JACK NICKLAUS

Picking the right club at elevation

Play your best at elevation.

Playing in the mountains is a special experience. Besides the aesthetic pleasure of seeing far in many directions, it’s thrilling how the ball cuts through the thin air and flies further than you’re accustomed. But if you don’t know how to account for this newfound power, you’re going to struggle with club selection.

My rule is to subtract 2 percent of the distance for every 300 metres of altitude. The Summit Course at The Club at Cordillera, which I designed in Vail, Colorado, is 2 750 metres above sea level, so the holes typically play 18-percent shorter than their listed distance. Illustrated here is the 511-metre, par-5 17th. Eighteen percent of 511 is roughly 90, so first calculate that the hole plays 421 metres. But because the tee box is 20 metres higher than the green, the hole plays closer to 411 metres.

That means golfers who normally don’t reach par 5s in two might have a real chance to get home on this hole. The lesson:At higher elevations, never be intimidated by the distance on the card.