a high approach shot that lands the first third is ideal. The green slopes back to front, and yes, the hill behind the green should catch anything long, this will lead to an extremely difficult chip down the hill onto a downward sloping green.

This slope on the green will also usually be the dominate factor in puts. With the greens width, almost every pin position will require the player to play up against the slope and try to stop the ball as it rolls back downhill.

Take relief from “Norton” the leaky sprinkler 130 yards out on the left side.